Patent ID: 8167113

Claim:
Method for grouping products to form a batch to be taken up by appropriate means, the products arriving, in a queue, and transported by a supply conveyor, said method comprising: collecting at least one of the products on said supply conveyor, with a collector comprising a comb which is arranged transversally and forms an angle α between 60° and 120° with respect to a longitudinal axis of said supply conveyor; depositing said products at a take-up station which is located on a side of said supply conveyor; providing said collector with a loop movement, to execute the collecting and the depositing, the loop movement comprising a transversal movement and a combination of a transversal movement and a longitudinal movement upwards of the queue; and triggering the collecting according to information that takes into account a position of said products on said supply conveyor in relation to a position of said collector and a speed of said supply conveyor, wherein the collecting comprises: detecting an arrival of one of the products to be collected; observing a pause at an instance when said one product reaches its position and is wedged in a respective allocated cell of said collector, starting the combination of the transversal and longitudinal movements in order to prepare for the collecting, stopping the transversal movement of said collector and the longitudinal movement at a time of an impact with another one of the products to be collected.