Abstract: A board separator apparatus includes an input conveyor for longitudinally feeding groups of vertically positioned boards into a transfer box which is pivoted to transfer the boards downwardly into board receiving mechanism including an elevator. The transfer box is provided with parallel walls which are relatively movable in accordance with the number and size of boards in a group. The board receiving mechanism comprises an extension of the parallel walls of the transfer box in their unloaded position, said board receiving mechanism having separator arms against which the side of a group of boards is received, and a gate extending downwardly in parallel juxtaposition to the separator arms, initially substantially closing off the board receiving mechanism. The gate further comprises a plurality of piston operated stops mounted for movement toward the separator arms for urging boards of a group into alignment.

Abstract: This invention provides a table air pot for keeping hot or cold liquid comprising a wide mouth vacuum-insulated bottle housed in an outer casing and supported by upper and lower supporting means respectively fixed on the top and bottom ends of the outer casing. The lid of the table air pot includes in combination a bellow-type pump device for pumping up the liquid contained in the bottle into a drink cup while the air pot stands upright on a table, and a plug fixed to the bottom of the pump device for closing the bottle when the lid in its closed position. The tube for discharging the liquid from the bottle in response to the operation of the pump device is fixed on the upper supporting means for the bottle and is physically separated from the plug of the lid. Thus, the table air pot according to this invention can become ready to be filled with liquid by a single operation of opening the lid without need of removing the liquid tube.

Abstract: An addressee's internal mail is accompanied by a director card having machine readable indicia placed thereon for identifying the given addressee. A carrier, holding the addressee's mail and director card is passed under an optical character reader which passes a signal to look-up table apparatus for generating a mail stop signal corresponding to the addressee. Mail director apparatus is then operative in response to the mail stop signal to direct each piece of mail to the desired addressee.

Abstract: A container closure such as a bottle top or the like is provided having a base portion for assembly onto the container forming a top to the container, the base portion having an orifice therethrough set in a generally planer top surface. A top member lies atop the planer surface and has a hinge defining the top member into two portions, one of which has structure for affixing it in face to face relationship with the planer surface on top of the base. The other portion is movable about the hinge from an orifice closing position atop the planer surface to an orifice open position extending at an angle to the planer surface. A flexible tongue extends into the area of the hinge and is capable of undergoing a snap movement from one side to the other of a raised rib in the planer surface to hold the second portion of the top in the orifice open position at an angle to the planer surface. The second portion of the top may be equipped with a stopper insertable into the orifice.

Abstract: A syrup distribution system for fountain service wherein a sheet metal rack supports a plurality of bag/box syrup containers, each of which includes an outer corrugated cardboard box and an inner flexible film pouch or bag containing the syrup. The sheet metal rack includes a lower shelf for storing a plurality of extra syrup containers, while the middle and upper shelves are equipped with a manifold for connection to the syrup containers thereon. Each bag/box container is connected to the manifold via a connecting tube having a probe which punctures a seal in the container, and a check valve is utilized to control the flow of syrup from each container into the manifold. A bleeder valve is connected at one end of each shelf manifold to assist in purging air from the system, and syrup flows from the manifolds to a syrup distribution pump which supplies it to the fountain service head.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for weight grading and further processing eggs. After being weighed, the eggs are supplied to a conveyor for the transportation of the weighed eggs to a plurality of buffers, such as belts arranged in a refrigerated space, each said buffer being adapted to receive eggs of a given weight class, and from which the eggs can be discharged in the unpacked state when needed.

Abstract: This invention is directed to a liquid storage container. More particularly, this invention is directed to a liquid storage container that can be connected or attached to a spray pump which comprises two separate chambers to hold liquid components, each chamber having a take-up tube which leads to a mixing chamber contained within a movable member attached to a movable external selector, the member having openings therein, wherein, when the external selector is moved, the movable member attached thereto moves in a manner such that the ratio of the quantities of liquid components from the chambers varies.

