Celebrity Inventors
Superstar singer Michael Jackson co-patented a "Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion" in 1993.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8079456 | Spring detangler An automated spring detangler takes clumps of springs and whirls them around a rotating chamber. When they separate and fall to the bottom of the container, they are sucked into a delivery tube that continuously individually deposits them at an assembly line which m... | 12/20/2011 |
| 8074781 | Vial sorting apparatus The present invention is directed to an apparatus for sorting vials and small containers. The apparatus comprises a plurality of compartments, arranged linearly, with two agitation conveyor belts and a sorting conveyor belt running along the bottom of the compartmen... | 12/13/2011 |
| 8051971 | Apparatus and method for positioning articles, comprising multiple unloading operations per cycle The invention relates to an apparatus and method for positioning articles, comprising multiple unloading operations per cycle. The inventive apparatus comprises means for placing articles in housings that move along the length of a closed circuit provided with at le... | 11/08/2011 |
| 7950517 | Machine for orienting and aligning articles A rotary structure carries cavities with an upper inlet for receiving articles and an open bottom for dropping articles distributed along a closed circuit, and funnel-shaped conduits, each of which is located below a respective cavity to receive an article therefrom... | 05/31/2011 |
| 7861846 | Singulating apparatus A singulating apparatus is therefore provided that utilizes a plurality of singulating cavities, each singulating cavity having a plurality of movable wall segments enabling the size and shape of the singulating cavities to be changed to correspond to the size and s... | 01/04/2011 |
| 7757835 | Bead feeder A bead feeder for serially delivering beads to a downstream location comprises a bead supply wheel connected to rotate about a substantially vertical axis. The bead supply wheel includes a bead supply bowl and a plurality of radially and outwardly extending bead pas... | 07/20/2010 |
| 7735627 | Plastic bottle unscrambler with vacuum settling tables A plastic bottle unscrambler, wherein the tables (8) for settling and supporting the containers (2) in the cradles (6) comprise a box-like chamber having a housing (9) under the surface supporting the container (2), in which vacuum... | 06/15/2010 |
| 7516836 | Centrifugal filling apparatus and method A method and apparatus for singulating individual product items, such as pills, in unit-dose or multi-dose dispersing packaging that utilizes a pill-filling mechanism for reducing a large amount of bulk pills to a single-file stream of pills; a pill separation mecha... | 04/14/2009 |
| 7472782 | Rotary feeder A rotary feeder for transferring articles includes a support frame, a rotatably driven bowl assembly mounted on the support frame and including a bowl mounted for rotation about a bowl axis, and a rotatably driven shaft mounted on the support frame for rotation abou... | 01/06/2009 |
| 7445110 | Bailing apparatus with handle return device A bailing apparatus includes a bailer feeder and a handle return device. The bailer feeder is adapted to feed handles to a bailer which couples the handles to containers. The handle return device is arranged to return handles that fall from the bailer feeder back to... | 11/04/2008 |
| 7383937 | Article feeder and spacer A feeder for orienting and aligning disorderly incoming items includes a rotatable table having a peripheral wall and a discharge opening in the peripheral wall, the discharge opening allowing the items in a predetermined orientation to be successively withdrawn fro... | 06/10/2008 |
| 7322458 | Orienting and feeding apparatus for manufacturing line Apparatus for orienting and feeding blow molded preforms which are elongated generally cylindrical plastic objects, one end of which is a threaded neck portion for the ultimate blow molded container, and the other end of which extends from the opposed end of the cyl... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7322166 | Apparatus for unwrapping and transporting frangible wafers for ice cream sandwiches and the like The present invention is an apparatus and method for unwrapping a package of frangible articles bearing a wrapping material, the wrapping material having a rear portion and a forward tab, the forward tab adapted to open the wrapping material when pulled, the apparat... | 01/29/2008 |
| 7270229 | Container unscrambler system having adjustable track and method A container feeding system is shown having an unscrambler having an unscrambler bowl providing a track or channel that is adjustable such that it can accommodate bottles of varying sizes. The system comprises an adjustable chute that is also adjustable and having a ... | 09/18/2007 |
| 7261512 | Machine for orienting aligning vessels or bottles made of plastics The invention falls within the field of machines for orienting and aligning vessels or bottles made of plastics randomly inserted into a load vessel and in particular to a type of orienting and aligning machine that provides a plurality of elevators (6) that ... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7258222 | Article positioning machine Comprises a pre-orientating device (2) suitable for placing a plurality of articles (50) in the vertical position, randomly head up or head down, on a conveyor (1); detection means (3) for detecting the articles (50) that are in at... | 08/21/2007 |
| 7246701 | Machine for orienting, straightening and aligning plastic vessels or bottles The invention refers to the field of machines for orienting, straightening and aligning plastic vessels such as bottles, and in particular the invention refers to those types of machines that provide for a hopper for randomly loading the bottles that are composed of... | 07/24/2007 |
| 7228953 | Article feeder and spacer A feeder for orienting and aligning disorderly incoming articles includes a table having a peripheral wall, a rotary surface surrounded by the peripheral wall, and a discharge substantially tangential to the peripheral wall, the discharge being sized to receive one ... | 06/12/2007 |
| 7219794 | Adjustable guide chute and method for processing containers A container feeding system is shown having an unscrambler having an unscrambler bowl providing a track or channel that is adjustable such that it can accommodate bottles of varying sizes. The system also comprises an adjustable chute that is also adjustable and havi... | 05/22/2007 |
