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:
Feb. 15, 2005
Filed:
Jun. 16, 2003
Michael F. Blattner, Covington, LA (US);
Christopher G. Greve, Covington, LA (US);
Michael F. Blattner, Covington, LA (US);
Christopher G. Greve, Covington, LA (US);
Allpax Products, Inc., Madisonville, LA (US);
Abstract
A trap door system for receiving a plurality of articles from a pick and place mechanism, moving those articles to the vicinity of an underlying tray on a conveyor, and dumping those articles on said conveyor in a pre-arranged layout, forming loaded trays, which loaded trays may then be positioned in a frame to form a cube for retort processing of the contents of the articles. The preferred embodiment of the invention contemplates a horizontally situated product gate for receiving a plurality of pouches which are received upon four side-by-side holding slots running the length of the pouch gate by a pick and place mechanism. The pouch gate is then lowered a predetermined distance (in the present case, about 12-18 inches) so as to be situated just above a transversely aligned conveyor having a series of retort trays or pallets thereon, the underlying tray or pallet being aligned with the holding slots of the lowered tray such that, when the holding slots are pivoted about their longitudinal axis (as in a trap door), so that the pouches thereon fall through the pouch gate and onto predetermined compartments on the underlying retort tray.