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. 09, 2002
Filed:
Jan. 05, 2001
Itoh Electric Company, Limited, Kasai, JP;
Abstract
A conveyor system is divided into a plurality of zones each including a plurality of rollers arranged in parallel with each other. The zones are arranged successively for conveying articles from the upstream end to the downstream end of the conveyor system. One of the rollers in each zone is a drive roller. Article detectors are disposed in association with the respective zones and develop an article-representative signal when they detect an article in the associated zones. A current detector detects the sum of currents flowing through motors driving the drive rollers and develops a excessive-current representative signal when the sum current exceeds a reference current value. A current suppressing circuit connected to the article detectors and to the current detector causes limited currents to be supplied only to motors including the motors in the zones where the first and second in order ones of articles being conveyed are present. The limited currents supplied to the motors are such that the sum is equal to a predetermined allowable value.