US 12,377,546 B2 · System and method for automatically sorting and combining board pieces

Abstract

A sorting and combining system for board pieces is provided by the present invention. The system comprises a conveying system for the board pieces in association with at least one robotic arm and accumulating rows. The system may further comprise side rows for additional storing of board pieces. With the help of stopping systems, board pieces of the conveyor are assembled into stacks of predetermined length by the at least one robotic arm on the accumulating rows before being sent to an outfeed section. A method is further provided, the method analyzing the presence of board pieces on a conveyor, stopping gates and a reserve in order to complete stacks of rows of predetermined length on sorting boxes. The method makes the use of a robotic arm for the manipulation and displacement of board pieces.

Claims29

Dependent claims

A system for sorting and combining board pieces, the system comprising:

a conveying system for moving the board pieces;
a board pieces length measuring system;
a row building system comprising a plurality of row accumulating assemblies configured to receive the board pieces and move the received board pieces to the conveying system;
and
a robotic arm downstream of the board pieces length measuring system, the robotic arm being configured to:
pick one or more of the board pieces on the conveying system;
move the one or more picked board pieces to any position on one of the row accumulating assemblies of the row building system, the position on the row accumulating assembly being based on the length of the picked board pieces measured by the measuring system;
wherein the board pieces present on one of the row accumulating assemblies combining are moved to the conveying system when a total length of the board pieces present on the row accumulating assembly corresponds or within a predetermined range to a predetermined length.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for automatically sorting and combining board pieces

Life of this patent

System and method for automatically sorting and combining board pieces

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims29