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:
Mar. 26, 2013
Filed:
Mar. 12, 2010
Russel A. Hill, Waitsburg, WA (US);
Rodney J. Fazzari, College Place, WA (US);
Timothy Reardon, Walla Walla, WA (US);
Russel A. Hill, Waitsburg, WA (US);
Rodney J. Fazzari, College Place, WA (US);
Timothy Reardon, Walla Walla, WA (US);
Key Technology, Inc., Walla Walla, WA (US);
Abstract
A quality regulating apparatus and method is disclosed which operates on a product stream having an incoming product stream quality level so that an outgoing product stream quality level provided by the apparatus follows a target quality level so that it is better than the target quality level providing a maximum yield. The apparatus includes a conveying device, a product stream imager, an inspection engine, a routing engine, and an object diverting station. In operation, the inspection engine and routing engine cooperate in a manner so that objects classified as defective are intentionally passed to the output product stream when their inclusion maintains the quality level of the first output product stream at a level that is better than or equal to the target quality level.