US Patent 11905126 Method and system for conveying articles

A method of conveying articles includes moving a first plurality of articles in a first input lane and a moving second plurality of articles in a second input lane in a downstream direction to a lane combiner, and operating the lane combiner to combine the first plurality of articles and the second plurality of articles into a combined plurality of articles in an output lane. The operating the lane combiner includes engaging a first article from the first plurality of articles with a first combiner wheel, engaging a second article from the second plurality of articles with a second combiner wheel that is out of phase with the first combiner wheel, rotating the first combiner wheel and the second combiner wheel to move the first article and then the second article into the output lane, the combined plurality of articles includes the first article and the second article in sequence.