System for transferring articles from a container
AssigneeUnited States Postal Service
InventorWayne R. Perry-Eaton
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated system for transferring articles from a container. An item transfer system includes a rotatable tray rotary assembly, a translatable and rotatable intermediate rotary assembly, and a translatable and rotatable output rotary assembly. The system is configured to transfer articles from the tray to processing equipment by an automated process including rotationally transferring the articles from the tray to the intermediate rotary assembly and rotationally transferring the articles from the intermediate rotary assembly to the output rotary assembly. The output rotary assembly can move to align with a shelf or other input of the processing equipment and a paddle assembly can slide the items from the output rotary assembly onto the shelf or other input of the processing equipment.
Claims20
A tray content transfer system comprising:
- a tray rotary assembly, the tray rotary assembly comprising a retainer configured to releasably secure a tray within the tray rotary assembly, wherein the tray rotary assembly is rotatable about a first axis;
- an intermediate rotary assembly movably coupled relative to the tray rotary assembly, the intermediate rotary assembly being rotatable about a second axis parallel to the first axis, being translatable along a horizontal axis perpendicular to the second axis, and being translatable along a vertical axis perpendicular to the second axis and the horizontal axis, the intermediate rotary assembly comprising:
- a first platform having a plurality of first slots therethrough parallel to the second axis;
- and
- a plurality of movable first fingers extending through the first slots and configured to support one or more items therebetween;
- and
- an output rotary assembly movably coupled relative to the tray rotary assembly and the intermediate rotary assembly, the output rotary assembly being rotatable about a third axis parallel to the first axis, being translatable along the horizontal axis and the vertical axis, the output rotary assembly comprising:
- a second platform having a plurality of second slots therethrough parallel to the third axis;
- and
- a plurality of movable second fingers extending through the second slots and configured to support the one or more items therebetween.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.