A system and method for independently routing container-located vehicles to create different finished products are disclosed. The vehicles are independently routable along a track system to deliver the containers to at least one unit operation station. At least some of the vehicles have a unique route associated therewith that is assigned by a control system to facilitate simultaneous production of different finished products.

Item singulation systems and methods may include an input conveyor, a separation conveyor, and an output conveyor that is positioned orthogonally to the input conveyor. A vision system may determine individual columns of items from among a plurality of items on the input conveyor. Operations of the input conveyor, separation conveyor, and output conveyor may be controlled substantially as a pull system to transfer individual columns of items to the output conveyor, such that singulated items can be transferred by the output conveyor to downstream processes.

A system (100) for delaminating a stream (110) of articles (A, B, C, D, E) includes a delamination unit (130) with a plurality of individually controlled rollers (134) configured to carry a stream (110) of articles (A, B, C, D, E), a detection unit (150) with a sensor (152), and a control unit (160) with a processor (162) and interfacing with the delamination unit (130) and the detection unit (150), wherein the detection unit (150) is configured to detect a position of each of the articles (A, B, C, D, E) and to transmit position data to the control unit (160), and wherein the control unit (160) is configured, through operation of the processor (162), to correlate positions of the articles (A, B, C, D, E) with the plurality of individually controlled rollers (134), and to individually control the rollers (134) based on the position data to delaminate the stream (110) of articles (A, B, C, D, E).

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.

A conveyor system for conveying electrically conductive articles such as aluminum bottles or cans. The conveyor system comprises a plurality of coils below the top surface of an electromagnetic conveyor at a junction between an infeed conveyor and a discharge conveyor. The coils propagate electromagnetic flux waves that induce currents in the electrically conductive articles that force the articles to follow a conveying path from the infeed to the discharge conveyor. Dead spots on the electromagnetic conveyor can be eliminated by adjusting the coil drive waveforms. And a long electromagnetic conveyor driven by a train of narrow pulses is used to singulate electrically conductive articles.

Various embodiments described herein generally relate to techniques for conveying articles on a conveyor system of a robotic material handling system in a material handling environment. In accordance with an embodiment, the robotic material handling system includes a front portion and a rearward conveyor. The front portion may be expandable to a first configuration and retractable to a second configuration. On detecting a jam on the front portion, the robotic material handling system may actuate expansion of the front portion to the first configuration, and attempt to dislodge the jammed articles by causing one or more of (i) separating the jammed articles by activating one or more of a plurality of zones of the front portion under the jammed articles, and/or (ii) activating one or more of the plurality of zones under the jammed articles in a reverse direction.

A machine and method for arranging objects comprising a first end with a protruding edge and a second end, on the opposite side of the protruding edge, in an alternate manner along single file rows. A guide guides objects in a single file row to a separator for receiving and separating the objects into a first and a second group and for alternately feeding the first and the second group to a collector and dropping device configured for rotating the objects of the first group and the second group according to a predetermined orientation and for stacking the objects one above the other in an alternate manner along single file rows.

An article processing station is characterized by an accumulating article shaft and robotic EOAT receiving articles entering the shaft. The shaft includes a grouped article receiving deck within an egress portion of the shaft, opposingly paired sidewalls, and an end wall downstream of the sidewalls. The deck includes spaced apart deck fingers, the end wall includes spaced apart wall fingers, and the EOAT includes spaced apart tool fingers. The tool fingers are registerable in relation to spaces of the spaced apart wall fingers and the spaced apart deck fingers so as to pass there through. The tool travels to, through and from the shaft, so as to receive articles entering the ingress portion of the shaft while traveling from the ingress portion towards the egress portion in furtherance of depositing an article group upon the deck during travel from the shaft.

The disclosure relates to a conveying storage device for containers, said device comprising: a first conveyor/second conveyor which is drivable in a first direction/second direction; a transfer device for transferring containers from a first conveying surface to a second conveying surface; an additional element; and a separating element. Between the transfer device and the separating element is a passage region along a transition region between the first and second conveying surface. The transfer device is movable into an emptying position during an emptying process. The additional element is movable during the emptying process relative to the transfer device, is introducible into the passage region or is located in the passage region, and can move containers to the second conveyor.

A grouping station includes a first transfer means for moving loading pallets to the grouping station and second transfer means for forwarding the loading pallets from the grouping station. The first transfer means and the second transfer means are both arranged for two different handling directions of the loading pallet.