Did You Know...
...that the video game, Pong, was invented by a guy who graduated at the bottom of his engineering class? Nolan Bushnell spent more time running the games at a local amusement park than he did on his studies at the University of Utah. His dreams of working for Disney's amusement empire were dashed when the company wouldn't hire him. Taking a boring job, Nolan daydreamed about electronic versions of popular games. He invented Pong, the first video game, and went on to found Atari Co.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6680452 | System for sorting commercial articles and method therefor An article sorting system is provided. The system comprises a plurality of inflow lines to convey trays each containing articles to be sorted, a first conveyor to convey the trays introduced from the plurality of inflow lines, a plurality of second convey... | 01/20/2004 |
| 6598747 | Selection and bundling apparatus for random length materials An apparatus for selecting random length boards for nesting into a single row of predetermined lengths includes an accumulating conveyor with longitudinal tracks positioned adjacent a storage rack with the longitudinal channels aligned with the tracks. A ... | 07/29/2003 |
| 6580046 | Process and configuration for the automated conveying, sorting and loading of baggage items A process is provided for the automated conveying, sorting and loading of baggage items in airports having a baggage-conveying facility conveying baggage from a check-in region to a baggage area, from where they are transported for loading into aircraft. ... | 06/17/2003 |
| 6533125 | Method and apparatus for batching-out items such as poultry pieces A batcher apparatus having a weighing station (4) for arriving items and a sorting-out station (6) with transfer mechanism for selectively transferring the weighed items to a plurality of receiver stations (18, 18', 18"). According to the invention two or... | 03/18/2003 |
| 6515246 | Apparatus for sorting products An apparatus for sorting products, such as magazines, newspapers and books, CDs and/or diskettes, includes a separation station arranged for making single items of the products supplied in stacks, a conveyor arranged for conveying one by one the products ... | 02/04/2003 |
| 6403906 | Method for controlling an accumulating device Method for controlling an accumulating device (buffer) having a number of tracks each of which defines at least one accumulation segment along which may be arranged sets of postal items partially overlying each other (shingled). One first section and one ... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6403905 | Reticle stocking and sorting management system A system and method for stocking and sorting reticles used in a semiconductor fabrication facility, the facility having a material handling system that presents a reticle to a photolithography process area. In an example embodiment of the reticle manageme... | 06/11/2002 |
| 6305548 | Method and system for recycling discarded industrial products A discarded industrial product recycling system capable of acquiring pertinent data required for processings of discarded industrial products such as discarders, reception dates, persons responsible for disposal, disposal dates and so forth for selecting ... | 10/23/2001 |
| 6297464 | Microdevice programmer/feeder reject handling system A microdevice reject handling system is provided for in a microdevice processing/feeder system. The feeder mechanism is immediately adjacent to the processing mechanism for receiving and moving microdevices away from the processing mechanism. It uses a co... | 10/02/2001 |
| 6239396 | Semiconductor device handling and sorting apparatus for a semiconductor burn-in test process An apparatus in accordance with the present invention includes separate transporting units respectively for good and rejected semiconductor devices. As a result, respective handlings of the rejected and good devices, such as loading of the good devices in... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6227376 | Two-directional reject and make-up conveyor system A two-direction reject and make-up conveyor system includes a supply conveyor system (30) and a first inspection conveyor (40) and a second inspection conveyor (41). The conveyors (40 and 41) are moveable in both a forward and reverse direction allowing i... | 05/08/2001 |
| 6201203 | Robotic containerization system In a method and system for automatically forming a plurality of packages of groups of articles, the articles move along a conveying path in a substantially continuous motion. The selected articles are transferred to selected buffer storage assemblies in r... | 03/13/2001 |
