Laitram, LLC

Eric M Pressler

Mark B Costanzo

Matthew L Fourney

David Herbert Myers

Timothy J Hicks

Sean Edward Stephens

Zachary R Schexnaydre

Jiaming Zha

Preston Hill

Joseph M DePaso

Stephen G Wargo

John M Dunlop

Felix H Lapeyre, Iii

Joseph M Depaso

A drone comprises at least one propeller for generating lift and an article containment area for containing an article to be carried by the drone. The floor of the article containment area comprises a dynamic support surface for supporting the article and allowing the article to move into, out of and through the article containment area. The dynamic support surface may be a conveyor belt forming the floor of the article containment area.

Material handling solutions for drones

A conveyor having a retractable stop providing a nonsliding contact surface to the leading faces of conveyed articles to prevent damage to the faces of the articles. One version of such a stop has a contact surface defined by the peripheries of rollers that rotate on the accumulated articles as the stop moves from a blocking position accumulating articles on the conveyor to a retracted position releasing accumulated articles to advance downstream along the conveyor.

Conveyor with a gentle retractable stop

A package-culling conveyor system and a method for culling flat packages from a bulk flow of flat and non-flat packages. The conveyor system includes a tilted conveyor belt that conveys flat packages along its length while non-flat packages tumble off its lower side edge to initially cull flat packages from a bulk flow of packages. Retention means, such as a high-friction outer conveying surface or a raised barrier along the length of the outer conveying surface of the tilted conveyor belt, holds flat packages on the tilted conveyor belt. The initially separated packages are more fully culled in a conveyor comprising a roller conveyor belt with package-supporting belt rollers rotated in a direction to push packages sidewise toward a culling element that extends along the length of the roller conveyor belt. Examples of culling elements include powered rollers and vertical walls forming side guards. The powered roller lifts the contact side of non-flat packages to free flat packages underneath. The belt rollers push the flat packages under the culling elements and off the side of the roller belt. The culling elements block the non-flat packages from exiting laterally off the side of the roller belt so that they are conveyed off the exit end of the roller belt separate from the flat packages.

Package-culling conveyor system and method

A conveyor having a conveyor belt with wall segments that pivot between a retracted position below the conveying surface of the belt and an extended position above the conveying surface. When extended, the wall segments form a wall along the length of a portion of the belt to prevent conveyed articles from moving laterally past. The retractable wall segments are cam- or spring-actuated. Diverting conveyors using the retractable wall segments in an oblique-roller conveyor belt are useful as sorters or switches.

Belt conveyors with retractable wall segments

A spacing conveyor having article-accelerating rollers and selectively retractable stops to control the gaps between consecutive conveyed packages. A sensor measures the length of a package being fed onto the spacing conveyor. A controller selectively actuates one or more actuators positioned along the length of the conveyor to move selected stops advancing with the conveyor from a retracted position to a blocking position to receive packages a variety of sizes and to control the gaps between consecutive packages.

Conveyor and method for spacing packages

A conveyor belt and a method for providing a conveyor belt with rollers that rotate on axes oblique to the direction of belt travel. Axles are mounted on rods extending perpendicular to direction of belt travel. The axles have cylindrical outer bearing surfaces that define a central axis that is oblique to the direction of belt travel when mounted on the rods. Rollers mounted on the axles rotate on the outer bearing surfaces in a direction oblique to the direction of belt travel.

Conveyor belt for mounting oblique rollers on lateral rods

A sorting switch for diverting articles from one or more infeed conveyors to two or more outfeed conveyors. A cannulae pre-alignment conveyor receives articles from one or more infeed conveyors and selectively diverts individual articles into two or more lateral regions for delivery to an alignment conveyor downstream. The alignment conveyor more precisely aligns the articles within each of the regions for delivery to outfeed conveyors at the downstream end of the alignment conveyor. The alignment and pre-alignment conveyors are realized as belt conveyors with rollers arranged to rotate universally or on axes in specific orientations. In some versions, a belt's rollers roll on bearing surfaces whenever the belt is advancing. In other versions, rollers are selective actuated by moving bearing surfaces. In yet other versions, rollers are not contacted by bearing surfaces at all.

Conveyor switch

A conveyor and a method for depalletizing and singulating packages. The conveyor comprises, in one version, a set-down conveyor on which pallet layers are deposited and conveyed, a row-separation conveyor that separates the pallet layer into spaced rows, a row-extraction conveyor that extracts a leading row of packages from the trailing rows and conveys the packages of the extracted row in a transverse direction, and a singulating conveyor that arranges the articles in a single file. The conveyor system operates by first pulling a gap in the leading row of a pallet layer when the packages cross into the row-separation conveyor. Then the row is extracted from the other rows on the row-extraction conveyor. Finally, as the packages travel on and along the singulating conveyor, they are aligned to the conveyor's outer edge and rotated, if necessary, to be properly singulated.

Roller-belt depalletizer

Conveyors and methods for operating conveyors to accelerate laterally adjacent conveyed articles over different distances. The conveyors provide a conveying surface atop rollers in a conveyor belt. The belt rollers ride on a bearing surface underlying the belt on a carryway. As the belt advances, the rollers riding on the bearing surface rotate in a direction of rotation to accelerate conveyed articles along the belt in the direction of rotation. The bearing surface is shaped so that its length in the direction of belt travel varies across the width of the conveyor.

Conveyors and methods for non-uniformly accelerating conveyed articles

A conveyor having a flighted belt and providing a gapless end-off or end-on transfer of articles. The conveyor belt includes segmented flights at spaced intervals along its length. Each segmented flight includes slots dividing the flight into laterally spaced segments, or dogs. A transfer platform allows for a smooth transfer of articles onto or off the end of the belt. Fingers on the transfer platform separated by gaps extend to distal finger tips that are positioned close to the conveying surface of the belt at an end of the conveyor. The transfer platform is laterally aligned with the gaps positioned to coincide with the flight segments to permit them to pass cleanly through as the belt articulates about a sprocket set at the end of a carryway. The transfer platform may be tilted relative to vertical to gain an assist from gravity in transferring articles. Alternatively, a retractable rake mechanism including a tined rake belt positioned above the end of the conveyor belt is used to comb through the segmented flights to sweep articles off the end of the conveyor belt and across the transfer platform. Optional article-advancing rollers in the conveyor belt between consecutive flights propel articles forward along the belt to a forward flight.

Conveyor having a conveyor belt with flights, including segmented flights for gapless end transfer

A conveyor and associated method for diverting closely spaced articles conveyed along the conveyor. The conveyor includes a conveyor belt with belt rollers oriented to rotate on axes oblique to the direction of belt travel. A series of arrays of bearing surface elements are arranged end to end along the length of the conveyor. The bearing surfaces may be static or rotational. Each array defines a roller-control zone in which the array is selectively activated with its bearing surface elements in contract with the belt rollers or deactivated with its bearing surface elements out of contact with the belt rollers. As the belt advances through an activated roller-control zone, the belt rollers rotate to propel a conveyed article toward a side of the belt. The contiguous roller-control zones are sequentially activated and deactivated to direct articles to the side and off the belt or to let them pass straight through. The length of the entire series of roller-control zones determines the lateral extent of the sidewise diversion. The length of each roller-control zone determines the minimum gap between consecutively conveyed articles. The serial cascade of these roller-control zones permits the tight sortation of closely spaced articles for high throughput.

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New Orleans, LA, United States of America

Eric M Pressler