A conveyance system 14 carries food products 12 past the scanning system 16 for scanning the food products and generating data pertaining to various parameters of the food products. Thereafter, the food products 12 are transported past a processing station 18 for cutting, trimming, portioning, etc. using a cutting apparatus 20 in the form of a robotic actuator 22 onto which is mounted a dual headed cutter assembly 24 capable of independently and simultaneously cutting/trimming/portioning two separate food products 12, for example, located in side-by-side lanes on the conveyance system or capable of independently and simultaneously cutting/trimming the opposite sides of the same food product.

Features are applied to a mathematical model to produce a cutting pattern for opening a container. The cutting pattern specifies which of one or more cutting tools is to be used and the location of where cuts are to be made on the container. The cutting pattern is sent to a container opening machine. The container opening machine is operated and the container cut and opened by the container opening machine according to the cutting pattern.

A processing method for a workpiece includes forming a first processing groove by a first processing unit, imaging the first processing groove by a first imaging unit and imaging, by a second imaging unit provided on an opposite side of the first imaging unit with respect to the holding table, a predetermined line that is formed in a position corresponding to that of the first processing groove in a thickness direction of the workpiece, detecting whether or not a position of a first center line of the first processing groove and a position of a second center line of the predetermined line are aligned in a predetermined plane, and correcting the processing position in such a manner as to make the positions of the two center lines aligned when the detected positions of the first center line and the second center line are not being aligned.

A method of estimating weight of food objects, includes training an artificial neural network software module, and using the trained artificial neural network software module to provide a weight correlated data estimate for said food object based on a three-dimensional image of the food object

A method and system are provided for automatically portioning workpieces, such as food products, by simulating portioning the workpieces in accordance with the one or more desired shapes of the final piece(s) as a directly controlled physical characteristic (parameter/specification) as well as one or more resulting indirectly controlled physical characteristics (parameters/specifications). The desired shape(s) of the final piece(s) are defined by a plurality of manipulatable reference coordinates. A workpiece is scanned to obtain scanning information, then portioning of the workpiece is simulated in accordance with the desired shape(s) of the final piece(s) defined by the directly controlled reference coordinates, thereby to determine the one or more indirectly controlled physical characteristics of the one or more final pieces to be portioned from the workpiece. The simulated portioning of the workpiece is performed for multiple combinations of directly controlled shapes as defined by the modified or edited reference coordinates and indirectly controlled physical characteristics until an acceptable set of a directly controlled shape and resulting one or more indirectly controlled physical characteristics is determined.

A device, system and method for making custom printed products. In one embodiment of the method, an image is received from a user device along with a size of for the printed product. Pixel edge detection is performed on the image to generate a plurality of polygons corresponding to all shapes in the image. Polygons below a size threshold are removed. An offset is applied to each polygon. The polygons are combined. A smoothing algorithm is applied to the combined polygon. A set of curves that define the smoothed polygon is determined. A cut path is dynamically generating for the printed product in real-time in dependence on the set of curves and the received size so that the cut path has a shape dependent on the set of curves and a size dependent on the received size. The image is printed on a substrate material for the image product in dependence on the received size and the offset so that the printed image has a printed size equal to the received size less the offset. The substrate is cut in dependence on the cut path.

A method and apparatus for efficiently dismantling hard disk drives, including a holder assembly to clamp a hard disk drive, a scanner that reads identification information of the hard disk drive. A chain conveyor belt indexes the hard disk drive to a position at which a logic board of the hard disk drive is peeled off and dropped into a bin, and to a position at which a lid of the hard disk drive is separated from a housing by way of a wedge, and indexes to a punch position at which magnets are punched in a direction from the logic board side of the hard disk drive. By separating and disposing the logic board and the lid, each hard disk drive is efficiently and securely dismantled.

A conveyance system 14 carries food products 12 past the scanning system 16 for scanning the food products and generating data pertaining to various parameters of the food products. Thereafter, the food products 12 are transported past a processing station 18 for cutting, trimming, portioning, etc. using a cutting apparatus 20 in the form of a robotic actuator 22 onto which is mounted a dual headed cutter assembly 24 capable of independently and simultaneously cutting/trimming/portioning two separate food products 12, for example, located in side-by-side lanes on the conveyance system or capable of independently and simultaneously cutting/trimming the opposite sides of the same food product.

A method for determining a dimension between the back and the cutting edge of a vibrating blade mounted on a cutting head includes successively of acquiring a digital image of the blade mounted on the cutting tool so a line corresponding to a cutting edge of the blade and a line corresponding to a back of the blade are visible in the image, determining on the digital image along a straight line perpendicular to the line corresponding to the cutting edge of the blade the pixels comprised between the line corresponding to the cutting edge of the blade and the line corresponding to the back of the blade, and calculating a filtered dimension between the back and the cutting edge of the blade from the number of pixels comprised between the line corresponding to the cutting edge of the blade and the line corresponding to the back of the blade.

A device and a method for cutting a loaf of bread in slices having an input compartment adjacent to a set of parallel oblong blades which can be driven back and forth in their longitudinal direction. A pusher movable between a retracted position in relation to the blades and an end cutting position pushes the bread through the blades. A detector is provided to detect the presence of an object in the access opening of an input compartment which cooperates with the blades' drive to stop the movement of the blades when the presence of an object in the access opening is detected. When the presence of an object in the access opening is detected while the pusher is in its retracted position, the movement of the blades starts and the pusher will be moved from its retracted position to the end cutting position when the object is no longer detected in the access opening.