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US 11,691,828 B2Granted
Sorter
AssigneeWipotec GmbH
InventorsTheo Düppre, Matthias Joachim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sorter for sorting out discrete products includes an arrangement of adjacent sorting fingers. The sorting fingers, depending on pivoted positions, open a sorting gap in a conveying path for bad products to be sorted out or else close the sorting gap in order to support the further conveying of good products.
Claims20
A sorter for sorting products from a product stream conveyed in a conveying direction along a conveying plane, the sorter comprising:
- (a) at least three sorting fingers located beside one another in a transverse direction extending orthogonally to the conveying direction and parallel to the conveying plane, each sorting finger (i) being movable between a respective sorting position and a respective conveying position and having a conveying section oriented along the conveying direction, (ii) when in the respective conveying position the conveying section of the respective sorting finger aligns with the conveying plane for providing support along a portion of the conveying plane, and (iii) when in the respective sorting position the conveying section of the respective sorting finger is removed from the conveying plane so as to form a respective gap in the conveying plane;
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- (b) a sorting finger actuator system operable for selectively causing each of the sorting fingers to move from its conveying position to its sorting position and then back to its conveying position, the sorting finger actuator system also being operable for causing selected ones of the sorting fingers to sort a designated product out of the conveying direction, the designated product comprising one of the products conveyed in the conveying direction and defining a track along the conveying plane having a track width defined by a dimension of the designated product in the transverse direction, the selected ones of the sorting fingers sorting the designated product out of the conveying direction by each of the selected ones of the sorting fingers moving from its conveying position to its sorting position to jointly form a combined gap that encompasses the track defined by the designated product and that permits the designated product to travel there through and out of the conveying direction.
A method of sorting out products from a stream of the products conveyed in a conveying direction along a conveying plane, the method comprising:
- (a) determining a track of a designated product, the designated product comprising one of the products in the stream of the products, wherein the track includes (i) a position of the designated product in a transverse direction extending orthogonally to the conveying direction in the conveying plane and (ii) a width of the designated product in the transverse direction;
- (b) selecting a subset of sorting fingers from among a set of sorting fingers where the sorting fingers in the set of sorting fingers are located beside one another in the transverse direction, each sorting finger in the set of sorting fingers (i) being movable between a respective sorting position and a respective conveying position and having a conveying section oriented along the conveying direction, (ii) when in the respective conveying position the conveying section of the respective sorting finger aligns with the conveying plane for providing support along a portion of the conveying plane, and (iii) when in the respective sorting position the conveying section of the respective sorting finger is removed from the conveying plane so as to form a respective gap in the conveying plane, wherein each of the sorting fingers in the subset of sorting fingers is selected based upon its location in the track of the designated product so that the subset of sorting fingers jointly encompass the width of the designated product in the transverse direction;
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- (c) moving each sorting finger included in the subset of sorting fingers from its conveying position to its sorting position to form a sorting gap so that the designated product is sorted out of the stream of the products through the sorting gap.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.