Article separating method and apparatus
AssigneeRosebay Terrace Pty Ltd.
InventorMario Matkovich
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Abstract
The present invention provides an apparatus (10) for separating a jumbled collection of articles, such as clothing or garment hangers (23), into a plurality of separate and discrete hangers. The apparatus includes conveyor means (12, 26, 32) adapted to transport a plurality of hangers (23) in succession along a process path; separation means, such as barrier gate members (20, 21), adapted to permit the hangers to proceed along the process path one at a time, sensing means (19, 38) adapted to detect when a hanger is entangled or interconnected with one or more other hangers; and removal means (30) adapted to remove any such entangled or interconnected hangers from the process path. The invention also provides a method for separating the hangers (23).
Claims14
An apparatus for separating a jumbled collection of articles into a plurality of separate and discrete articles, including:
- conveyor means adapted to transport a plurality of said articles in succession along a process path;
- separation means adapted to permit said articles to proceed along the process path one at a time;
- sensing means adapted to detect when an article is entangled or interconnected with one or more other articles;
- and
- removal means adapted to remove any such entangled or interconnected articles from the process path.
A method for separating a jumbled collection of articles into a plurality of separate and discrete articles, including the steps of:
- conveying a plurality of said articles in succession along a process path;
- intermittently restraining and releasing passage of successive individual articles along the process path;
- sensing whether or not the passage of a released article is entangled or interconnected with one or more other article;
- and
- removing any entangled or interconnected articles from the process path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.