Abstract: A pneumatic delivery system is used to facilitate delivery of canisters comprising delivery payloads by unmanned systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The pneumatic delivery system comprises a tube having a channel within a tube wall, where a canister is configured to move through the tube. The tube comprises a tube opening and a transfer mechanism proximate the tube opening. The transfer mechanism engages a canister having a payload that is moved within the tube. The transfer mechanism moves the canister through the tube opening by extending from a first transfer position to a second transfer position. At the second transfer position, the transfer mechanism orients the tube and releases it to a UAV for delivery.

Abstract: An air-driven feeder tool is provided for presenting swagable collars one at a time for placement on the shanks of lockbolts and thereby made ready for the application of a swaging tool. The swaging tool breaks off a pintail from the lockbolt and a vacuum system draws the broken-off pintails through a vacuum device and into a receptacle for safe disposal. The feeder mechanism comprises a magazine holding a supply f side-by-side collars, a presentation piece holding a short working collars and a worker-actuable trigger mechanism between the two queues for transferring collars, one at a time, from the magazine to the presentation queue. Two embodiments of the feeder tool are disclosed, each with a unique trigger position.

Abstract: A connection elements control for motion control of connection elements such as rivet elements or the like has at least one control unit with connection elements channel through which the connection elements are pushed, possibly by a fluid flow, the connection elements channel having an inlet section and an outlet section, and a control shaft extending through at least a portion of the connection elements channel in a control region between the sections, and the system is designed such that the passage of the connection elements and/or fluid through control region is controlled by swiveling control shaft.

Abstract: A system for controlling gas leakage in a solids delivery system is provided. The system includes a bulk solids pump comprising an inlet for a particulate material and an outlet for discharge of said particulate material. The system also includes a buffer gas channel configured to impede backflow of process gas into the bulk solids pump, such as from a downstream system or process. The system further includes a pressure differential system configured to control a flow rate of the buffer gas and maintain a positive differential in pressure between the buffer gas and the process gas.

Abstract: The hydraulic transportation apparatus and method of the present invention incorporate a multiple chamber framework internally disposed preferably within at least one single shaft structure, which facilitates movement of object transport containers within the multiple chamber framework. Preferably, fluid elevation is employed to elevate and lower object transport containers and their contents within the multiple chamber framework. Each single shaft structure may be constructed from an existing rehabilitated shaft, or a newly drilled shaft. The present invention may be utilized in vertical or incline lifting environments, and an auxiliary hoist chamber may be incorporated into the multiple chamber framework for use as an alternative to, or in conjunction with, elevating objects by employing fluid elevation. The present invention may be employed in a variety of heavy lifting scenarios, including underground mining or in above ground lifting environments.

Abstract: A vibratory conveyor for transporting an object includes a curved deck defining a conveying surface for supporting the object, the deck having an inner edge and an outer edge. A housing has an inner wall coupled to the deck inner edge and an outer wall coupled to the deck outer edge, wherein an interior of the housing defines a conveyor chamber and the inner wall defines a central chamber. An inlet air plenum may be provided in fluid communication with a plurality of air distribution chambers positioned inside the conveyor chamber. A plurality of apertures may be formed in the plurality of air distribution chambers, the apertures arranged in an air distribution pattern. The conveyor also includes an outlet opening communicating between conveyor and central chambers. The conveyor further includes a catch floor extending across the central chamber, the floor having a discharge opening formed therein.

Abstract: A vibratory conveyor for transporting an object includes a curved deck defining a conveying surface for supporting the object, the deck having an inner edge and an outer edge. A housing has an inner wall coupled to the deck inner edge and an outer wall coupled to the deck outer edge, wherein an interior of the housing defines a conveyor chamber and the inner wall defines a central chamber. An inlet air plenum may be provided in fluid communication with a plurality of air distribution chambers positioned inside the conveyor chamber. A plurality of apertures may be formed in the plurality of air distribution chambers, the apertures arranged in an air distribution pattern. The conveyor also includes an outlet opening communicating between conveyor and central chambers. The conveyor further includes a catch floor extending across the central chamber, the floor having a discharge opening formed therein.

Abstract: A vibratory conveyor for transporting an object includes a curved deck defining a conveying surface for supporting the object, the deck having an inner edge and an outer edge. A housing has an inner wall coupled to the deck inner edge and an outer wall coupled to the deck outer edge, wherein an interior of the housing defines a conveyor chamber and the inner wall defines a central chamber. An inlet air plenum may be provided in fluid communication with a plurality of air distribution chambers positioned inside the conveyor chamber. A plurality of apertures may be formed in the plurality of air distribution chambers, the apertures arranged in an air distribution pattern. The conveyor also includes an outlet opening communicating between conveyor and central chambers. The conveyor further includes a catch floor extending across the central chamber, the floor having a discharge opening formed therein.