| 7161346 | Method of holding an electronic component in a controlled orientation during parametric testing A component handler includes an improved test seat having a shape that ensures that an electronic component seated in the test seat is in an appropriate orientation for parametric testing. The test seat has a base surface and first and second opposed seat side surfa... | 01/09/2007 |
| 7137502 | Mail tray singulator and method of use A mail tray singulator for controlling the handling, movement and sensing of mail trays or other mail items into a single file arrangement on a conveyor system for downstream processing. The mail tray singulator includes conveyor modules configured at preferably rig... | 11/21/2006 |
| 7134540 | Adaptable automatic machine for the orientation and aligned supply of lightweight hollow articles The invention relates to an adaptable automatic machine for the orientation and aligned supply of lightweight hollow articles, comprising cavities (6) delimited by front, back and lateral walls (116), an open bottom enabling the passage of articles (A)... | 11/14/2006 |
| 7077264 | Methods and apparatus for transporting substrate carriers According to a first aspect, a first conveyor system is provided that is adapted to deliver substrate carriers within a semiconductor device manufacturing facility. The first conveyor system includes a ribbon that forms a closed loop along at least a portion of the ... | 07/18/2006 |
| 7048183 | RFID rag and method of user verification An identification tag (100) facilitates use of a secure computer system (300). The tag (100) is adapted to be worn on a user's wrist and includes an identification and registration circuit (102) that includes an identification component (... | 05/23/2006 |
| 6966422 | Adjustable apparatus for orienting containers The invention relates to the field of machines for directing and aligning plastic containers and particularly relates to an universal device for automatically adjusting vertically directing and aligning means in dependence on said containers size. The orienting mean... | 11/22/2005 |
| 6964329 | Step down product accumulation system A step down product conveying and accumulation system employs one or more conveyors with a product path section, on which products are conveyed, and an accumulator section, for accumulation of products for recirculation and eventual delivery to a downstream destinat... | 11/15/2005 |
| 6961638 | Reject bottle detection and ejection mechanisms A reject bottle detection and ejection apparatus has a plurality of sensors positioned along the length of a belt conveyor that senses whether a bottle conveyed by the conveyor is positioned in an upright orientation, in an inverted orientation, in a sideways orient... | 11/01/2005 |
| 6945384 | Parts aligner A parts aligner is provided with an attraction means 8 orbitally movable in a specific orbit R, and also provided with a posture shift guide 11, a regulating piece 12 and a thickness sorting guide 13 along a specific circumference P corre... | 09/20/2005 |
| 6935542 | Device for retaining and for inserting a flexible tube assembly into a fluid container A device for use with a container having a container top includes a tubular retainer engaging the container top and a tube assembly. The tubular retainer has a retainer top, a retainer bottom, a longitudinal axis, and an inner passageway formed along the longitudina... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6790412 | Bulk vessel feeder An apparatus for feeding to an automated analyzer a bulk quantity of vessels is provided. The bulk vessel feeding apparatus has a frame structure, a vessel hopper and an elevator chain supported by the frame structure. The elevator chain is driven by a drive sprocke... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6644460 | Apparatus for sorting pills An apparatus for sorting and feeding identically shaped small objects has a funnel adapted to hold the objects and having a downwardly open outlet and a housing and a wheel together forming an arcuate passage generally centered on an axis and having an up... | 11/11/2003 |
| 6578699 | Rotary orienting feeder A rotary orienting feeder is configured for singulating/orienting bulk volumes of articles. The feeder includes a rotatably driven feed disc, and a rotatably driven orienting bowl assembly which is positioned generally about the feed disc. The feed disc i... | 06/17/2003 |
| 6443291 | Method and apparatus for providing parts to workpieces The method and apparatus (10) for moving and positioning parts (150, 250, 350 or 450) on workpieces (160) is described. The apparatus includes a vibratory bowl (12), a conveyance and feed system and a positioning cylinder (82). The bowl aligns the parts a... | 09/03/2002 |
| 6367611 | Part feeding system A generally cylindrically shaped feeder having a feeder housing defining a cavity bounded by an inner surface having a plurality of spiral grooves spaced apart from each other and extending from a front end to a back end of the inner surface of the feeder... | 04/09/2002 |
| 6311825 | Recirculation system for a robotic pickup A recirculating device receives parts in bulk which are bunched together. The device includes a cone-shaped rotating disk which receives the parts and redistributes the parts into separate units. The parts are delivered to an inner periphery of the cone o... | 11/06/2001 |
| 6302258 | Aligning device for containers of various shapes Machine for aligning objects, such as variously shaped cylindrical containers to be fed to printing machines, filling machines, labelling machines or the like, comprises a rotary disc shaped as a cone with its vertex facing upwards, an underlying flat cir... | 10/16/2001 |
| 6227345 | Transfer apparatus of chip components A relatively simple and small-sized drive mechanism for high-speed transfer of chip components. A transfer disc is disposed so that it may be inclined to a horizontal surface, and the disc has a transfer groove on the upper surface thereof, and has a cavi... | 05/08/2001 |
| 6216845 | Automatic loader of ferrules for brushes An automatic loader has a vibrational feeding assembly for vibrationally feeding ferrules to a loader of a ferrule assembling machine. The vibrational feeding assembly has a frame for containing the ferrules and a guide channel having a transport surface ... | 04/17/2001 |
| 6161676 | Component feeder A component feeder is provided in which damage to chip components is minimized, being capable of efficiently discharging chip components aligned in a line. A bulk case is attached on the top portion of an outer storage housing capable of being supplied by... | 12/19/2000 |
| 6112937 | Apparatus and method for aligning parts A part-aligning apparatus is simple in structure, causes less damage to chip parts, and operates well even if its chip discharge passage is clogged or overflows. The apparatus has a part-holding chamber for accommodating a number of chip parts. An arc-sha... | 09/05/2000 |
