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. 10, 2001
Filed:
Apr. 21, 2000
Joseph E. Yokajty, Webster, NY (US);
Thomas W. Palone, Rochester, NY (US);
Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, NY (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for uniformly distributing parts on a conveyor surface which includes a storage bin for holding randomly oriented parts in bulk, a conveyor adjacent the storage bin for acquiring a fragment of the randomly oriented parts in the storage bin and delivering that fragment of randomly oriented parts to a chute, a vibratory conveyor receiving the fragment of randomly oriented parts from said chute, and a belt conveyor for receiving the randomly oriented parts from said vibratory conveyor. The vibratory conveyor includes at least one rib projecting upward therefrom and extending across at least a section of the vibratory conveyor perpendicular to the direction of conveyance, the at least one rib acting as a flow obstruction to cause the randomly oriented parts traveling on the vibratory conveyor to gather and spread across a width of said vibratory conveyor to thereby spread more uniformly on the vibratory conveyor after passing over the at least one rib.