Abstract: A fluid dispenser for a bulk container for portable liquids or the like. A rigid outer box contains a sealable flexible fluid-containing plastic bag having a tubular dispenser sleeve mounted at an oblique angle to a plastic mounting fixture which is attached to the box that is also sealed to the outer surface of the fluid-containing bag. The dispenser, which is stored prior to use within the box, may be withdrawn and snapped into a horizontal position into a plastic clamp that is part of the mounting fixture and which prevents rotation of the sleeve. A turncock barrel rotatable within the dispensing sleeve has a sharp cutting tip which is normally angled with the angled end of the sleeve positioned to prevent piercing of the fluid bag. When rotated a half turn, the sharp cutting tip pierces the bag to permit the fluid to pass into the bore of the barrel and out through mating apertures in the barrel and sleeve.

Abstract: A sack-filling machine having a filling tube through which material to be discharged into a sack is to be passed, the filling tube defined by at least one wall and including at least one conveyor belt having a material-feeding run which extends along the inner surface of said wall from a position therein upstream of the downstream end of said filling tube to the vicinity of the downstream end of the filling tube, where the conveyor belt is deflected to form a return run. Conveniently, the conveyor belt is deflected at the downstream end of the filling tube around a curved downstream end of a guide plate mounted inside the filling tube adjacent said wall thereof.

Abstract: Apparatus for detecting whether the top panel of a container cap is properly depressed as capped containers are conveyed along a travel path. The apparatus is of the type comprising a floating shoe disposed over the travel path and carrying a proximity sensor. The shoe includes a reference portion arranged to be contacted by the caps to conform the shoe to the orientation of the cap. The floating shoe is mounted for lateral movement and includes guide flanges. The flanges extend generally fore-to-aft and are arranged to be contacted by the caps to shift the shoe laterally so as to position the proximity sensor over the same portions of successive caps. If caps of non-metallic material are being sensed, a metal spring member is carried by the shoe and is arranged to be contacted by the top panel of each cap and assume a spacing from the proximity sensor in accordance with the degree of depression of the top panel. The proximity sensor is directed toward the spring member to sense the latter.

Abstract: A computer-controlled system is disclosed for dispensing selected packages from a vending machine. The system includes an ejector mechanism adapted to travel rectilinearly intermediate a pair of oppositely-mounted storage banks, each bank consisting of a plurality of vertically-oriented adjacent compartments in which distinct packages are stacked. The ejector mechanism includes a carriage mounted on a helical screw rotatably driven by a travel motor. An ejector lever pivotally connected to the carriage is mounted upon an actuator bar rotatably driven by a pivot motor for independently actuating one of a pair of overlapping ejector arms according to the directional rotation of the pivot motor. Each ejection arm is pivotally connected to the carriage and configured to discharge a single package from beneath a stack when actuated. A microprocessor controls the rotational drive of the motors and is provided feedback signals indicative of carriage location package availability by sensors attached to the carriage.

Abstract: An article dispensing apparatus including a plurality of spaced vertically disposed inclined shelves, each shelf having a first and second side by side supporting surface adapted to support an associated first and second row of articles. First and second gate members are respectively located at the lower ends of the first and second support surfaces. Each gate member is shiftable between two opposite positions, a blocking position such that the lower most article in the associated row is blocked from moving off the lower end of the associated support surface, and a releasing position such that a lower most article in the associated row may freely move off the lower end of the associated support surface and into an escrow cradle which constitutes a common receiving area. An actuator cooperates with the gate members to provide for the shifting of the gate members upon the dispensing of an article, which is rotated out of an escrow cradle by a consumer.

Abstract: The present invention provides a single coin acceptor or rejector for use with coin-operated machines, which has an oscillator circuit and a sensing coil, wherein the oscillator oscillates at a constant amplitude, and has sufficient gain that it will continue to oscillate at such constant amplitude when a coin is placed within the sensing coil. A field effect transistor (F.E.T.) which is utilized in the circuit becomes in effect a variable resistor, the value of which is controllable by materials passing through the sensing coil. Such effective resistance changes are detected by a resistor connected in series with the F.E.T. and which functions as a current to voltage converter.

