Embodiments of product handling systems facilitate transfer of individual product items from incoming bulk form into dedicated trays for inspection, sorting, selection, and packaging. Inspection may comprise interrogation of product items within a tray by electromagnetic (e.g., optical, hyperspectral) or other (e.g., physical, acoustic, gas sensing, etc.) techniques. Prior to packaging, product items disposed within the tray may be stored in a movable carousel responsible for controlling environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, illumination, ambient gases, product-to-product interactions, and/or others. Movement of product items from a carousel's transfer station to an outside staging position may be accomplished using robots and/or conveyor belts. Embodiments may allow rapid, low-cost consumer selection of specific individual product items based upon their accompanying metadata (e.g., source, identifier), in combination with the results of inspection (e.g., visual appearance). Embodiments may receive product items pre-packaged in tray format to expedite inspection, sorting, selection, and packaging.

The present invention provides a multi-unit rotary system and method for storage, intelligent sorting and picking of express parcels. Through adoption of layered design of a rotary storage unit, different sizes of parcels are stored in a sorting manner, thereby effectively increasing the utilization rate of the storage space; besides, due to the storage design of the subunits, arrangement of storage units of the system is more flexible, and the number of rotary storage unit subunits can be set freely according to the requirements for site space and the storage capacity for express parcels; through adoption of overall unit combination design of the present invention, the mounting, the layout and the maintenance of the system are more convenient, and during the operation of the system, automatic sorting and storage of the express parcels are achieved.

A high density manufacturing cell or carousel for optimizing floor space usage to reduce equipment footprint and material travel path is disclosed. The carousel allows processing and transferring of products to be concurrently performed, minimising non-productive time. The manufacturing cell or carousel comprises: (a) a plurality of rotary platforms, (b) a plurality of vertical moving platforms, (c) a vertical walking beam, and (d) a load gripper and a unload gripper mounted to independent robots.

There is provided a rotary stocker which includes: a base; a rotary part provided on the base and rotatably connected to the base about a rotary axis extending in a vertical direction; a rotary drive device provided for rotating the rotary part; a plurality of shelves on which an object to be placed is placed, the plurality of shelves being fixed to the rotary part and being arranged in a circumferential direction about the rotary axis; and a sensor positioned outside the plurality of shelves in a radial direction of the rotary axis, the sensor capable of detecting whether the object to be placed is placed on each of the shelves positioned between the rotary axis and the sensor.

A vertical batch furnace assembly for processing wafers comprising a cassette handling space, a wafer handling space, and an internal wall separating the cassette handling space and the wafer handling space. The cassette handling space is provided with a cassette storage configured to store a plurality of wafer cassettes provided with a plurality of wafers. The cassette handling space is also provided with a cassette handler configured to transfer wafer cassettes between the cassette storage and a wafer transfer position. The wafer handling space is provided with a wafer handler configured to transfer wafers between a wafer cassette in the wafer transfer position and a wafer boat in a wafer boat transfer position. The internal wall is provided with a wafer transfer opening adjacent the wafer transfer position for a wafer cassette from or to which wafers are to be transferred. The cassette storage comprises two cassette storage carousels.

A vertical batch furnace assembly for processing wafers comprising a cassette handling space, a wafer handling space, and an internal wall separating the cassette handling space and the wafer handling space. The cassette handling space is provided with a cassette storage configured to store a plurality of wafer cassettes. The cassette handling space is also provided with a cassette handler configured to transfer wafer cassettes between the cassette storage and a wafer transfer position. The wafer handling space is provided with a wafer handler configured to transfer wafers between a wafer cassette in the wafer transfer position and a wafer boat. The internal wall is provided with a wafer transfer opening adjacent the wafer transfer position for a wafer cassette from or to which wafers are to be transferred. The cassette storage comprises a cassette storage carousel with a diameter between 1.1 and 1.6 meter.

A vertical batch furnace assembly for processing wafers comprising a cassette handling space, a wafer handling space, and a first wall separating the cassette handling space from the wafer handling space. The wall having a wafer transfer opening. The wafer transfer opening is associated with a cassette carrousel comprising a carrousel stage having a plurality of cassette support surfaces each configured for supporting a wafer cassette. The carrousel stage is rotatable by an actuator around a substantially vertical axis to transfer each cassette support surface to a wafer transfer position in front of the wafer transfer opening and to at least one cassette load/retrieve position, wherein the vertical batch furnace assembly is configured to load or retrieve a wafer cassette on or from a cassette support surface of the carousel stage which is in the at least one load/retrieve position.

A storage and retrieval system including a vertical array of storage levels, each storage level having storage locations, a multilevel vertical conveyor system configured to transport the uncontained case units to and from the vertical array of storage levels, each storage level being configured to receive uncontained case units from the multilevel vertical conveyor system, at least one autonomous transport confined to each storage level, the at least one autonomous transport being configured to transport the uncontained case units between respective storage locations and the multilevel vertical conveyor system, and a controller configured to effect operation of the multilevel vertical conveyor system and at least one autonomous transport for assembling orders of uncontained case units of different types without moving bundles of the same uncontained case unit type throughout the storage and retrieval system.

The medication dispensing assembly includes a housing having an interior. A medication bottle is disposed in the interior with its cap assembly facing vertically downwardly. The cap assembly includes outer, middle, and inner pieces. The outer and inner pieces are fixed with one another, and the middle piece is fixed with the bottle. A drive unit is disposed in the interior of the housing and is configured to rotate the bottle and the middle piece of the cap assembly about a vertical axis. The three pieces of the cap assembly have respective medication openings, and rotating the bottle causes individual pills to travel first from the bottle into the inner piece, then into the middle piece, then around the vertical axis, and then outside of the cap assembly through the medication opening of the outer piece.

It is known that in particular components or component accessories are stored in a storage in industrial production. To this end, a depot storage unit for storing small parts is proposed, having a base frame, a rotary table, wherein the rotary table is rotatably supported on the base frame and is rotatable relative to the base frame and wherein the rotary table includes a base plate, a drive device, wherein the drive device is operatively connected to the rotary table, so that the drive device rotates the rotary table, a plurality of receiving boxes, wherein the receiving boxes are arranged on the base plate in the direction of rotation, wherein the depot storage unit includes at least or exactly one sensor device for detecting a weight of at least or exactly one of the receiving boxes.