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US 12,703,578 B2Granted
Article-transfer apparatus
AssigneeIshida Co., Ltd.
InventorsTatsuya Arimatsu, Masaaki Hojo, Masashi Takeoka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
With an article-transfer apparatus as disclosed herein, aligning articles is not hindered even when supply intervals of the articles change. Specifically, in cases where time intervals of bags supplied from upstream to an article-introduction conveyor become short and a control unit judges that the bags will not be able to be aligned (e.g., for packaging) even if they reach an alignment conveyor, an air nozzle of an article-sorting unit sorts the bags off the article-introduction conveyor.
Claims9
An article-transfer apparatus, comprising:
- a conveyance unit that conveys articles;
- an alignment unit that collects and aligns a predetermined number of the articles conveyed thereto from the conveyance unit to form an article group;
- a sorting unit that sorts the articles off the conveyance unit before the articles on the conveyance unit reach the alignment unit;
- and
- a control unit that determines whether the articles heading to the alignment unit can be aligned in the alignment unit and, when the control unit determines that the articles cannot be aligned, causes the articles to be sorted via the sorting unit,
- wherein the alignment unit includes an alignment conveyor which, each time it receives one of the articles from the conveyance unit, conveys the received article a predetermined distance in one direction, stops, and waits to receive a trailing article, such that mutually adjacent bags partially lie on top of each other.
3 more elements
An article-transfer apparatus comprising:
- a conveyance unit that conveys articles;
- an alignment unit that collects and aligns a predetermined number of the articles conveyed thereto from the conveyance unit to form an article group;
- a sorting unit that sorts the articles off the conveyance unit before the articles on the conveyance unit reach the alignment unit;
- a control unit that determines whether the articles heading to the alignment unit can be aligned in the alignment unit and, when the control unit determines that the articles cannot be aligned, causes the articles to be sorted via the sorting unit;
- and
- a second detection unit that detects a queued number of the articles in the alignment unit, wherein
- a plurality of the article groups can be aligned in the alignment unit, and
- when the queued number of the articles becomes equal to or greater than a second threshold, the control unit causes the articles to be sorted off the conveyance unit via the sorting unit regardless of the supply intervals of the articles supplied to the conveyance unit.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.