Abstract: A spinning machine has a plurality of spinning stations and a transport installation including a conveyor belt for receiving ready spun spinning bodies and for conveying them to a container in a predetermined sequence. A thread sensor scans the spinning stations with respect to thread breaks and supplies corresponding data to an evaluation device. This device has a memory in which the thread break number and thread break standstill time of the individual spinning bodies are stored and expressed on call. These stored values are used to control a sorting device which operates in such a way that the spinning bodies are sorted into different containers according to their thread break number and thread break standstill time. A quality selection of the spinning bodies may, therefore, be made in that, for example, all spinning bodies which are produced without any thread breaks and with the same yarn length are judged as being perfect and may be directly further used.

Abstract: A contaminant sorting device for sorting contaminant material, such as metal and rocks, from processing materials, such as wood chips, comprising a housing having internal walls formed of a surface of revolution into which housing is fed processing material at the upper portion thereof, an impeller disposed in the housing for receiving processing material and propelling it radially outwardly against the inner surfaces of the housing walls, a plurality of vibration sensing devices disposed around the walls of the housing for sensing vibrations due to impingement of the processing material on the walls, an electrical circuit for distinguishing between signals generated in response to impact of the processing material from response to impact of contaminant material, a series of trap doors each associated with a corresponding vibration sensing device and disposed downstream in the material flow path for diverting from the normal flow path a portion of processing material containing contaminant material.

Abstract: An industrial robot having two rotative mechanisms that are adapted to rotate two arms relative to the axial directions thereof and which are interconnected such that their longitudinal axes intersect at right angles. An arm which belongs to the first rotative mechanism is secured to the base of the robot, and a gripping member is attached to the end of a free arm which belongs to the second rotative mechanism. This permits the gripping member to be moved in a plane which is parallel to the X-Z plane, and then in a plane which is parallel to the Y-Z plane, so that a workpiece or tool replacement can be moved along the perpendicular side walls of a machine tool frame.

Abstract: A cup delivery and turret indexing arrangement in which a motor receives a signal indicating that a cup is to be delivered to drive its shaft first to actuate a cup drop ring over which one turret column is positioned and to release a cup supply sensing arm which moves to permit a full cycle switch to close. When the last cup at a predetermined column level has been dropped, the arm moves to position a turret drive slide in the path of a crank pin driver by the shaft to rotate the turret to position a fresh column over the cup drop ring.

Abstract: Potatoes carried on a roller table conveyor are presented in transverse rows at an inspection area illuminated by a lamp from a first direction and observed by a line imaging camera along a second direction arranged by a mirror to be approximately at right angles to the first direction. The camera scans repeatedly across each row and provides an output detection signal representing the reflected radiation. The camera observes a sharply illuminated boundary of the potatoes against a dark background a micro-computer processes the detection signal to provide an information signal representative of the length of a potato along the direction of its row. Size grading, for example, may be effected by directing potatoes along different routes by deflecting fingers controlled in dependence upon the information signal. An operator may observe potatoes in the inspection area by means of a television camera and monitor, and may indicate by a lightpen a potato to be rejected by the subsequent deflecting fingers.

Abstract: A device for holding a stack of hangers and for advancing one hanger at a time from the stack to a forward position and for carrying out a predetermined operation, usually the affixing of garments, when in the forward position, is described. The device comprises a vertical frame for holding the hangers, a main plate essentially perpendicular to the frame and intersecting the frame in an essentially cross configuration, a receptacle for the hanger resting on the main plate. The receptacle is slidable from a forward position to a rearward position and vice versa. An electric motor provided with a cam linkage permits to carry out automatically the steps of advancing and retracting the receptacle. The method of operation is also described.

Abstract: Apparatus for inspecting nuclear fuel pellets in a sealed container for diameter, flaws, length and weight. The apparatus includes, in an array, a pellet pick-up station, four pellet inspection stations and a pellet sorting station. The pellets are delivered one at a time to the pick-up station by a vibrating bowl through a vibrating linear conveyor. Grippers each associated with a successive pair of the stations are reciprocable together to pick up a pellet at the upstream station of each pair and to deposit the pellet at the corresponding downstream station. The gripper jaws are opened selectively depending on the state of the pellets at the stations and the particular cycle in which the apparatus is operating. Inspection for diameter, flaws and length is effected in each case by a laser beam projected on the pellets by a precise optical system while each pellet is rotated by rollers.