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:
Jan. 06, 2004
Filed:
Oct. 25, 2001
Albertus Johannes Ruigrok, Pijnacker, NL;
Johannes Cornelis J. Tas, Nootdorp, NL;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for transporting and sorting flowers or other stem-shaped or elongate products with a conveyor provided with arm-fork units which are moved along a transport path in a substantially horizontal plane. In one form, the method includes taking over a substantially vertically hanging flower from a take-over position with a fork at the end of the arm-fork unit remote from the conveyor. The flowers are transported along the transport path, with the arm-fork unit in a transport position, to an apparatus for bunching the transported flowers with generally several bunching stations. The transporting takes place in the plane along at least one detector for detecting at least one respective flower characteristic, whereby detection signals are obtained. The detection signals are processed in a processing unit into corresponding selection signals. The arm-fork units are controlled using the selection signals for delivering the flower to a corresponding selected bunching station, whereby the arm-fork unit in the horizontal plane is brought to a delivery position by moving the arm-fork unit, during movement along the transport path, over some distance away from the conveyor out of the transport position to subsequently deliver the flower from the fork to the selected bunching station, while for assuming the delivery position, the fork is rotated relative to the transport position to a delivery position.