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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7290666 | Method and apparatus for sorting article Used articles of different types are sorted into individual types through a sorting line, and are feed to disassembling lines that are provided for the respective article types. The sorting line is provided with a type discriminating section and a sorting section. I... | 11/06/2007 |
| 7191656 | Substrate crack inspecting method, substrate crack inspection apparatus, and solar battery module manufacturing method Certain example embodiments of the present invention provide a method for detecting a substrate crack by simple equipment and steps. A substrate crack inspecting method may include the steps of (1) producing a sound by providing vibration to a substrate, (2) determi... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7191895 | Conveyor induct system with probability estimator A conveyor system, such as an induction subsystem for supplying articles to a sortation subsystem, and method of conveying articles includes providing a conveying surface for conveying a series of articles and at least one sensor for sensing the articles on the conv... | 03/20/2007 |
| 7140498 | Mail delivery system A mail case system facilitates sequence-sorting various types of mail together into individual bags that each represent delivery points. The mail case uses multi-bag inserts so that bags for a number of stops can be set up for sorting. At the end of the sorting oper... | 11/28/2006 |
| 7126074 | Method for sorting a group of objects A sorting method and apparatus which permits a high sorting speed during the sorting of a group of objects is disclosed. The method and apparatus can be carried out automatically and with simple equipment in some preferred embodiments. ... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7086269 | Apparatus and method for testing seed singulation of a seed meter An apparatus and method of testing seed singulation of a seed meter. The apparatus includes a frame which supports the seed meter to be tested above a track within which is disposed a continuous flighted belt. A drive system is provided to drive the flighted belt an... | 08/08/2006 |
| 7073658 | Unit for feeding solid drug forms to a conveyor line of a machine for filling capsules At least one solid drug form is fed into a capsule, housed inside a pocket on a first conveyor movable along an endless first path extending in a given first plane, by means of a seat on a second conveyor movable along an endless second path extending in a second pl... | 07/11/2006 |
| 7064548 | RF probe apparatus for NMR check weighing system A radio frequency (RF) probe (10) for a nuclear magnetic resonance check weighing system produces a uniform magnetic field at the center of RF probe (10), has minimal sensitivity to electrical interference from external sources, shapes the magnetic fie... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7062893 | System and method for accommodating atypical customer requirements in a mass customization A build cell is utilized to manufacture computers and load data into the computers according to customer orders. The build cell may include a build station at which components are assembled into a computer and a first network connection that links the computer with ... | 06/20/2006 |
| 7054704 | Method, system and facility for controlling resource allocation within a manufacturing environment A method and system provide for the control of resource allocation within a build-to-order manufacturing environment. One example embodiment of a method according to the present disclosure includes an operation for monitoring a work-in-process (WIP) profile that rep... | 05/30/2006 |
| 7040171 | Carrier tape vibrator module A vibrator module adapted for use in a taper apparatus for advancing carrier tape having a plurality of compartments and for placing parts in the compartments. The vibrator module includes a motor that includes an output shaft that rotates in response to operation o... | 05/09/2006 |
| 7024942 | Method and apparatus for non-destructive detection of pits and seed fragments in fruit An apparatus and method for the non-destructive detection of pits and pit fragments found in dried fruit has been developed. It utilizes a force transducer and a signal processor to determine whether or not pit or pit fragments are present in a fruit specimen, and i... | 04/11/2006 |
| 6998559 | Detection system for sorting apparatus The present invention relates to a system for determining characteristics of products of generally unequal size, e.g. apples, which are conveyed on product carriers, such as rollers of a conveying apparatus, and pass the system, the system comprising a detection dev... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6977353 | Apparatus and methods for identifying and processing mail using an identification code Apparatus and methods consistent with the present invention identify and sort a mailpiece with destination information by sorting the mailpiece using a code on the front of the mailpiece, if there is a code on the front of the mailpiece. If the mailpiece does not ha... | 12/20/2005 |
| 6948867 | Creating and applying a pictorial cancellation mark A method is disclosed for creating a pictorial cancellation mark that may be applied to a mailpiece. The pictorial cancellation originates as a digital image that is then printed through a printer on the mailpiece, such as by application to the postal indicia on the... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6950714 | Method, system and facility for controlling resource allocation within a manufacturing environment A method and system provide for the control of resource allocation within a build-to-order manufacturing environment by monitoring a work-in-process (WIP) profile that represents dynamic attributes of an area in a manufacturing facility. A user interface in a contro... | 09/27/2005 |
| 6935483 | Metal frame sorter with wear strip A sortation system includes a metal frame member and a traveling member having a series of wheels supported by the frame member. The traveling member defines an upper surface that supports articles being sorted. A wear strip is provided between said frame member and... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6907822 | Dry offset rotary printer for labeling wine corks A rotary printing machine for the printing of synthetic cork stoppers of the type having a surface which is normally non-ink receptive. A Ferris wheel mechanism is provided, having a plurality of evenly spaced carriers mounted a predetermined radial distance from an... | 06/21/2005 |
| 6704441 | Inspection system An inspection system in which an inspection of a work is conducted by processing image data of the work. The inspection system includes a data processor for storing image data of the work in a memory and executing data processing of the image data stored ... | 03/09/2004 |
