Abstract: A conveyor accumulator for conveying articles comprises first and second parallel rails, a turnaround wheel, an endless loop conveyor chain, an infeed drive device, and an outfeed drive device. Each of the rails comprises a support surface and a guide surface. The support surfaces slope downward as they extend outboard of the center plane of the accumulator. The turnaround wheel is movable between the guide rails. The conveyor chain is slideable along and supported against gravity by at least the support surfaces of the first and second rails and is prevented from moving outboard by the guide surfaces. The turnaround wheel is configured to move in a manner extending and, alternatively, contracting the path of the portion of the conveyor chain configured to hold articles. The turnaround wheel is configured and adapted to cause the conveyor chain to bank as the conveyor chain extends around the turnaround wheel.

Abstract: A buffer assembly is configured to buffer a stream of articles moving along a conveyor. The buffer assembly is interposed in said conveyor. The buffer assembly has a horizontal in-feed accumulator that is configured to receive the stream of articles from said conveyor, and a horizontal mass storage accumulator connected to an output of the horizontal in-feed accumulator for receiving said stream of articles therefrom. Each of the horizontal in-feed accumulator and the horizontal mass storage accumulator are configured to buffer said stream of articles. The buffer assembly also has a horizontal out-feed accumulator connected to the output of the horizontal mass storage accumulator that is configured to buffer the stream of articles. The in-feed buffering of the articles prevents product compression and the buffering of the out-feed articles prevents the formation of gaps between product articles.

Abstract: A conveyor accumulator is configured to buffer a stream of articles moving along a conveyor path. The conveyor accumulator comprises an in-feed accumulator for diverting a flow of articles from an upstream source to various downstream output locations. The conveyor accumulator also comprises a mass storage accumulator connected downstream of and to the in-feed accumulator. The mass storage accumulator has a plurality of lanes. The conveyor accumulator further comprises an out-feed accumulator connected downstream of and to the mass storage accumulator for diverting the flow of articles from various upstream sources to a downstream output location.