The present invention provides a new motorized bulk, dry foods dispensing apparatus and system for commercial, retail and home use designed to dispense a predetermined volume of dry bulk food into a bowl or other receptacle without crushing or breaking the food. The bulk food dispenser includes a hopper, a feed house including two or more openings, and a feed wheel located within the feed house, where the feed wheel further includes a plurality of protrusions for directing a solid material out of the hopper when the feed wheel is rotated mechanically via a motor, where at least one of the two or more openings receive the solid material directed by a baffle, and where at least one of the two or more openings dispense the solid material out of the feed house.

A significantly self-contained station for providing selective control and operation of motorized equipment (such as a conveyor) via a momentary contact switch or wireless remote, where the self-contained station is connected to and receives power from an existing service disconnect line of the equipment, where upon the service disconnect line being powered, the self-contained station receives power to provide electrical signals to a motor contactor of the self-contained station, which then selectively provides electrical signal to a motor of the equipment to selectively operate the equipment.

In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to automatically balance and buffer the return of empty containers or other totes to a plurality of areas. In some embodiments, a control circuit employs a logic system in which empty totes are directed along primary, secondary, or tertiary paths depending on information gathered from sensors regarding the availability of space for empty totes at a plurality of potential destinations. In this way, the return of empty totes to one or more points of origin may be buffered to balance the number of empty totes in one or more areas.

A control system, a method, and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium are provided for a control system of a transport system. A processor is configured to receive sensor data from a monitoring device attached to, or configured to simulate, a container that is typically moved, routed, or handled by the transport system. The processor receives a maintenance indicator identifying a malfunctioning component of the transport system. The processor obtains a predetermined normal range of the sensor data corresponding to expected operating conditions for each of one or more sensors of the monitoring device. The predetermined normal range corresponding to the expected operating conditions is modified based on the maintenance indicator and subsequent malfunctioning components are detected based on the modified normal range of the sensor data.

A live-bottom trailer having a conveyor system. The conveyor system including: a frame; a conveyor mounted to the frame and having a carrying surface and an opposite rear surface, the conveyor operable to move the carrying surface between a first end of the live-bottom trailer and a second end of the live-bottom trailer while the rear surface passes over a support surface of the frame; and a pressurized air system operable to direct pressurized air at the rear surface of the conveyor to reduce friction between the support surface of the frame and the rear surface of the conveyor.

A modular inventory management system is disclosed herein that includes a bin module. The bin module may include a module base, a sensor configuration, and a divider. The module base may have a first lateral edge, a second lateral edge, and a top surface that connects the first lateral edge to the second lateral edge. The sensor configuration may be arranged on the module base between the first lateral edge and the second lateral edge. The sensor configuration may include a plurality of sensor elements that are arranged in a single row on a center axis of the module base and configured to sense whether one or more objects are positioned on the top surface of the module base. The divider may be situated at the first lateral edge and may be configured to slide laterally with respect to the module base to adjust a width of the bin module.

The vibration feeder has a drive unit comprising a vibration drive, a carrier arrangement comprising a feeding element for the material to be conveyed and a control for the vibration drive, wherein an acceleration sensor is arranged on the drive unit, which when the vibration feeder is operating, detects the actual acceleration of the drive unit, and wherein the control is configured to use the actual acceleration signal of the acceleration sensor for generating a regulating variable for the vibration drive such that the carrier arrangement vibrates essentially within its resonance frequency (f.sub.res). This makes it possible, during operation, to detect the acceleration of a drive unit of the vibration feeder and to generate therefrom a regulating variable for a vibration drive such that a carrier arrangement of the vibration feeder vibrates closer to its resonance frequency (f.sub.res) or is brought back again to the same. In addition the inventive control may be used to also regulate the amplitude of the carrier arrangement and the associated mass flow m to a required value.

A method for state monitoring in a conveyor system, and also to a control unit, to a motorized roller, to a conveyor zone, to a conveyor section and to a conveyor system for carrying out this method. The method comprises checking for the presence of a reference operating state, determining a current of the motorized roller if the reference operating state is present, and comparing the determined current of the motorized roller with a reference value for the reference operating state.

A linear motor conveyor system including: at least one track section comprising: electronic circuitry housed within the track section; and a rotatable segment comprising an end profile that abuts another track section to form a stepped groove sealed by a gasket. A moving element for a linear motor conveyor system including: a body; a first set of bearings attached to the body and angled to abut against a first guide rail of a conveyor system having a protrusion with opposing angled profiles; a second set of bearing attached to the body and designed to abut against a flat profile of a second guide rail of the conveyor system.

A sensor assembly has a housing for mounting on a shaft of an idler roller in a belt conveyor system. The housing has one or more sensors for detecting one or more parameters of the idler roller and a processor in communication with the sensors and a wireless communication device. The sensors transmit the detected parameter data to the processor, which causes the detected parameter data to be transmitted by the wireless communication device. A monitoring system is also provided.