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:
Oct. 02, 2001
Filed:
Mar. 17, 1998
Michael John Cahill, Coventry, GB;
Simon Charles Martin, Coventry, GB;
James Robert Stembridge, Coventry, GB;
Lipton, Division of Conopco, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for batching articles from a continuous stream of articles has a conduit comprising an entry duct (,) in which the articles are accelerated by suction. The suction air is drawn from the exit end of the duct, close to a pair of counter-rotating sealing rollers (,) which have resiliently yielding peripheral faces between which the articles pass. At the exit end of the conduit a pair of closure members (,) on opposite sides of the conduit are rotatable in 90° steps in order to collect the articles in batches. The closure members counter-rotate so that in each step they move in the general direction of movement of the articles. In this way it is possible to batch relatively delicate articles at high rates of throughflow.