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:
Sep. 17, 1991
Filed:
Feb. 05, 1991
Robert L Fuller, Jr, Issaquah, WA (US);
Paul E Faville, Renton, WA (US);
Mark C Maier, Renton, WA (US);
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
A first rotatable conveyor section (16) is positioned axially between upper and lower fixed sections (14,18) of a gravity conveyor. Rotatable conveyor section (16) rotates about an axis extending perpendicular to the conveyor section. A gate (42,44) is provided at each end of the rotatable conveyor section (16). An identification device (84) is positioned upstream of the rotatable conveyor section (16). It identifies the end-to-end orientation of an article (10) which is travelling along the gravity conveyor (12). A computer controls the gates (42,44) and a mechanism (104) for rotating the rotatable conveyor section (16). When an article (10) having an improper end-to-end orientation is encountered, the rotatable conveyor section (16) is rotated 180.degree. for the purpose of reversing the article's orientation. A second rotatable conveyor section (120) is mounted for sideways rotation about an axis which extends longitudinally of the slide conveyor (12). When the identification device (84) identifies the presence of an article (10) which is either too small or too big or for some other reason is not to be further processed in the system, or if a plurality of articles are detected to be travelling together, the conveyor section (120) is rotated sideways to dump the article or articles into a collection pan (140,142) which directs the article or articles into a collection receptacle (144,146).