Abstract: A method for discriminating between contaminated and uncontaminated containers prior to washing is disclosed characterized by the testing of the residue of the container to determine if the residue is residue of the original product packed in the container. If the residue is not sufficiently similar to the original product, the container is rejected as contaminated.

Abstract: A cop selecting and conveying apparatus for an automatic winder in which winding units are divided into a plurality of winding sections and different kinds of cops carried on carrying mediums are transferred on the conveying passage to each of the winding sections. A indicia is formed in either the carrying medium or the guide member at the side of the conveying passage and a device for discriminating or detecting the discrimination indicia is disposed at a position to corresponding to the indicia.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for non-destructively testing for a predetermined minimum release torque of container caps on containers that are sequentially delivered to a torque testing station in the apparatus. The apparatus includes a device for delivering capped containers to the torque testing station; a device for clamping the containers at the torque testing station; a device for grasping the caps of the containers at the torque testing station; a device connected to the cap grasping device for applying a release torque to the container caps; and, a device including a strain gage coupled to the release torque applying device for sensing the level of release torque applied to the caps and providing a signal indicative of such level. Capped containers that pass the test are sequentially passed along for further processing (e.g., packaging and shipping) by the user, and those that fail the test are segregated in a reject area for reprocessing or destruction.

Abstract: An upstacker reject device includes a reciprocating plunger connected to a selectively oscillating shaft. A bellcrank is adjustably connected to a press ram and a rotatably mounted cylinder. A clutch is engaged to transfer rotary motion from the cylinder to the shaft. As the press ram travels downwardly, the cylinder and shaft are rotated, thereby causing the plunger to travel upwardly and engage an article carried by a transfer belt. A cylinder assembly and motion restriction cooperate with the clutch to insure that the plunger is retracted before the belt is advanced.

Abstract: By a method of and an apparatus for determining the degree of freshness of fish or other pieces of meat a pair of electrodes of an electrode assembly are brought into contact with the pieces of food, and the degree of freshness is determined electrically by determining the phase angle of the impedance which the tissue of the piece of food in question represents by inducing an alternating current into the tissue of the piece of food and by determining the delay of the voltage produced by the current in relation to the current.

Abstract: Shown is an apparatus for mounting an inductive transducer in position over an intermittently moved belt carrying easy open ends for a beverage container and designed to detect whether or not the tabs for easy opening are provided on the ends. The apparatus is designed to resiliently bias the detection transducer towards the ends with a predetermined gap therebetween such that an electrical signal will result that can be used to evaluate whether a tab is in place. The apparatus includes a camming ramp designed to trigger a limit switch to turn off the system should there be multiple ends positioned below the detector. The detector mounting on a resilient support is designed to back away from any obstruction therebeneath to protect the apparatus during the detection operation. The transducer face is protected by about 1/16 inch of the plastic material.

Abstract: Selective non-magentic detection of non-ferrous metallic particles in a mixture of same with ferrous metallic particles and non-metallic particles derived from homogenized and magnetically treated municipal or like waste by a plurality of electronic detectors and separation of a non-ferrous metallic concentrate from said mixture.

Abstract: Magazines, each loaded in series with IC elements to be tested, are stacked and such stacked magazines are arranged in columns. The lowermost magazines of the stacked magazines of the respective columns are simultaneously brought down by a takeout mechanism onto a magazine receiver, and the magazines on the magazine receiver are simultaneously but intermittently fed by intermittent stepping means in the direction of their arrangement. The outermost one of the magazines on the magzine receiver is loaded at an IC element receiving position. The IC elements from the magazine are supplied to a testing station, wherein they are tested, and the tested IC elements are sorted in a sorting station according to their test results and respectively then loaded into IC element receiving magazines in an accumulating station. The accumulating station has an IC receiving magazine stocker room in which IC element receiving magazines are stacked, and an empty magazine stocker room in which empty magazines are stacked.

Abstract: A method of detecting and sorting pieces of insulating materials admixed in small pieces of conductive materials, which comprises detecting and amplifying the surface potentials of the conductive materials and the insulating materials by a surface potentiometer on the basis of a time differentiation method, inputting the signal to a comparator, and sensing the presence of the insulating materials. This method is utilized to detect and sort plastics admixed in pulp and papermaking materials or cereals.

Abstract: A conveyor system transports keyboards for automatic testing by a keyboard testing mechanism located at a test station, and a discharge conveyor accepts rejected keyboards. At the testing station the keyboard and the keyboard testing mechanism are brought into a testing relationship (where the keyboards and test mechanism are located physically closer and in electrical contact); they are thereafter removed from that relationship. On the main conveyor there is a separation element for effecting a right-angular turn of rejected keyboards from the normal conveyance direction for the passed keyboards.

Abstract: Apparatus for separating cutlery from restaurant waste. A hopper (1) forms a chute and is adapted to be placed above the opening of a waste container. In the hopper there is a sloping surface (2) on which the waste is tipped, there being an opening (3) at the lower portion of the surface. A flap (16) arranged in the hopper is pivotable between two positions, namely a first position (18) for closing off the opening (3) and a second position (19) for uncovering the opening. An electrical switching signal from an inductive type probe (4) controls a drive member (17) for pivoting the flap between the first and second positions. The probe (4) is placed on the underside of the sloping surface (2).

