Back to results
US 9,776,754 B2Granted
Integrated capper system
AssigneeHumana Inc.
InventorsMichael Mahar, Atin Kapadia
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An integrated conveyor line system for placing safety and non-safety caps onto bottles traveling on the same conveyor line. A network of sensors and RFID readers determine the location of bottles and ensure that the right cap is placed on each bottle. The processing system controlling the hardware components instructs the appropriate components to divert bottles to a reject holding queue when the system detects a bottle having the wrong type of cap.
Claims20
A conveyor line system for placing non-safety caps and safety caps onto bottles, comprising:
- a conveyor line for transporting bottles, wherein each of the bottles on the conveyor line are labeled with a barcode and carried in a container having an RFID tag;
- a first device adapted to place non-safety caps onto bottles on the conveyor line;
- a second device adapted to place safety caps onto bottles where the second device is located on a same conveyor line path as the first device and adds safety caps to existing non-safety caps placed on bottles by the first device;
- a first RFID reader for reading the RFID tag of containers on the conveyor line as they pass near the location of the second device;
- a first sensor for sensing if the bottles passing the first sensor have a safety cap;
- a second RFID reader for reading the RFID tag of containers on the conveyor line as they pass near the location of the first sensor;
- a database in communication with the processing system for storing information including the RFID information of the containers and barcode of the bottles carried in the containers;
- a processing system for processing information from the first and second RFID readers and first sensor, the processing system programmed with one or more software routines executing on the processing system to:
- 1) process information from the first RFID reader and to provide instructions to the second device to place a safety cap onto the bottles if the system determines the bottles need a safety cap;
- 2) process information from the first sensor and second RFID reader and to determine if the bottles have the correct type of cap.
7 more elements
A conveyor line system for placing non-safety caps and safety caps onto bottles, comprising:
- a conveyor line for transporting bottles, wherein each of the bottles on the conveyor line are labeled with a barcode and carried in a container having an RFID tag;
- a first device adapted to place non-safety caps onto bottles on the conveyor line;
- a second device adapted to place safety caps onto bottles where the second device is located on a same conveyor line path as the first device and adds safety caps to existing non-safety caps placed onto bottles by the first device;
- a first RFID reader for reading the RFID tag of containers on the conveyor line as they pass near the location of the second device;
- a first sensor for sensing if the bottles passing the first sensor have a safety cap;
- a second RFID reader for reading the RFID tag of containers on the conveyor line as they pass near the location of the first sensor;
- a database in communication with the processing system for storing information including the RFID information of the containers;
- a holding platform connected to the conveyor line;
- a mechanism for diverting bottles off the conveyor line onto the holding platform;
- a processing system for processing information from the first and second RFID readers and first sensor, the processing system programmed with one or more software routines executing on the processing system to:
- 1) process information from the first RFID reader and to provide instructions to the second device to place a safety cap onto the bottles if the system determines the bottles need a safety cap;
- 2) process information from the first sensor and second RFID reader and to determine if the bottles have the correct type of cap, and 3) provide instructions to the mechanism to divert the bottles to the holding platform if the wrong cap is on the bottles.
9 more elements
A method for placing non-safety caps and safety caps onto bottles carried on a conveyor line comprising the steps of:
- labeling each bottle with a barcode;
- placing each bottle into a container having an RFID tag;
- providing a first device adapted to place non-safety caps onto bottles on the conveyor line;
- providing a second device adapted to place safety caps onto bottles, where the second device is located on a same conveyor line path as the first device and adds safety caps to existing non-safety caps placed onto bottles by the first device;
- providing a first RFID reader and reading the RFID tag of containers on the conveyor line as they pass near the location of the second device;
- providing a first sensor for sensing if the bottles passing the first sensor have a safety cap;
- providing a second RFID reader and reading the RFID tag of containers on the conveyor line as they pass near the location of the first sensor;
- providing a database in communication with the processing system and storing information including the RFID information of the containers and barcode of the bottles carried in the containers;
- providing a processing system for processing information from the first and second RFID readers and first sensor, the processing system programmed with one or more software routines executing on the processing system to:
- 1) process information from the first RFID reader and to provide instructions to the second device to place a safety cap onto the bottles if the system determines the bottles needs a safety cap;
- 2) process information from the first sensor and second RFID reader and to determine if the bottles have the correct type of cap.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.