Patents by Inventor Timothy B. Kirk

Timothy B. Kirk has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7156605
    Abstract: An apparatus for transporting and marking a substrate, such as a collapsed corrugated cardboard carton. A feeder station is configured to receive a substantially vertically aligned stack of substrates. An advancement assembly of the feeder station successively moves the lower portions of the substrates in an inboard direction and a tensioner assembly applies a clamping force to the upper portions of the substrates. A transfer assembly engages the innermost substrate in the stack to rotate and remove the substrate from the rest of the stack and provide the substrate to a transport and marking station, which drives the substrate past a marking mechanism. The transport and marking station advances the substrate into a gravity discharge station which induces sufficient tilt in the substrate so that, upon exiting of the substrate from the transport, gravity induces the substrate to rotate and fall in a controlled fashion into a completed stack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2007
    Assignee: Hadley Design, Inc.
    Inventors: Darrell J. Hadley, Jeffrey D. Hadley, Timothy B. Kirk, Michael W. Butler