| Patent Number |
Title Of Patent |
Date Issued |
| RE33357 |
Optical inspection apparatus for moving articles |
September 25, 1990 |
| An optical inspection system for articles moved by a conveyor, in which photo-electric transducers of one or more cameras are directed onto a transverse viewing area to detect light variations in individual articles. A threshold system permits correction for light signals in relation to |
| 7117996 |
Adjustable object size grader |
October 10, 2006 |
| An adjustable apparatus for sizing objects, mainly delicate foods, by the rotation of a set of at least 7 rollers, each roller having one less tooth so that the rollers move at progressively higher revolutions per minute, from the in-feed shear roller of 144 revolutions per minute to |
| 6945382 |
Gate assembly |
September 20, 2005 |
| A gate assembly for use with a conveying surface which has an aperture formed therein is disclosed, and which includes a moveable gate plate which is operable to selectively occlude the aperture; and first and second chutes which are borne by the moveable gate plate and which move th |
| 6923098 |
Method and apparatus for inspecting and cutting elongated articles |
August 2, 2005 |
| A cutting wheel assembly for cutting elongated articles having a cylindrical housing which defines a longitudinal cavity and a circular outer periphery. A plurality of cutting blade support rings are rotatably mounted about the outer periphery of the housing. A plurality of cutting b |
| 6868960 |
Conveying apparatus |
March 22, 2005 |
| A conveying apparatus is disclosed and which includes a supporting frame; an article transporting bed which is oriented in spaced relation relative to the supporting frame; a plurality of resilient supports mounted on both the supporting frame and the article transporting bed and which s |
| 6748837 |
Apparatus for sizing and halving food product |
June 15, 2004 |
| An apparatus for halving pieces of product includes a loading conveyor for conveying individual pieces of product and having a planar surface defining a plane tilted with respect to the horizontal and a lift conveyor comprising a moving surface positioned adjacent to the loading conveyor |
| 6655523 |
Excited frame conveyor and excitation process for same |
December 2, 2003 |
| An excited frame conveyor is described with a conveyor bed movably supported on a frame having a structural frequency and a vibratory drive on the frame operable to vibrate the frame at an operational frequency that is greater than the structural frequency of the frame. |
| 6646218 |
Multi-band spectral sorting system for light-weight articles |
November 11, 2003 |
| An article sorting apparatus and method is disclosed and which conveys a mixture of articles on a conveyor belt and through an inspection zone, and which includes at least one illumination source emitting red, green, and infrared radiation for illuminating the articles in the inspection |
| 6460680 |
Diverter assembly for use with a vibratory conveyor |
October 8, 2002 |
| A diverter assembly for use with a vibratory conveyor having a product transporting bed is described and which includes a conveyor frame positioned in spaced relation relative to the product transporting bed; a drive assembly borne by the frame; and a product engaging member mounted |
| 6410872 |
Agricultural article inspection apparatus and method employing spectral manipulation to enhance |
June 25, 2002 |
| A sorting system (110) conveys articles, such as peaches (114) on a conveyor belt (112) past an inspection zone (126) that is lighted by an illumination source (90) radiating a number of emission peaks over visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. The illumination source generates |
| 6308822 |
Conveying apparatuses, indication assemblies, methods of indicating operation of a conveying app |
October 30, 2001 |
| Conveying apparatuses, indication assemblies, methods of indicating operation of a conveying apparatus, and methods of operating a conveying apparatus are provided. According to one aspect, a conveying apparatus includes a frame; a bed configured to convey material in a direction; a |
| 6286658 |
Vibratory conveyor |
September 11, 2001 |
| A vibratory conveyor employing an amplitude compensator to substantially impede the conveyor bed from moving beyond a given range of vibration amplitude is described. The amplitude compensator coacts with the conveyor bed as the vibrational amplitude of the bed increases in response to a |
| 6276518 |
Vibratory drive for a vibratory conveyor |
August 21, 2001 |
| A vibratory conveyor apparatus is described and which includes a conveyor bed, a frame mounted on the conveyor bed and which facilitates the reciprocal motion of the conveyor bed, and a drive assembly borne by the conveyor bed and which imparts reciprocal motion to same. The vibratory |
| 6264043 |
Sizing table employing variable pitch augur |
July 24, 2001 |
| A sizing table for a product such as potatoes which sorts product according to its size includes a frame which supports a plurality of horizontally extending parallel rotary spindles. A first group of the spindles supports tapered rollers while a second group of spindles interposed in al |
| 6252189 |
Detecting defective peel-bearing potatoes in a random mixture of defective and acceptable peel-b |
June 26, 2001 |
| A system and method of operation performing automated optical inspection to remove peel-bearing defective potato pieces from a random mixture of peel-bearing defective and acceptable potato pieces use near infrared light as a source of illumination. The system implements a method of |
| 6250471 |
Sorting apparatuses and sorting methods |
June 26, 2001 |
| The present invention relates to sorting apparatuses and sorting methods. According to one aspect of the present invention, a sorting apparatus includes an intake section configured to receive plural articles to be sorted; an exhaust section located downstream of the intake section; and |
| 6225620 |
Peach pit detection apparatus and method |
May 1, 2001 |
