A method for applying liners inside containers includes: providing a plurality of liners each having a bottom wall, a side wall, an upper opening opposite the bottom wall and a fold extending around the edge of the upper opening; placing the plurality of liners in at least one vertical stack in which the liners are upside down and one inside the other; pulling the liner at the top of the stack out of the stack in a vertical direction and overturning the liner so as to orient it vertically with the upper opening facing upwards; inserting a gripping tool into the liner and gripping the liner with the gripping tool; inserting the gripping tool and the liner held thereby inside a container and placing the liner inside the container; and releasing the liner into the container and removing the gripping tool from the container.

A method for applying liners inside containers includes: providing a plurality of liners each having a bottom wall, a side wall, an upper opening opposite the bottom wall and a fold extending around the edge of the upper opening; placing the plurality of liners in at least one vertical stack in which the liners are upside down and one inside the other; pulling the liner at the top of the stack out of the stack in a vertical direction and overturning the liner so as to orient it vertically with the upper opening facing upwards; inserting a gripping tool into the liner and gripping the liner with the gripping tool; inserting the gripping tool and the liner held thereby inside a container and placing the liner inside the container; and releasing the liner into the container and removing the gripping tool from the container.

Embodiments herein describe a tote dispenser that removes the bottom tote from as stack of totes which is then ejected by a conveyor belt. In one embodiment, the tote dispenser includes a first pair of support members which support all but the bottom tote in the stack, while a second pair of support members applies a force that removes the bottom tote from the stack. The first and second pairs of support members can be disengaged so that the stack of totes can be realigned relative to the support members so that the next tote at the bottom of the stack can be removed.

A robot (11) of the present invention includes: a first arm (13A); and a controller configured to control operation of the first arm. The first arm includes a first hand (18) at a distal end thereof, the first hand including a first gripper (22) for gripping a container (42) and a second gripper (23) for gripping a discharger (32). The controller is configured to control the first arm to: grip the discharger by the second gripper; then, grip and obtain the container from a container provider (19) and place the obtained container on a conveying body (51) at a container placing position on a moving path of the conveying body by the first gripper; and at a food/drink material filling position downstream of the container placing position on the moving path of the conveying body, cause the discharger gripped by the second gripper to discharge a food/drink material into the container to fill the container with the food/drink material.

A hand includes a plurality of first gripping members which move relative to each other, a first drive unit configured to move the plurality of first gripping members in a first opening and closing direction to bring the plurality of first gripping members close to each other or separate them from each other, a plurality of second gripping members which move relative to each other independently from the plurality of first gripping members, a second drive unit configured to move the plurality of second gripping members in a second opening and closing direction to bring the plurality of second gripping members close to each other or separate them from each other, and a third drive unit configured to move the plurality of first gripping members relative to the plurality of second gripping members in a third direction intersecting the first and second opening and closing directions.

A machine and a method for unstacking containers are described, the containers being preferably non-rigid and configured to contain food products. The machine includes pickup elements, hollow inside, disposed between a plurality of vertical loading cylinders and a horizontal conveyor belt. The pickup elements are vertically mobile between a first operating position, in which they are facing toward the loading cylinders, but distant from them, and a second operating position in which they are at least partly inserted in the loading cylinders and in contact with each of the containers that is temporarily at the bottom of the corresponding stack, and vice versa. A suction device is in fluidic communication with the pickup elements to temporarily constrain to them, by air suction, each container that is temporarily at the bottom of the corresponding stack.

A separating system (1) comprises a housing (60) sized to receive a stack of articles having at least one first article (12) stacked on top of a second article (10). The system (1) also includes a lifter (20) movable into a contact position adjacent a surface (13) on the at least one first article (12). The lifter (20) is adapted to apply a lifting force to the surface (13) to lift at least a portion of the first article (12) above the contact position. An extractor (40) moves the second article (10) away from the stack of articles after the at least one first article (12) has been lifted above the contact position by the lifter (20). The housing (60) prevents the at least one first article (12) from moving with the second article (10) when the second article (10) is moved by the extractor (40) and guides the stack of articles downward after the second article (10) is moved away.

A robot is configured such that: a second hand of a second arm holds a container stack by gripping a top portion of a bottom container of the container stack; then, a first hand of a first arm holds the container stack by gripping a portion of the bottom container of the container stack, such that the portion gripped by the first hand is positioned lower than the portion gripped by the second hand; thereafter, the second hand of the second arm releases the top portion of the bottom container, and then holds the container stack by gripping the top portion of a second container from a bottom of the container stack; and subsequently, the first hand of the first arm moves the bottom container downward, and separates the bottom container from the container stack.

The present disclosure provides a feeder and a backlight production apparatus. The feeder includes: a storing assembly configured to store a material tray on which a plurality of elements to be fed are placed; a fetching assembly configured to obtain the material tray from the storing assembly by sucking and transport the material tray; a distributing assembly configured to obtain at least one element to be fed by sucking from the material tray transported by the fetching assembly, and distribute the at least one element to be fed; and a turn-over assembly configured to turn over the at least one element to be fed distributed by the distributing assembly, and transport the at least one element to be fed to a next process unit.

An apparatus that denests a stack of containers and methods of separating a stack of containers and making the apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus includes a denester and a counting device. The denester is configured to separate a first stack of at least 2 containers into a plurality of second stacks of containers. Each of the second stacks includes an exact number of containers, the exact number being a positive integer less than m. The counting device is configured to count the exact number of containers in the first stack. The method of separating containers includes counting an exact number of containers in a first stack of m containers using the counting device, and separating the exact number of containers from the first stack using the denester.