| 6123202 | Method of and device for handling of cut lengths and short lengths in merchant bar finishing lines A method of handling of cut lengths and short lengths to be transported to a collecting equipment and transportation equipment for bundling equipment and saw devices in merchant bar finishing lines, with the method including the steps of providing a commo... | 09/26/2000 |
| 5998751 | Sorting system for computer chips Disclosed is a sorting system configured to sort a plurality of components, such as computer chips. The handler comprises a component handler configured to sort a plurality of components into groups; a plurality of receptacles on the component handler, ea... | 12/07/1999 |
| 5996996 | Method of sorting computer chips Disclosed is a method of sorting and transferring components, such as computer chips. The method comprises sorting a plurality of components into a plurality of separate groups, wherein each component in a common group has a common property, and depositin... | 12/07/1999 |
| 5333738 | Process and installation for recovering valuable materials, in particular from waste material on building sites A method is proposed for recovering valuable substances, particularly from construction site wastes and industrial trash as well as a system for implementing the method in which the essential sorters are disposed in a closed container which can be placed ... | 08/02/1994 |
| 5228577 | Apparatus for separating household trash An apparatus for separating selected categories of solid waste (trash) within a home or building and containing outside of the home or building the various recyclable and non-recyclable solid waste which accumulates within the home or building. The appara... | 07/20/1993 |
| 5205417 | Sanitary trash recycling apparatus A sanitary trash recycling apparatus includes a pit for receiving unsorted refuse, a electromagnetic device for removing ferrous materials and stations for permitting manual sorting of recyclable materials. The stations for manually sorting materials incl... | 04/27/1993 |
| 5186335 | Adjustment document storage device for a document sorter An adjustable storage rack for a document processor in which a plurality of document receiving slots are each associated and aligned with one of the sorter pockets when the rack is secured to the document processor frame. Advantageously, the securing occu... | 02/16/1993 |
| 5184734 | Sheet delivering mechanism A sheet delivering mechanism guides sheets of different sizes fed from sheet feed units along a sheet guide passage including electrographic printing mechanism for printing, delivers printed sheets of different sizes to sheet receiving trays of correspond... | 02/09/1993 |
| 5174454 | Method for sorting form stacks in storage systems and a device for carrying out the method The method is characterized by identifying each form stack (8) with regard to the identity received during manufacture thereof, the information received regarding the identity of the form stack (8), comparing the information received regarding the identit... | 12/29/1992 |
| 5141112 | Veneer stacking system In a veneer stacking system, a sensing device for sensing the incoming veneer sheets and computer determining from the information of the sensing device the stack on which the sheets are to be deposited. Knock-off shoes are positioned above the path of in... | 08/25/1992 |
| 5103983 | Refuse receiving device A refuse device for receiving and separately holding heavy articles and light refuse articles. The device includes a first and second open-topped refuse receptacle and a pivoting flap overlying the receptacles. The flap is pivotable between a first positi... | 04/14/1992 |
| 5103982 | Check stager-feeder A check stager-feeder for accumulating, in a stage, a predetermined number of checks or sheets in a stack and for high-speed feeding of the stack to further equipment comprising a kicker/stop member movable by a solenoid between two angular orientations f... | 04/14/1992 |
| 5048695 | Reject station in a gravity conveyor A first rotatable conveyor section (16) is positioned axially between upper and lower fixed sections (14,18) of a gravity conveyor. Rotatable conveyor section (16) rotates about an axis extending perpendicular to the conveyor section. A gate (42,44) is pr... | 09/17/1991 |
| 5042793 | Sheet sorter image forming apparatus having same A control method for a sheet sorter including a plurality of sorting bins, a sheet discharger for discharging sheets to the sort bins and a driver for moving the sort bins to present the sort bins to the discharger includes moving the sorting bins at a fi... | 08/27/1991 |