| 6460705 | Method of creating identifiable smaller stacks of currency bills within a larger stack of currency bills A method and device for identifying small stacks of currency bills within a large stack of currency bills using a currency evaluation device. A stack of currency bills to be processed is received in an input receptacle and the bills are transported from t... | 10/08/2002 |
| 6311846 | Method and apparatus for sorting and acquiring image data for documents An apparatus is provided for sorting a group of documents contained with an envelope into selected batches of documents. An envelope feeder feeds a group of envelopes containing documents onto a document transport. A document extractor positioned along th... | 11/06/2001 |
| 6199679 | Device and process for inspection of objects, particularly beverage bottles In order to inspect objects (10), particularly drinks bottles, these are transported on two conveyors (12, 14), which exhibit a mutual lateral separation and run at different speeds, so that the objects (10) rotate about their vertical axis. Within the di... | 03/13/2001 |
| 6112902 | Method and apparatus for sorting and acquiring image data for documents An apparatus is provided for sorting a group of documents contained with an envelope into selected batches of documents. An envelope feeder feeds a group of envelopes containing documents onto a document transport. A document extractor positioned along th... | 09/05/2000 |
| 5499718 | System and method for seeking and presenting an area for reading with a vision system A method and system for temporarily halting an article for sensing with a fixed sensing system without altering its average speed. While halted, the article's orientation is manipulated for seeking and presenting a specific area thereon for sensing. The t... | 03/19/1996 |
| 5464099 | Method for the automated processing of documents and bulk mail An apparatus for the automated processing of bulk mail in a continuous and automatic procedure includes an operative combination of processing stations including an input station for receiving incoming mail in bulk fashion and for separating the pieces of... | 11/07/1995 |
| 5222855 | Automated work center An automated work center for use in materials handling operations is disclosed. The work center includes a randomly accessible vertically moving temporary storage queue 11 for receiving containers 25 that hold material goods. A fixed loading ramp 20 is ar... | 06/29/1993 |
| 5115918 | Apparatus for the automated processing of bulk mail and the like An apparatus for orienting a plurality of documents received in differing orientations relative to the apparatus, for delivery from the apparatus in a uniform orientation, generally comprises a device for determining the orientation of a document accordin... | 05/26/1992 |
| 5058749 | Apparatus for sorting articles according to size An apparatus for sorting articles according to size inlcudes a plurality of moving belt assemblies and an elongated hopper provided above the moving belt assemblies for feeding a plurality of articles to the same. The fed articles are aligned and spaced a... | 10/22/1991 |
| 4968419 | Document processing system A method and apparatus are provided for processing documents in a path wherein the documents each have first and second ends. Some of the documents have the first end being the leading end, and others of the documents have the second end being the leading... | 11/06/1990 |
| 4884696 | Method and apparatus for automatically inspecting and classifying different objects Univeral conveying apparatus and method for automated inspection and classification of a variety of natural or man made product classes, having various geometrical configurations, e.g. spheroidal, spherical, cylindrical, parallelepiped, disc and plate sha... | 12/05/1989 |
| 4753563 | Welded tube seam positioner and method Apparatus for positioning the seam of a welded tube comprises a plunger rod of a diameter less than the tube having a first longitudinal axis supported and journaled upon its first axis for reciprocal and rotational movements. A radial knife edge projects... | 06/28/1988 |
| 4726898 | Apparatus for spinning fruit for sorting thereof Several conveyor rollers of singulators are made to rotate by a fruit orientation belt causing fruit carried thereon to rotate in accordance with movement of the belt such that the rotational axes of the fruit, typically lemons, orient themselves along th... | 02/23/1988 |
| 4693464 | Apparatus for arranging the obverse and reverse sides of the bills or the like An apparatus for arranging the obverse and reverse sides of the bills or the like includes a carrying-in passage and a carrying-out passage. A reversible conveying passage is provided between the carrying-in passage and the carrying-out passage for convey... | 09/15/1987 |
| 4690268 | Sheet convey apparatus A sheet convey apparatus which conveys a mixture of obverse and reverse-sheets set at an inlet port to a collecting section, comprises a first convey path for conveying obverse-presented bills which are distinguished from reverse-presented bills by a sort... | 09/01/1987 |
| 4566595 | Device for classifying handled objects A device for classifying handled objects. This device comprises a mechanical sorting system and an electronic control system. The former comprises two storage devices, each organized in the form of a queue or line, i.e., the objects can be removed in the ... | 01/28/1986 |
| 4520932 | Stamp detection in a mail processing apparatus A mail processing apparatus feeds mail articles one by one, along a transport path. A stamp detecting device is disposed along the path to detect a stamp on the mail article. The stamp detecting device includes a light source for radiating ultraviolet lig... | 06/04/1985 |
| 4478374 | Chip thickness separator Materials such as wood chips are classified by thickness by feeding same through a chip outlet onto a rotating disc adjacent the axis of rotation of the disc, the disc cooperating with a housing to define a tapering passage terminating in a narrow, restri... | 10/23/1984 |
| 4354602 | Device for inspecting the external appearance of solid medicine A device for inspecting the external appearance of solid medicine having a solid medicine supplying section, a first drum-shaped conveying section for conveying solid medicines supplied by the solid medicine supplying section, at equal intervals so that o... | 10/19/1982 |
| 4351437 | Method and apparatus for examining objects Potatoes carried on a roller table conveyor are presented in transverse rows at an inspection area illuminated by a lamp from a first direction and observed by a line imaging camera along a second direction arranged by a mirror to be approximately at righ... | 09/28/1982 |
| 4234418 | Dip-handling apparatus A DIP-handling apparatus comprising a support chassis, an input tray attached to the support chassis and including a plurality of DIP-receiving input trays arrayed in parallel, a reorienting and metering device for receiving a DIP from one of the tracks o... | 11/18/1980 |