Abstract: A vibratory conveyor for transporting an object includes a deck defining a conveying surface for supporting the object, the deck having an inner edge and an outer edge. A housing has an inner wall coupled to the inner edge of the deck and an outer wall coupled to the outer edge of the deck, wherein an interior of the housing defines a conveyor chamber. An inlet air plenum is provided in fluid communication with a plurality of air distribution chambers positioned inside the conveyor chamber. A plurality of apertures is formed in the plurality of air distribution chambers, wherein the apertures are arranged in an air distribution pattern. An exhaust outlet fluidly communicates between the conveyor chamber and an air vacuum source. The conveyor may a catch floor disposed in a central chamber for receiving debris from an air stream. The vibratory force advances the debris to a discharge opening formed in the catch floor.

Abstract: In a method of dynamic transporting of with a flow of object a carrying medium, action are applied to the carrying medium which are created in an action element during a process of conversion of an energy supplied to it, so that the flow of a carrying medium created thereby acts on the object for preforming a process of it transporting in a given direction, and a modulation of a value of the action is performed in the action element so that the flow of the carrying medium which is dynamically created moves with a given dynamic periodically changing sign-alternating acceleration during the process of transporting of the object.

Abstract: An apparatus for loading thin-walled, elastic, tubular members having a single closed end, such as finger cots, condoms, balloons or the like, onto elongated rod or finger elements for subsequent placement onto a mandrel for processing or testing, where the tubular member is drawn in inverted manner onto the finger elements by suction and where separable finger element alignment blocks are provided to properly align and position the finger elements to receive the tubular member.

Abstract: An apparatus for pneumatically conveying powder substances in a pipe system, wherein a volume is sucked in with reduced pressure and discharged with increased pressure for being passed further along, characterized in that the apparatus has within the pipe system at least one metering chamber which can be alternately filled and emptied by way of control member for metering the powder substance.

Abstract: A dispensing system having a hopper with at least one wall moveable to form a dispensing opening at the base of the hopper. At least one air knife is provided which blasts air upwardly into the hopper to lift, levitate, and mix the product within the hopper. Upon termination of the air blast, the product falls downwardly into the base for the hopper, and a selected number of items fall through the dispensing opening. The remaining items tend to bridge the dispensing opening, thereby blocking further dispensing of the product. During subsequent air blasts, the product is repeatedly levitated, agitated, and allowed to drop through the dispensing opening to ultimately dispense the entirety of the product from the hopper.

Abstract: A substrate body transfer apparatus, and an operating method therefor, capable of inserting and extracting substrate body into and from a cassette using air conveyance without employing a transfer mechanism such as those in which direct contact is made with the substrate body when inserting or extracting a thin plate-shaped substrate body into or from a cassette. The substrate body transfer apparatus is employed when thin plate-shaped substrate body are extracted from or inserted into cassettes which store the substrate body.

Abstract: A fluid pumping assembly for pumping particulate material includes a pump housing defining a pump cavity including a pumping chamber for handling particulate material, a motive fluid chamber, and a moveable diaphragm. The fluid pumping assembly also includes devices for loading particulate material into the pumping chamber, and for injecting a high pressure, high volume purging fluid into the pumping chamber. Further, the fluid pumping assembly includes a control system having a control valve for shutting off flow of high pressure, high volume purging fluid into the pumping chamber when particulate material is being loaded into the pumping chamber, thus enabling dense phase loading of particulate material, and thereby optimizing a particulate material pumping capacity of the fluid pumping assembly.

Abstract: A substrate body transfer apparatus which is capable of isolating the atmospheres of an external processing apparatus and an air conveyance apparatus and preventing the mutual contamination thereof, and which is capable of conducting the transfer of substrate bodies at a low level of particulate matter and contamination which satisfies the ultra-clean level. The substrate body transfer apparatus is provided with a vacuum container having an entrance and exit which communicate with the interior space of an air conveyance apparatus and the interior space of an external processing apparatus; a horizontal disc-shaped upper part valve and lower part valve are housed within the vacuum container and after the substrate body has been placed in a space surrounded by the upper and lower valves and this space has been sealed, the space is evacuated or the gas therein is replaced.

Abstract: Apparatus for the automatic orientation of tubular articles, such as stockings and the like, in which one end is thicker than the other, comprising a tubular chamber (1) with an inlet section (I) and an outlet section (U) for, respectively, the admission and exit of the articles (2), characterized in that said chamber (1) is provided with two cascade filter-valves (3, 30) each of which, when in operating condition, prevents the passage of the thicker end (21) and allows the passage of the thinner end (20) of the articles to be treated, said chamber (1) exhibiting a branch (10) whose mouth is in correspondence of the space between said filter-valves (3, 30) and being associated, in conjunction with its branch (10), to an aspirator (9) by means of which an air flow is generated able to convey the in-process articles as desired.

