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:
Aug. 06, 1996
Filed:
May. 27, 1994
Richard J Schoeneck, Garfield, MN (US);
Douglas Machine Limited Liability Company, Alexandria, MN (US);
Abstract
A device (10) is disclosed including a discharge unit (54) having a vertical conveyor (56) formed by a pair of vertically arranged belts (58) each including circumferentially spaced shelves (60) defining a plurality of evenly spaced flights. A diverting conveyor (16) is pivotally mounted about its infeed end so that its outfeed end can be moved to be synchronous with one of the flights of the discharge unit (54) or to an overflow position. In particular, a servo motor (50) pivots the diverting conveyor (16) under the control of a controller (74) depending upon whether product is detected by a sensor (52) in the diverting conveyor (16), upon the rate that the flights of the discharge unit (54) are moving, and upon the pivotal position of the diverting conveyor (16). The device (10) is then able to place products which are fed to the diverting conveyor (16) with random spacing into the flights without bumping or bunching the products together.