Bin packing system and method
AssigneeVolm Companies, Inc.
InventorsBenjamin Bennett, Paolo Giammarco
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A single robot of a two-lane bin packing system has an end of arm tool (EOAT) that interfaces with two infeed lines and two bins on an ongoing basis so that the robot can pick a group of bags from a first bag group staging area on the first infeed line while a group of bags is being formed in a second bag group staging area by the second infeed line. In addition, by interfacing with two separate bins, one bin can be filled while another, full bin is being replaced with an empty bin. The EOAT thus operates constantly. The bag groups can be formed in layers by discharging bags on a reciprocating shuttle of a pick table assembly.
Claims31
A bin packing system comprising:
- (A) first and second lanes, each of which has a conveyor system that transports individual bags;
- (B) first and second bag group staging areas, each of which is located downstream of a respective conveyor system in a direction of bag handling;
- (C) first and second bin staging areas, each of which is configured to stage bins for packing and has a conveyor system for subsequent transport out of the system;
- (D) a robot having an end of arm tool (EOAT), the EOAT being moveable laterally, longitudinally, and vertically to
- a. pick groups of bags from the first bag group staging area and the second bag group staging areas one group at a time;
- and
- b. alternatively pack first and second bins in the first and second bin staging area with picked groups.
A system for staging a group of bags prior to packing the bags in a bin, the system including:
- a conveyor having an inlet end and a discharge end;
- and
- a pick table assembly comprising a frame and a shuttle that is located under the discharge end of the conveyor and that is moveable laterally relative to the conveyor so that successive bags discharged from the conveyor and deposited on the shuttle are spaced laterally of one another;
- wherein the shuttle includes a base forming a bag support surface, a backplate extending upwardly from a rear of the base, and end plates extending upwardly from opposed ends of the base;
- wherein the backplate is raisable and lowerable relative to the base via actuation of a powered actuator operatively coupled to the backplate.
A method of packing bins, comprising:
- (A) forming a first group of bags by stacking bags in a first bag group staging area of first and second spaced bag group staging areas;
- then
- (B) using a robotic end of arm tool (EOAT), packing the first group of bags in a bin by picking the first group of bags from the first bag group staging area and placing the first group of bags in the bin, the bin being in a first bin staging area of first and second spaced bin staging areas, each with a respective infeed conveyor;
- (C) during forming of the first group of bags, using the EOAT, packing a second group of bags in the bin by picking a second group of bags from the second bag group staging area and placing the second group of bags in the bin;
- (D) during the packing of the first group of bags in the bin, forming a third group of bags by stacking bags in the second bag group staging area;
- and
- (E) repeating steps (A) through (D) until the first bin is fully packed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.