| 4968014 | Sheet transport apparatus feeding to a plurality of trays in accordance with the sheet size of the transported media A transport apparatus for transporting media in various size sheets processed at a first processing station to a second processing station. The apparatus comprises, as main components thereof, a plurality of trays disposed between the first and second pro... | 11/06/1990 |
| 4953710 | Automated apparatus for inspecting columnar bodies by eddy current method An automated apparatus for inspecting columnar bodies by an eddy current method includes a stockup zone, a feed zone and eddy current inspection equipment with the feed zone. The columnar bodies are fed via guide equipment end to end in an abutting relati... | 09/04/1990 |
| 4933074 | Article singulating system and method Elongated articles (16) to be singulated are conveyed in bulk into a conveyor (30) which by a shaking motion conveys the articles (16). The bed (80) of the conveyor (30) includes longitudinal channels (100) causing the articles (16) to be aligned lengthwi... | 06/12/1990 |
| 4929342 | Apparatus and method for separating recyclable materials An apparatus for sorting recyclable materials including an inlet conveyor with a magnetic pulleys that directs magnetic objects out of the flow of recyclable materials. A vacuum inlet is positioned adjacent a stepped region of the conveyor so as to pull l... | 05/29/1990 |
| 4927534 | Screen system A screen system intended for the screening of wood chips, comprising one or several screening faces (2,3) placed one above the other as well as a bottom face (4) placed underneath said screening faces. The screening faces (2,3) are connected to members (1... | 05/22/1990 |
| 4927030 | Method and apparatus for debris screening and sorting of peanuts A sorting apparatus to remove sticks, weeds and other debris from a batch of peanuts and sort the peanuts into size categories. At least two longitudinally spaced apart sets of endless belts wrap over separate sets of drive rollers. The belts are interpos... | 05/22/1990 |
| 4925036 | Plate-like member selecting and accommodating apparatus A plate-like member selecting apparatus has a container for accommodating selected plate-like members, which comprises a flexible and elastic sheet-like member bent in the shape of V or U, and which is provided under a plate-like member transferring path.... | 05/15/1990 |
| 4878574 | Apparatus for sorting workpieces An apparatus for sorting cut lengths discharged from an automatic metal cutting saw, includes at the discharge side of the saw, a movable endless link conveyor belt; a drive motor for driving the conveyor belt in a moving direction; a plurality of partiti... | 11/07/1989 |
| 4869813 | Drill inspection and sorting method and apparatus Apparatus for inspecting and sorting drills oriented in the same direction in a hopper assembly. The hopper assembly feeds the drills, one at a time, and places them in a predetermined ready location. A camera, part of the inspection assembly, mounted dir... | 09/26/1989 |
| 4863039 | Apparatus and method for handling a flexible disk for testing Apparatus and method are disclosed for handling a flexible disk for testing. The apparatus includes guide rails for initially positioning a disk for test. The apparatus also includes a variable speed motor for rotating the disk at a preselected rotation s... | 09/05/1989 |
| 4854455 | Machine for grading and sorting fish, in particular fish from the salmonidae family The machine according to the invention comprises a channel which is: constituted by two shaped panels giving it an open bottomed V-shaped section and which are associated with relative spacing adjustment members, provided with spraying conduits and overlapping plat... | 08/08/1989 |
| 4852745 | Apparatus for automatically eliminating a group of articles to be treated of which at least one is missing or defective The present invention concerns an apparatus for automatically eliminating a group of articles to be treated of which at least one is missing or defective in this group, this apparatus comprising essentially a detecting cell located above the articles or c... | 08/01/1989 |
| 4847927 | Garbage collection device for a sink unit, in particular, a built-in sink unit Garbage collection device for a built-in sink unit with a garbage discharge opening which is integrated into its top surface and below which a holder is arranged for several waste containers, one of which can be loaded with garbage through the discharge o... | 07/18/1989 |
| 4836916 | Handling apparatus for magnetic recording disks An automatic disk testing apparatus and method for testing flexible disks is disclosed. The apparatus includes a gravity feed disk hopper and vacuum disk plate which sequentially present a series of disks for test. Each disk drops by gravity from the vacu... | 06/06/1989 |
