System and method for sorting items
AssigneeAlign Technology, Inc.
InventorsJames Clete Culp, Stanley E. Sankaran
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and associated method is provided for sorting parts, which includes a conveyor system for receiving and circulating a plurality of randomly presented parts, a sorting buffer for accumulating selected parts from the plurality of randomly presented parts in an assigned buffer location, and a sequencing system for sequencing the accumulated selected parts.
Claims24
A sorting and sequencing system for mass-produced, customized objects, each of the objects being marked with a unique machine-readable code that includes, for each of the objects, group data and sequence data indicating a sequence position within a group, the system comprising:
- a plurality of object carriers, each having a unique identity that associates each of the plurality of object carriers with one of the objects;
- a code-reading mechanism operable to read the code on each of the objects, wherein the code-reading mechanism is operable to read the code on each of the objects and to associate each of the objects with the group data and the sequence data for that object;
- a computer operatively coupled to the code-reading mechanism so as to map the code of each of the objects to the identity of an associated one of the plurality of object carriers;
- a placement mechanism operatively associated with the computer and operable to place each of the objects on its associated object carrier using the code of each object and the identity of its associated object carrier;
- a sorting mechanism responsive to the code-reading mechanism and operable to direct each of the objects into an assigned one of a plurality of buffer locations based on the group data of the object, thereby sorting the objects into a plurality of groups, each group of objects being held in an assigned buffer location;
- and
- a sequencing mechanism responsive to the code-reading mechanism and operable to receive each group of objects from its assigned buffer location and to_place each of the objects in each of the groups into a sequence based only on the sequence data of the objects;
- wherein the sorting mechanism is operable, in response to the group data, to identify a group of objects in a buffer location as an incomplete group, the system further comprising a storing mechanism configured to receive an incomplete group of objects from a buffer location with an incomplete group of objects, to store the incomplete group of objects until a complete group is formed by further objects received from the buffer locations, and to send the complete group to the sequencing mechanism.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.