Merck + Co., Inc.

Usm Corporation

John R Archer

Stephen Owen

Richard H Gray

David E Cumpstey

Douglas S MacArthur

Michael J Kellaway

Peter F Ross

A system and method for automatically feeding, inspecting and diverting tablets for continuous filling of tablet containers includes a tablet conveyor system which divides the tablets in a plurality of tablet streams for inspection by color, size and shape. Following the tablet inspection, each tablet passes through a tablet diverter which diverts the tablets to a recycle stream, reject stream or one of two bottle filling positions based upon instruction from the inspection. A bottle conveyor system is provided which feeds empty bottles into a bottle escapement mechanism which positions the empty bottles for filling. Filled bottles are moved from the bottle escapement mechanism to an exit conveyor. The entire system is computer controlled by various control mechanisms to enable the system to be fully operational without operator assistance.

System and method for automatically feeding, inspecting and diverting

In a bending machine, metal strip (42) is bent by a sequence of steps including longitudinal advance of the strip (42) alternating with bending of the strip by a movable tool (18) which engages and deflects the strip when the latter is restrained against longitudinal movement. Provision is made for checking or inspecting the permanent angular deformation of each bend applied to the strip, to take account of the tendency of the metal strip to spring back after bending. Compensation for spring-back is achieved by use of a previously described characteristic relating displacement of the bending tool to the resultant permanent angle of bend applied to the strip. Further compensation is provided to remove an error which can arise if the bending tool is movable along a line of action spaced from the point of bending of the strip by an amount greater than the incremental advance of the strip.

Apparatus for bending metal strip

Method for constructing a press knife for cutting out sheet material such as leather, wherein machine instructions are generated containing data relating to a desired configuration of the press knife for cutting out a particular profile, the machine instructions are supplied to a bending device (36, 38, 40) and to a strip material feed device (62), the feed device supplies the strip material to the bending device so the bends are introduced into the strip material in accordance with the machine instructions, the formed strip material then being cut off from the stock and assembled and fixed to form the desired knife configuration, preferably being fixed around a support plate which is produced by a forming device (30) fed with machine instructions derived from the same source (12) as those controlling the bending and feeding devices.

Methods for constructing cutting tools

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Royston, United Kingdom

John R Archer