Abstract: In a method and a system for installing loose insulation, loose wool is transported, in compacted state and packed in e.g. filled bags (12), to the site where the insulation operation is to be performed and where loose wool (11) received from the bags is mechanically fluffed, and where the fluffed loose wool is transported by blowing it through a hose (15) to the location where it is to be placed; and the loose wool supplied through the hose (15) is spread on said location in the desired configuration. The novelty of the invention resides in that the bags (12) containing loose wool first are so arranged as to be able, successively and in a controlled manner, to discharge the compacted loose wool contained therein for automatic fluffing and onward blowing through the hose, whereupon from the location where the spreading of loose wool takes place, the discharge of compacted loose wool from the bags is remote-controlled in connection with the spreading, whereby the method can be carried out by a single operator.

Abstract: A connector delivery system delivers an electrical connector component from a storage container to a processing station regardless of the relative orientation of the storage container to the processing station. The storage container contains a plurality of the connector components. A delivery conduit communicates between the storage container and the processing station. An air jet is located within the delivery conduit for effecting a pressure differential therewithin to create a vacuum to cause movement of the connector components in the delivery conduit in a downstream direction from the storage container to the processing station without the use of gravitational forces. A selector pawl upstream of the air jet feeds the connector components through the delivery conduit one component at a time in an incremental fashion. An orientation track between the selector pawl and the air jet is effective to deliver the connector components in a predetermined orientation.

Abstract: The plant, which is used in the working of fruits such as applies and similar, collects the fruits (9) from water conveyor channels (6), and inserts them below a bell (3), from which the fruit will successively be transferred, by force of gravity, inside container bins (1); the bell (3), apart from being capable of axial movement, is capable also of translation movement which allows it to be positioned over various transport channels, with which a plant is usually equipped; the bell (3) further comprises an aspiration pump (10) which creates a vacuum inside it, so as to favor the accumulation of fruit inside the bell (3).

Abstract: A semiconductor wafer handling apparatus and method for transferring a wafer, one of whose faces has been already polished, from a wafer holder, which holds the wafer with the wafer's polished face facing downward, to a wafer cassette submerged in water contained in a water tank; the apparatus includes a wafer receive assembly and a water tank and the wafer receive assembly has a flat surface and is adapted to swing between an up-facing position at which the flat surface faces upward and a down-facing position at which the flat surface faces downward, and the wafer receive assembly is provided with ejection nozzles which eject water with a force sufficient to keep the wafer floating, and the water tank contains a wafer cassette to receive the wafer, and is capable of forcing the wafer which is left to sink in the water to enter the wafer cassette; whereas the method comprises: dropping the wafer from the wafer holder with the polished face facing downward onto a thin water layer formed over the wafer receive

Abstract: A precision powder hopper comprises a canister for storing particulate material and a rotatable carrier wheel that accurately meters small amounts of the material to a powder out port. The carrier wheel has slots therethourgh that receive definite quantities of material, which is tamped into the carrier wheel slots by a tamper assembly. The tamper assembly includes a deflectable leaf spring that mounts to the same shaft that rotates the powder carrier wheel. A cam and spoke arrangement cause the leaf spring to deflect cyclically in response to rotation of the powder carrier wheel. A cupped spring washer cooperates with the leaf spring to absorb some of the deflection thereof, thereby decreasing the bending stress in the leaf spring and increasing its service life. Powder in the carrier wheel slots is wiped by a novel seal that has at least one circular line contact with the carrier wheel.

Abstract: A fiber spray system for depositing fibers onto a substrate or article comprises a vibrating feeder bowl having an opening in its sidewall covered by a grid or screen through which fibers loaded into the feeder bowl are discharged therefrom into the fiber collector. A delivery hose is connected between the fiber collector and a pump which is operative to create a negative pressure within the fiber collector to draw fibers through the grid of the feeder bowl, out of the feeder bowl into the fiber collector and to entrain the collected fibers within a stream of air. The air-entrained fibers are drawn through the delivery hose to the pump, and in the course of passage therethrough the velocity of the fibers is reduced so that they collect or accumulate within an area in the delivery hose upstream from the pump. The pump uniformly withdraws fibers from the area where they accumulate and discharges the fibers directly into a spray gun connected to the pump for deposition onto a substrate.