| A peach sorting system (110) conveys peaches (114) on a conveyor belt (112) past an inspection zone (126) that is lighted by an illumination source (90) radiating a number of emission peaks over visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. The illumination source generates the radiatio |
| 5908117 |
Continuous conveyor belt |
June 1, 1999 |
| A continuous conveyor belt for transporting a stream of objects to an inspection station includes a plurality of links matingly joined together to form a surface for supporting the objects for movement along a given path of travel to the inspection station, and wherein the continuous |
| 5887073 |
High speed mass flow food sorting apparatus for optically inspecting and sorting bulk food produ |
March 23, 1999 |
| A high speed mass flow food sorting apparatus and method comprises a product conveyor for receiving and conveying a laterally-distributed stream of bulk food articles past a product diverter. A camera is positioned to view the stream of food articles upstream of a product diverter. A |
| 5842559 |
Object stabilizing device |
December 1, 1998 |
| An object stabilizing device for use with a continuous moving surface is disclosed and which includes a drive roller disposed in spaced relation relative to a continuous moving surface; and a flexible continuous belt having a proximal end driven by the drive roller and an unentrained dis |
| 5713456 |
Bulk product stabilizing belt conveyor |
February 3, 1998 |
| A bulk product stabilization conveyor 10 is described having a continuous-length wide belt 30 extending in an upper flight 44 and in a lower flight 46 between an infeed end 32 and an outfeed end 34. The outfeed end 34 is elevationally below the infeed end 32 and the distance between |
| 5555967 |
Vibratory distributor for bulk articles |
September 17, 1996 |
| A vibratory distributor 10 is described in preferred form having an elongated vibratory bed 16 for conveying bulk articles in a flowing stream past a plurality of metering gate stations 12 to selectively distribute the articles at the stations. A metering gate assembly 40 at each station |
| 5526437 |
Integrated food sorting and analysis apparatus |
June 11, 1996 |
| An integrated bulk food sorting and analysis apparatus comprises a wide-belt product conveyor which receives and conveys a laterally-distributed stream of bulk food articles past a product diverter. An upstream camera is positioned to view the stream of food articles upstream of the |
| 5482166 |
Meat trim sorting |
January 9, 1996 |
| A sorting system is disclosed for reclaiming lean meat from highfat meat trimmings. The sorting system includes a meat dicing machine which receives laterally extending whole meat trimmings and which dices such meat trimmings without grinding or extruding, and without disturbing the |
| 5335293 |
Product inspection method and apparatus |
August 2, 1994 |
| Described herein is an automated quality inspection station for evaluating color component characteristics of a product. The inspection station includes a color video camera, for capturing video frames of product images, and a control system for analyzing those video frames. The control |
| 5314056 |
High-speed vibratory alignment and singulation conveyor |
May 24, 1994 |
| A vibratory feed device is described for producing a high-speed single-file stream of aligned food articles. The feed device comprises a vibratory guide trough extending longitudinally from a receiving end to a discharge end. The guide trough has inclined and transversely-opposed sidewal |
| 5289759 |
Forced steam bulk food cooker/blancher |
March 1, 1994 |
| The preferred embodiment described in this application is a forced-steam cooker/blancher (100) for cooking or blanching a depth of bulk food particles by supporting the food particles on an extended perforated particle support surface (122) and by forcing steam through said depth of |
| 5037536 |
Vibratory conveying and separating apparatus and related clamping device |
August 6, 1991 |
| A vibratory conveying and separating apparatus and a clamping device therefor are disclosed. The apparatus includes a conveyor bed which supports processing screens which convey and separate material being processed. The bed is vibrated in a forward and upward direction at a predeter |
| 4830180 |
Article inspection and stabilizing system |
May 16, 1989 |
| An article inspection system is described wherein articles are fed to a working flight of a conveyor moving at high velocity. The articles are delivered through a stabilizer to an article inspection device. The articles are fed to the working flight of the conveyor in a laterally spa |
| 4793196 |
Gear coupled, counter-rotating vibratory drive assembly |
December 27, 1988 |
| A gear coupled, counter-rotating vibratory assembly is described for producing a fine tuned accurate linear vibratory motion without any twisting force component. The assembly has two parallel shafts that extend through a gear casing with cantilevered ends extending outward from both |
| 4581632 |
Optical inspection apparatus for moving articles |
April 8, 1986 |
| An optical inspection system for articles moved by a conveyor, in which photo-electric transducers of one or more cameras are directed onto a transverse viewing area to detect light variations in individual articles. A threshold system permits correction for light signals in relation to |
| 4563364 |
Method for steam blanching foodstuffs in a pressure vessel |
January 7, 1986 |
| Disclosed is a food product blanching and processing apparatus and method. The apparatus includes a weigh hopper and infeed conveyor having a pivoting infeed chute which can be retracted to prevent contamination of blanched product with incoming raw product. The infeed chute supplies |
| 4520702 |
Inspection and cutting apparatus |
June 4, 1985 |
| An article inspection and cutting apparatus (10) is described for high production processing of elongated articles (12) such as raw potato strips (french fries). The apparatus includes a conveyor (20) for moving the articles (12) in line in a large number of transversely spaced lanes pas |
