Various embodiments provide systems and methods for providing a desired gap between articles within a continuously flowing train of articles. Various embodiment methods may include operating a material handling system including a plurality of conveying units, by generating motion profiles for a plurality of articles to provide a pre-determined gap between the articles, and controlling the plurality of conveying units to move each article in accordance with its motion profile as the plurality of articles move through the material handling system.

Various embodiments provide systems and methods for providing a desired gap between articles within a continuously flowing train of articles. Various embodiment methods may include operating a material handling system including a plurality of conveying units, by generating motion profiles for a plurality of articles to provide a pre-determined gap between the articles, and controlling the plurality of conveying units to move each article in accordance with its motion profile as the plurality of articles move through the material handling system.

A conveyor system includes a product distribution conveyor which spreads products across its width and aligns them in uniform orientations while doing so; a lateral transfer conveyor which receives a row of the aligned products from the product distribution conveyor, and rejects unaligned and/or excess products while doing so; and a product loading conveyor which receives each row of products and loads them into packaging in a neatly aligned array.

A bulk component supply device which is moved together with a mounting head which mounts electronic circuit components on a circuit substrate and of a component mounter device equipped with that bulk component supply device is disclosed. A bulk component driving device of the bulk component supply device is non-detachably provided on head main body of the mounting head, and a passage-equipped component case in which a component case and a component passage are fixed is detachably attached to head main body by a passage-equipped component case attachment device. When the holding by passage-equipped component case attachment device is in a released state, the passage-equipped component case can be removed while the bulk component driving device is held as in on head main body, and exchanged with a different passage-equipped component case. This exchange can be performed automatically by a passage-equipped component case exchange unit.

A bulk component supply device which is moved together with a mounting head which mounts electronic circuit components on a circuit substrate and of a component mounter device equipped with that bulk component supply device is disclosed. A bulk component driving device of the bulk component supply device is non-detachably provided on head main body of the mounting head, and a passage-equipped component case in which a component case and a component passage are fixed is detachably attached to head main body by a passage-equipped component case attachment device. When the holding by passage-equipped component case attachment device is in a released state, the passage-equipped component case can be removed while the bulk component driving device is held as in on head main body, and exchanged with a different passage-equipped component case. This exchange can be performed automatically by a passage-equipped component case exchange unit.

An article induction system for preparing a stream of articles, such as mail parcels, for processing employs a series of conveyors operating under control of a controller for feeding articles to an operator at a cull belt at an optimal paced rate. The article induction system includes a destacking section, a separation and alignment section, a buffer section and a culling section manned by an operator. A controller controls the speed of each component based on measurements provided by sensors so as to feed articles to the operator at a desired paced rate.

Disclosed herein are an automatic infeed tipper and an apparatus and method for controlling the automatic infeed tipper. The apparatus for controlling an automatic infeed tipper includes an article infeed control unit for allowing a pallet loaded with multiple articles to be installed on the tipper and controlling an angle of the tipper so that the articles loaded onto the pallet are fed into a conveyor unit, and a conveyor control unit for sequentially driving a transport conveyor belt and a plurality of tipper-use conveyor belts, which are provided in the conveyor unit, so as to disperse the articles fed into the conveyor unit.

An article conveying device having a temporary placement section and capable of conveying articles. The article conveying device has: a supplying section configured to sequentially convey or supply plural articles; a discharging section configured to sequentially convey plural containers for containing the articles; a temporary placement section on which at least one article can be temporarily placed; a first detecting section configured to detect a position/posture of the article on the supplying section and successively detect an amount of movement of the supplying section; a second detecting section configured to detect a position/posture of the container on the discharging section and successively detect an amount of movement of the discharging section; a working machine configured to convey the article between the supplying section, the temporary placement section and the discharging section; and a controlling section configured to control the working machine based on a predetermined condition.

An article conveying device having a temporary placement section and capable of conveying articles. The article conveying device has: a supplying section configured to sequentially convey or supply plural articles; a discharging section configured to sequentially convey plural containers for containing the articles; a temporary placement section on which at least one article can be temporarily placed; a first detecting section configured to detect a position/posture of the article on the supplying section and successively detect an amount of movement of the supplying section; a second detecting section configured to detect a position/posture of the container on the discharging section and successively detect an amount of movement of the discharging section; a working machine configured to convey the article between the supplying section, the temporary placement section and the discharging section; and a controlling section configured to control the working machine based on a predetermined condition.

An article-transfer apparatus as disclosed herein can maintain the processing capacity of a transport mechanism at a fixed capacity regardless of the capacity at which articles are supplied to the apparatus from upstream thereof. An article-transfer apparatus includes an infeed conveyor, an alignment conveyor, and an article transport unit. The infeed conveyor conveys bags in a first direction. The alignment conveyor lines up in a predetermined state a plurality of the bags fed thereto from the infeed conveyor to form an article group, and simultaneously conveys them in a second direction. The article transport unit transports the article group to a container. A plurality of the article groups are formed on the alignment conveyor.