A terminal device for a sorting and order-picking system, wherein the terminal device has at least one transport device having a charge side and a discharge side wherein on the charge side goods of a conveying means can be loaded and stored on the transport devices until the end of a loading cycle. The terminal device, can be integrated into existing sorting and picking systems without costly conversion measures and also enables the largest possible storage capacity for the goods, wherein at least the charge side of the transport device is lowered during the loading cycle from an upper position (H.sub.o) to a lower position (H.sub.u).

Provided is an apparatus for coating containers having an inlet where containers are handed over to the apparatus, and an outlet where containers leave the apparatus, having at least one vacuum device for producing a vacuum, having at least one treatment station for coating containers with a plasma, wherein the treatment stations are in fluid connection with the vacuum device and wherein the treatment stations have at least one treatment device into which is able to be introduced into a container, wherein the apparatus has a first and a second transport device for transporting containers, wherein the first transport device feeds the containers at least indirectly to a treatment station, wherein the first transport device is able to be switched off at least temporarily, resulting in the feeding of containers to the treatment station being interrupted, and the second transport device being an at least sectionally linear transport device.

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.

A conveyor system for sorting articles being conveyed in a conveying direction. A first conveyor section includes a plurality of inclined conveyors for de-stacking articles. A second conveyor section includes at least one indexing conveyor for spacing a first group of articles from upstream articles. A third conveyor section includes a chicane conveying path for forming the first group of articles into a single row generally aligned with the conveying direction. Related methods are also disclosed.

A method and apparatus for feeding a plurality of tread bands in a process for building tyres for vehicle wheels. Each tread band initially includes, on a side thereof, a service fabric. The tread bands are initially arranged at different heights. The method includes positioning a first auxiliary conveyor belt of an auxiliary collection device including a plurality of juxtaposed auxiliary conveyor belts at a first height corresponding to the height of a first tread band, then, proceeding with the removal of the service fabric from the first tread band while the first tread band is transferred onto the first auxiliary conveyor belt. The method also includes positioning at least one second auxiliary conveyor belt of the auxiliary collection device at at least one second height corresponding to that of at least one second tread band.

A transport system includes a transport vehicle that transports an article, and a transport controller that controls the transport vehicle based on a host transport instruction received from a host controller. The transport controller includes a transport instructor which, in accordance with a host transport instruction, provides the transport vehicle with a transport instruction to transport an article at a pickup point to an unloading point, an overwriting processor which, in accordance with a host cancellation instruction to cancel the host transport instruction received from the host controller, overwrites the transport instruction provided to the transport vehicle with a move instruction which instructs to travel to a predetermined position and not to unload at the predetermined position, and provides the overwritten instruction to the transport vehicle, and a completion reporter which, upon the overwriting processor completing the overwriting, transmits to the host controller a cancellation completion report indicating the completion of the host cancellation instruction.

An order-picking installation for the order picking of items, in particular items transported in a hanging state, includes at least one supply station having a plurality of parallel supply locations, by which the items to be picked are supplied into the order-picking installation, and at least one dispatch station having a plurality of parallel dispatch locations, by which the picked items are discharged for dispatch, wherein at least one interim store is provided, for the order picking of the items, between the supply station and the dispatch station. The interim store includes a dynamic store for the interim storage of the items provided for order picking as well as a retrieval store, arranged downstream of the dynamic store, and intended for storing items which have been removed from the dynamic store and pre-sorted in the process, the dynamic store and the retrieval store arranged within a common circulatory conveyor.

Embodiments relate to a conveying storage device for containers, comprising: a first/second drivable conveyor which can convey containers on a first/second conveying surface in a first/second direction, the first and the second conveyor being positioned parallel to one another such that containers are transferable from the first to the second conveying surface; a transfer device, which is movable along the conveyor, for transferring containers from the first to the second conveying surface; a guide body which is movable along a region between the first and the second conveyor above the first and the second conveying surface; and a guide railing for guiding and separating containers, said guide rail extending at an angle to the second direction and above the second conveying surface. The guide railing is variable in length and cooperates with the guide body such that the length of the guide railing and the angle can be varied.

The present invention relates to a method for transferring products from an accumulation surface to an outlet conveyor configured to convey products in a longitudinal direction using an intermediate conveyor arranged between, and flush with, said accumulation surface and said outlet conveyor, and a pushing device the method comprises decelerating the intermediate conveyor and transferring the products between the accumulation surface and the intermediate conveyor by said pushing device and accelerating the intermediate conveyor end transferring the products from the intermediate conveyor to the outlet conveyor. The present invention also relates to a device for transferring products from an accumulation surface to an outlet conveyor, in particular one that is capable of carrying out the method according to the invention.

A method for sequencing loads in an automated load-distribution system having k sources with k2; at least one destination; k FIFO-type source buffer devices, each receiving loads from one of the k sources; a collector collecting the loads coming from the k source buffer devices and transporting them to the at least one destination. The collector has k successive nodes each collecting the loads coming from one of the source buffer devices. The control system processes customer orders listing loads for a given destination and being associated with a sequential order number of destination. The control system: builds a collection list containing n loads to be collected and reducing a disorder of the n loads relative to a rising order of the sequential order numbers of destination; and controlling the collector and the source buffer devices to collect loads on the collector in compliance with the collection list.