Patent ID: 8490775

Claim:
A multiplex grouping apparatus for grouping sequentially fed articles, comprising: a central controller; a loading station having a feed drive for articles being fed at irregular intervals; a registration sensor for each article arriving in said loading station, so that each said article is registered by said central controller via said registration sensor; an unloading station with a discharge detector; and, a plurality of conveyors comprising a plurality of mechanically interconnected carriers with each conveyor of said plurality of conveyors being movable via a respective controllable drive activated by said central controller via a respective speed controller, the articles being transferrable onto said mechanically interconnected carriers from said loading station and the articles are transferable from mechanically interconnected carriers into said unloading station, each said conveyor during transfer of an article from said loading station onto one said mechanically interconnected carrier being synchronously movable with said feed drive and, during unloading of the article into said unloading station, each said conveyor is synchronously movable with said discharge detector, each said conveyor being accelerated or decelerated between loading and unloading processes of the articles for maintaining a spacing between two articles that corresponds to a size of the articles.