Abstract: A bag turning machine comprises a frame, a shaft rotatably carried by the frame, a plurality of bag turning members carried by the shaft for receiving and turning a filled and sealed bag, and a brake. The brake resists rotation of the shaft upon receipt by the bag turning members of a filled and sealed bag and, following release by the bag turning members of the bag, arrests rotation of the shaft in a predetermined position for the bag turning members to receive another filled and sealed bag. Each bag is received in an upright position and moving substantially parallel to its width, which is less than its height and greater than its depth, and tipped over onto the bag turning members so that the bag lands on a side edge thereof. Rotating the bag turning members turns the bag to rest on its face while lowering the bag.

Abstract: The present invention concerns an automated system for handling trays for containing animals in a lab animal room, and particularly for inverting the trays when they emerge from the tunnel washer. One object of the present invention is thus a completely automated system comprising an inverter device associated with a system for moving the trays on rotating rollers and complete with stopper means capable of blocking the trays in their forward feed movement synchronized, by means of a central control unit, with the movements of an inverter device capable of managing trays of different shapes and sizes.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for inverting heavy objects, the apparatus including: a retaining assembly, including two opposing retaining members each having rotational pins extending from the ends thereof, the rotational pins all reside together in a cross plane extending parallel with a longitudinal axis of the retaining assembly, and the retaining members are spaced apart a consistent distance, a base member, including two open double bearing components positioned at opposite ends of the base member, each open double bearing component including two side-by-side troughs, and a securing member, operable to lock the retaining assembly into a secure position with respect to the base member.

Abstract: An apparatus for conveying blanks or sheets that are arranged in piles includes a frame that has an input and an output and a pre-section that aligns the piles of blanks along a longitudinal conveying path. The pile of blanks is conveyed to a turn-over grip that swivels around the horizontal axis that extends transversely to the longitudinal conveying path. The turn-over grip includes two conveying units that are juxtaposed to one another with one of them being used to deliver the piles entering the turn-over grip and the other which is used to remove the piles after the turn-over grip has turned the pile upside down. A tightening mechanism presses one of the conveying units towards the other during the rotation of the turn-over grip. A pusher carriage is situated between the two conveying units and driven by a motor.

Abstract: An adaptive Reed-Solomon(RS) decoder (207) and analogous methods arranged and constructed to decode a RS(n,k) encoded symbol stream, including; a code register (211), coupled to the symbol stream, for storing a received code word including code symbols, an index register (213) for storing a location information corresponding to each of a portion of the code symbols, a processor (215), coupled to the code register (211) and the index register (213), for performing soft decision decoding using an error parameter (217) and an erasure parameter (219) to provide corrected data (215) when the decoding is successful and to provide a failure indication (221) when decoding is unsuccessful, and a controller (223), coupled to the processor (215), for providing the error parameter and the erasure parameter and for adjusting the error parameter and the erasure parameter when the processor provides the failure indication.

Abstract: An apparatus for collecting strips of metal into stacks and transfering the stacks to a hopper of a press includes a stack accumulating and blocking pocket at an output of a cut-off shear, a stack lift, rotate and turn-over mechanism to reorient the stack prior to input to the hopper, and a gripper head on a transfer gantry to move the stack from the lift, rotate and turn-over mechanism to the hopper. The gripper head is movable to an angle in alignment with the feed angle of the hopper to deposit the stack on the top strip in the hopper in alignment therewith.

Abstract: A water bottle installation apparatus with a vertical frame and support base designed to lift, transport and invert large water bottles. The apparatus includes a cranking device, and two pulleys arranged so that a line attached to the cranking means runs through a first pulley located on an extending arm at the top of the frame, down through a second pulley located on a yoke of the device, and back up to the extending arm, so that the yoke hangs freely from the extending arm. A girdle is provided to be secured around the water bottle and rotatably attached to the yoke, so that the yoke, the girdle and the bottle can be raised and lowered by the cranking device, and the girdle can rotate within the yoke so that the bottle is easily inverted into a water cooler.

Abstract: A feed unit having a storage station in which a plurality of trays each carrying a plurality of cassette rows disposed consecutively in side-by-side relation is manually stacked. A first pusher mechanism moves the lowermost tray in the stack along a slide track, towards a linear feeder. An abutment wall stops the movement of trays along the slide track when a cassette row reaches a predetermined loading position, so that it is picked up by a transport arm that will deposit it on the linear feeder. A third pusher mechanism picks up the individual cassettes from the linear feeder and sends them to an output conveyor.

Abstract: Apparatus for receiving and dumping a top-unloading car. Cradle track extends from a car receiving position to a car dumping position, and is inclined downwardly from the car-receiving position. A car-receiving cradle assembly movably mounted on the cradle track includes rocker members with arcuate peripheries for contact with and support by the cradle track. Car rails support a loaded car on the cradle assembly with the combined center of gravity of the car, of its load and of the cradle assembly being located relative to the peripheries of the rocker members such that the cradle assembly, with a loaded car thereon, can roll by gravity action from a normal vertical position at the car-receiving position through an angle in the range of about 70 to about 110 degrees and, with an emptied car thereon, can roll by gravity action from the car-dumping position to return to a position within that range.

Abstract: A teller machine for drive up applications is disclosed. The machine has a safe with an access slot. The machine also has a user panel which has an opening that lies transverse to the slot. A document carrier is described which rotates documents around two different axes as it carries them between the slot and the opening to allow passage of the documents through both.

Abstract: A tire handling system capable of automatically performing a series of tire handling operations including sorting of the tires from a production/inspection line according to types and sizes, stacking the sorted tires, and shelving the stacks of tires in frame pallets. The tire handling system incorporates a novel tire supplying device which supplies the sorted tire to the tire stacking device in one-by-one fashion, a tire inverting device disposed between the tire supplying device and the tire stacking device and adapted for selectively inverting tires conveyed along the sorting line, and an automatic tire shelving device for shelving the stacks of tires. These devices have simple constructions but yet are capable of performing the supplying, inverting and shelving operations with a high degree of reliability.

Abstract: A conveyor for turning packages upside down in a very gentle manner in a device which is interposed in line with the feed conveyor and discharge conveyor and conveys the package to the discharge conveyor after the package has been turned over. The conveyor includes a rotatable turning element which receives at least one package, and an intermittent rotational mechanism which tumbles the turning element in rotation. This structure eliminates the need for any mechanism which grips the package in order to turn it.

Abstract: A railway wheel lifter and inverter is provided. A railway wheel enters a receiver device from a wheel conveyor. The receiver device is rotated about a shaft such that the wheel is lifted to a second conveyor and is inverted in the process. A second receiver device is affixed to the same shaft such that a complete lifting and inverting operation is accomplished in a one-half rotation of the shaft.