Marquip, LLC

Michael C Chao

James A Cummings

David W Hess

Marajo Reis

A method and apparatus is disclosed for constructing block-shaped units of corrugated sheet material that are easily banded because of the absence of any irregularities in the units, and the units are as close to being cube-shaped as is possible for a given set of parameters. The automated stacking system comprises a computer programmed to determine a set of solutions to optimize a unit by determining an optimal number of corrugated sheets per bundle, and an optimal number of bundles per tier, and an optimal number of tiers per unit based upon customer order parameters. The system is initially set up with machine parameters defining machine constraints and a set of algorithm parameters which comprise desirability weighting factors. The desirability weighting factors allow a customer to customize the system according to preferred operating criteria. The system is capable of finding all practical solutions to create an optimal unit, and ranks the solutions according to the desirability weighting factors to provide the customer with an optimal unit sized according to its own desires and needs. The automated stacking system further comprises an accumulator/separator, a bidirectional conveyor, a tier inverter, a fork section, and a unitizer section, all for forming the bundles of corrugated sheets into tiers, and the tiers into units.

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Madison, WI, United States of America

Michael C Chao