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:
May. 13, 2003
Filed:
Dec. 01, 2000
Corneel Constant Wijts, Redmond, VA (US);
Norman A. Rudy, Snohomish, WA (US);
Morteza Safai, Seattle, WA (US);
Arthur W. Vogeley, Seattle, WA (US);
FMC Technologies, Inc., Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A conveyor ( ) moves a workpiece (WP) past an x-ray source ( ) to detect existence and location of any undesirable material included in the workpiece, such as bones, fat, metal, etc. Thereafter, the conveyor carries the workpiece further, wherein a cutter ( ) segments the detected undesirable material from the workpiece into a segmented portion (SP) having a visually distinguishable shape, such as square, round, triangular, etc. A worker stationed downstream of the cutter along the conveyor may then easily spot the segmented portion (SP) in a distinguishable shape and offload the segmented portion from the conveyor, while leaving the rest of the workpiece (WP) on the conveyor for further processing. Alternatively, a pickup device ( ) may be used to automatically offload the segmented portion from the conveyor. A computer ( ) keeps track of the locations of the workpiece and the segmented portion at all times.