Transportsystem med flere tilførselsbaner

A conveyor system (10) has a feeding system (12) to produce a desired distance between packs, when they are transferred from a single feed line (32, 34) or are combined from a plurality of lines. Each feed line (30, 34) is provided with a conveyor and a speed control device to control the operating speed of the conveyor in such a way that a pack is transferred as close as possible to the time which is necessary for creating a desired gap in relation to a previously transferred pack. A control device monitors the movement of the packs on the conveyor of each line and has means to determine the speed setting which would be necessary for each speed control device to allow the packs on each line to reach the respective transfer conveyor (26) as close to the desired time as possible. The control device has means to determine which of the packs would reach the respective transfer conveyor (24) closest to the desired time and to enable the speed control device for the respective conveyor to set its speed for transfer of its pack. A new desired time is determined for other lines on the basis of the estimated arrival time of the pack which has been selected for transfer. The speed settings consist of a constant acceleration to a discrete higher speed or retardation to a discrete bottom speed, in each case from a discrete nominal speed, with a return to the nominal speed before the pack is transferred. In one embodiment, each line is operated by two servo-controlled motors (50, 52, 424, 426), the speed of the rear motor (50, 52) being controlled in such a way that a desired distance between the fed pack is produced, and the speed of the front motor (424, 426) being controlled proportionally to the speed of the rear motor (50, 52). This process provides a controllable initial gap between the packs, in order to reduce the region of the gaps detected by the feed control device. In another embodiment, a sorting system is operated at a higher line speed than that of the feed system (12) from which it accepts the packs. The feed system (12) determines the gaps between the packs, the increase in the line speed and the lengths of the packs being taken into account, so that the gaps at the sorting system are of the desired length.