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:
Feb. 06, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 03, 2000
Philip A. Koehler, River Falls, WI (US);
SIG Pack, Inc., Doboy Division, New Richmond, WI (US);
Abstract
An in line feed method and apparatus for forming slugs of incoming items, which are standing on edge and aligned front-to-back is disclosed. The process uses a conveyor belt and a vacuum chamber aligned end to end for separating the flow of items and creating slugs. The items introduced to the system are on a conveyor belt. The belt is periodically stopped and the items blocked from being sucked into the vacuum chamber. While the product is blocked from entering the vacuum chamber a moving finger which travels through the chamber is introduced at the mouth of the vacuum chamber and the items are released from the conveyor belt such that they are sucked into the vacuum chamber but are limited by and stack up against the finger. In this manner slugs are formed.