Patent ID: 7723633

Claim:
A system for sequencing products, comprising: a plurality of input feeding devices each randomly receiving products from a stream of product; a plurality of output groups corresponding to the plurality of input feeding devices during a first pass phase and a second pass phase, the plurality of input feeding devices feeding the product to a plurality of contiguous output bins of the plurality of output groups; and a control having a first mode of operation and a second mode of operation for the first pass phase and the second pass phase, respectively, wherein in the first mode, the control allows all input feeding devices of the plurality of input feeding devices complete access to all output groups of the plurality of output groups during the first pass phase, and in the second mode, the control constrains placement of the products to output groups assigned in the first pass phase such that the groupings of the products to the assigned output groups remain constant between the first pass phase and the second pass phase, wherein the control maintains a same grouping of contiguous output bins between the first pass phase and the second pass phase.