DIGITAL COMPACT DISC SLEEVING AND DISC AND SLEEVE SERIALIZING METHOD AND APPARATUS

A method and apparatus are provided for serializing compact discs on which is optically readable digital information for corresponding serializin g disc sleeves, and for inserting each of the serialized discs into correspondingly serialized sleeves. A laser printing device marks with a unique serial marking, each of the compact discs and a sleeve labeling device marks each of the sleeves with one of the unique serial markings. A sleeve conveyor formed of a pair of opposed endless belts of generally fixed lengths maintained under tension and in proximity to each other holds sleeves in place as the belts move along a path extending through the sleeve labeling device and a loading station. A sleeve feeder feeds unmarked sleeves onto the conveyor while a belt drive steps the belts to shift sleeves through a series of fixed sleeve positions along the path from the sleeve feeder to the sleeve labeling devic e and from the sleeve labeling device to the loading station, at which the bel ts are separated, the sleeves are opened, and discs, transported from the laser printing device are rotated above and dropped edgewise into the opened sleeves. A controller is programmed to coordinate the marking of the sleeves and discs and the operation of the sleeve conveying the disc transport, the sleeve opening and the disc inserting operations.