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:
Jul. 06, 1999
Filed:
Sep. 17, 1997
R Carl Blankenship, Sykesville, MD (US);
Charles M Smith, Monkton, MD (US);
Kenneth H Bealer, Wilmington, NC (US);
Sweetheart Cut Company, Inc., Owings Mills, MD (US);
Abstract
Container dispensing system sequentially dispense containers from a nested stack. The systems have a support frame for accepting multiple stack of nested containers aligned in a cross-machine direction having upper and lower opposed pairs of gates. The gates are coupled to the support frame and extend in the cross-machine direction. Each upper and lower opposed pairs of gates defines gate openings sized so as to capture and support a lowermost and a next lowermost container in the stack respectively. A controller (e.g., a programmable controller operatively coupled to pneumatic solenoid valves or the like) controllable moves the upper and lower opposed pairs of gates between their gated and released positions such that (i) the upper and lower pairs of opposed gates are each in the gated position so as to respectively capture and support the lowermost and next lowermost containers in the stack, (ii) the lower pair of opposed gates is moved into the released position while the upper pair of opposed gates remains in the gated position so as to allow the lowermost container to drop by gravity from the stack thereof, and thereafter (iii) the lower pair of opposed gates returns to the gated position before the upper pair of opposed gates moves to the released positions to allow the stack to drop onto and be supported by the lower pair of opposed gates. The system most preferably includes a container stripping assembly for stripping the lowermost container from the stack.