Abstract: A system for sorting parts wherein a part to be sorted is irradiated with wave energy of a single frequency (or very narrow band of frequencies) which interacts with the part. Wave energy emanating from the part is sensed at many spatially separated places to generate an electric signal representative of a characteristic of the amplitude and phase of the detected wave energy at each place. The electric signal so generated is compared with a pre-established signal and any differences therebetween are determined to establish whether the part is within acceptable limits in terms of geometric characteristics, e.g., size, material characteristics and orientation. The part is then acted upon on the basis of the comparison.

Abstract: An apparatus (10) for automatically feeding and measuring circular discs (12) includes a gauging station (15). The latter includes a pair of opposed capacitive displacement measuring probes (27 and 28). The probes are connected to a thickness measuring test set (66), adapted to provide a capacitance-derived measurement of the thickness of each advancing disc (12) at either one or a plurality of spaced measurement points (142) extending across the major surfaces thereof. Precise control must be maintained over the speed at which each disc is passed between the capacitive probes (27, 28) in a non-contacting manner. This is accomplished through the use of a controllably driven drive wheel (98), and a cooperative arcuate feed channel section (74), which includes an outer arcuate sidewall ramp insert (92).

Abstract: A system to measure geometric and electromagnetic characteristics of objects. Wave energy of a single frequency (or very narrow band of frequencies) is directed upon an object which reflects (or otherwise interacts with) the wave energy. The reflected wave energy is sensed by many spatially spaced sensors to provide electric signals whose amplitude and phase components are combined to give a quantity from which geometric and/or electromagnetic characteristics of the object can be ascertained.

Abstract: Separation of metallic particles from non-metallic particles of processed solid waste such as garbage to obtain a metallic concentrate, including use of such separation as the mid-step in a process which begins with homogenizing and magnetically treating components of the waste and ends with isolating the metallic concentrate as a high-purity metal fraction, for example, high-purity aluminum.

Abstract: Disclosed is a flow-through, particle analyzer and sorter apparatus for simultaneous optical and electrical impedance measurements on a stream of particles, comprising a flow cell having a pair of channels fluidly connected by a particle sensing aperture, through which the particles pass and are analyzed; a nozzle mounted at the end of the downstream channel so as to define a flow chamber; a sheath liquid which is introduced at the bottom of the flow chamber to hydrodynamically focus the particle stream and to jet the same in a liquid jet from the nozzle; and a system for creating droplets from the liquid jet and for thereafter sorting the droplets.

Abstract: A device for insertion into the flow line of a high speed capsule classifying machine, having a capsule receptacle mounted on a movable gate, and a control circuit for detecting nonuniform capsules on the receptacle to position the gate and thereby move the receptacle in front of an air pressure jet to remove the nonuniform capsule from the receptacle, and then reposition the receptacle back into the capsule flow line.

Abstract: Apparatus and a method of rejecting articles, such as can closures, are disclosed. The rejection of articles is obtained by variation in the length of a reciprocating member. In one mode of operation, a register of a multiregister counter is activated by an upstream sensor when a defective article is detected, and an actuator shortens the reciprocating member for a single upstroke after a prdetermined number of strokes of the reciprocating member to provide rejection of the defective article. In a second mode of operation, a predetermined number of articles are rejected upon every start-up of the apparatus to provide for rejection of questionable quality articles produced during start-up of the apparatus. In either mode of operation, the position of the variable length reciprocating stacking member can be determined by a proximity detector, to correctly time the lengthening or shortening of the variable length member.

Abstract: Apparatus for sorting ore rocks in which rocks are fed in stream past detector to measure characteristic selected as basis for sorting and into free flight trajectory from which selected individual rocks are deflected according to measure of said characteristic for those rocks. Apparatus is characterized by rock feed means comprising pair of movable elements having surfaces defining upwardly facing nip and which move downwardly at nip to grip rocks and accelerate them downwardly into free flight such that the free flight trajectory is substantially vertical.The movable elements may be a pair of horizontal rollers having resiliently deformable peripheral surfaces or a pair of flexible endless belts arranged in loops having upper parts defining the nip and, below the nip, adjacent downwardly extending runs between which the rocks are gripped and moved downwardly for some distance below the nip before being projected into vertical free flight.

Abstract: A dielectric tube, such as glass or plastic, having a square cross section extends between the two plates of a capacitance-sensing transducer. The opposite sides of the tube have a spacing only slightly greater than the diameter of the capsules to be checked. The capsules to be classified are oriented prior to their introduction into the tube so that they enter in an end-to-end relationship. The requisite spacing between the capsules is accomplished by an air jet device that rapidly accelerates the leading capsule as it enters the tube to such a velocity that it leaves the transducer before the next capsule enters, thereby assuring that only one capsule is in the transducer at any given moment. The capacitance-sensing transducer is repeatedly charged and discharged by means of a high frequency oscillator circuit.

Abstract: Metal layers of extreme thinness, of the order of fifty Angstroms and greater are detected by use of microwave energy so propagated as to permit determination of the presence or absence of the metal in a detection zone of limited extent outwardly of the issuance location of such propagated energy. Apparatus is provided for propagating microwave energy having a characteristic which changes with propagation distance from a maximum value at the energy issuance location to a minimum value first exhibited at the outward end of the detection zone.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for forming a separate single drop wherein a fluid stream is formed in air and an electrical charge or radiant energy is applied to the stream at a particular location in order to disturb the stream and create a single drop. The drop may be formed surrounding a particle and the drop may be charged when formed, then deflected for separate collection.

Abstract: An apparatus for the high-speed handling of integrated circuit parts. The apparatus consists essentially of two parts, a test wheel and a sort wheel. It singulates parts from a reservoir of untested parts, moves the parts to electrical contacts for test, moves the tested part out of the contacts and sorts the part into the proper bin.