The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 15, 1991
Filed:
Nov. 02, 1989
Thomas J Michel, Oakland Park, FL (US);
G B Instruments, Inc., Hollywood, FL (US);
Abstract
Articles to be sorted are loaded into carriers which move along a predetermined path that has groups of receptacles under and adjacent to it. Each carrier has gates or doors which are normally 'closed' to define a bottom that can hold an article within that carrier, but which can be 'opened' to release that article for direct transfer into a selected one of the receptacles, all of which are positioned below the level of that carrier. The gates or doors of the carriers are arranged so they can selectively and directly transfer articles into the centermost of a group of transversely-positioned receptacles, into the receptacle that is disposed outwardly of that centermost receptacle, or into the receptacle that is disposed inwardly of that centermost receptacle. As a result, the direct transfer sorting system of the present invention obviates the bulky and expensive chutes and guides which have been required by prior sorting systems.