Abstract: A device for the transportation of flowable material in pulverulent, granular, lump, granulated or pasty form in a feed pipe comprises a coaxial endless feeder screw which is rotatable in the forward or reverse direction and a drive mechanism for driving said screw. The drive mechanism enables one to obtain a feed motion without rotation and a rearward motion with a forced, regular rotation of the endless screw so that the material to be transported remains axially stationary during the rearward motion. Owing to the dense column of material to be transported the bearings may be suppressed; if they are provided, they will have to be arranged outside the conveying stock. The endless screw is designed as a single piece screw and the distance between the screw and the feed pipe is slightly bigger than the average size of the grains or lumps of material to be conveyed. The device is preferably used for the supply of pneumatic or hydraulic conveyors.

Abstract: A vacuum assisted feeding apparatus for delivering finely pulverized particulate materials, such as powdered metal, is disclosed in which a material holding hopper has a feeder tube extending into a lower disposed filling chamber subject to sub-atmospheric pressures to effect vacuum assisted gravity flow of the powder material into the filling chamber. Powder in the filling chamber is vacuum/gravity fed to a mold cavity until the cavity is filled, whereafter powder is accumulated in the filling chamber until the discharge end of the feeder tube is occluded by the powder to disrupt the feeding operation.

Abstract: In a transport apparatus, a plurality of flat bodies are respectively aligned uprightly and juxtaposed laterally to form a block of the flat bodies, the block is loaded in a movable capsule, and the capsule is transported under the application of air flow through a transport pipeline. A loading mechanism having a pair of openable and closable holding arms is disposed to oppose a loading opening of a loading station, and an unloading mechanism having a pair of openable and closable holding arms is disposed to oppose an unloading opening of an unloading station.

Abstract: In a transport apparatus, a plurality of flat bodies are respectively aligned uprightly and juxtaposed laterally to form a block of the flat bodies, the block is loaded in a movable capsule, and the capsule is transported under the application of air flow through a transport pipeline. A loading mechanism having a pair of openable and closable holding arms is disposed to oppose a loading opening of a loading station, and an unloading mechanism having a pair of openable and closable holding arms is disposed to oppose an unloading opening of an unloading station.

Abstract: A pneumatic system for banking consists of a pair of upright customer and teller terminals joined at right angles at their lower ends by a carrier transit tube. Each terminal includes a carrier elevator, a blower and a special ducting such that while only one blower propels the carrier from the sending to the receiving terminal both blowers are used to raise the elevator and carrier at the receiving terminal. Air valves at each terminal influence the movement of the carrier, and various controls initiate the sequence of operations by which the carrier is transferred between the terminals.

Abstract: A manufacturing processing system comprises a plurality of processing stations, preferably vacuum stations, interconnected by air track, preferably an axi-radial air track with novel sections rotatable about a transverse axis in the plane of the track and normal to the travel of the objects, hereafter referred to as swivelators. Certain of the swivelators are formed with axial movable portions capable of moving beyond the plane of the air track surface and returning to the plane, so that these swivelators can pick up and set down objects in predetermined positions in the manufacturing processing station with an air force so as to not make physical contact with the objects. A novel gas lock device is positioned in the air track between those processing stations, in which the gas pressure must be separated so as to essentially eliminate the possibility of gas contaminant passing from one station to the next.

Abstract: A customer terminal for a single conveyor tube banking service pneumatic tube system. The terminal has a cabinet which can be opened by unlocking and removing a hinged front member to expose system components and terminal mechanism. The carrier receive and send housing has a hinged door and the housing communicates with the system conveyor tube. The mechanism is operative automatically to present a carrier arriving at the terminal to a customer seated in an adjacent vehicle. The presented carrier is conveniently positioned at an angle at the outer end of a pocket on the door for removal and replacement by a customer without requiring precise positioning. The carrier is returned automatically to the conveyor tube system when replaced in the door pocket. The door has safety mechanism automatically reopening the door if it encounters an obstacle on closing.

Abstract: A wafer processing system for spin processing photoresist liquid on a silicon wafer and automatically sequencing them through the processor includes a shuttle having upper and lower air bearing slides. The upper slide receives the wafer from a supply magazine and centers it on a rotating chuck and the lower slide of the shuttle receives the wafer from the chuck and allows it to be transferred to a receive track.

Abstract: A pneumatic tube conveyor dispatcher for converting a pneumatic tube free dispatch system into a pneumatic tube controlled dispatch system. The dispatcher comprises a housing having a rear portion which matingly engages an existing terminal of the free dispatch system such that a carrier storage chamber within the dispatcher housing communicates with the inlet opening of the delivery tube of the free dispatch system. The dispatcher housing includes a door permitting access to the carrier chamber to enable an operator to position a carrier therein. Sensing means associated with the housing chamber senses the presence of the carrier and, in response to a predetermined signal, is operative to actuate a drive mechanism which delivers the carrier through the terminal inlet opening into the pneumatic tube for deployment.