A board turner assembly may include an endless chain, first and second groups of turning arms pivotably coupled with the endless chain and disposed along opposite sides thereof, an upper guide with an inclined surface, an actuator selectively operable to move the upper guide between a resting position and an extended position, and one or more endless belts. The turning arms may be spaced apart at regular intervals that are offset on one side of the chain relative to the other. The groups of turning arms may be operated in an alternating fashion to turn selected boards to a desired orientation (e.g., wane side up). Corresponding methods and systems are also described.

In a seal affixing system, adsorption pores are arranged plurally along a first direction and a second direction on an adsorption face, and the plurality of adsorption pores are sectioned into a first suction region, a second suction region, and a third suction region containing a plurality of adsorption pores from a downstream side to an upstream side along a movement direction, and a controller controls a suction power generator to individually suck the first suction region, the second suction region, and the third suction region. According to the seal affixing system, a turbulent spot will not be generated in the affixed seal.

Solar panels are prepared for installation on an array frame by initially tipping packages of palletized, bundled, vertically-oriented panels in a preparation area to form a vertical stack of horizontally oriented panel separated from the pallet and packaging material for placement on the upper supporting surface of the transport deck. The transport deck is displaced longitudinally alongside a rack of the array frame, together with a lifting machine having a lifting head on a lifting arm for transferring solar panels from a longitudinal row of stacked solar panels on the transport deck to the array frame. The lifting head may be adapted to support one panel from each of the stacks on the transport deck for simultaneous transfer from the transport deck to the array frame.

A machine handling device for handling a sheet-metal workpiece includes a control device that comprises two sensing elements, and a testing station that includes a testing device configured to test functional capability of the control device. The testing device includes a respective electrically conductive testing-contact body for each of the two sensing elements of the control device. The testing station further includes a testing-evaluation device configured to apply a testing voltage between the respective sensing element and the corresponding testing-contact body. The testing-evaluation device includes a testing-measuring unit and a testing-comparing unit. The testing-measuring unit is configured to measure an actual value of a contact-dependent electrical variable that is dependent on a state of an electrically conducting contact between the sensing element and the testing-contact body. The testing-comparing unit is configured to compare the actual value of the contact-dependent electrical variable with a reference value of the contact-dependent electrical variable.

A transport apparatus for transporting a plate comprising: a shell, a drive system, and a first set of rollers. The shell comprises an entrance and an exit that are disposed opposite to each other in relation to the shell. The drive system is disposed on the shell. The first set of rollers is disposed in the shell. The first set of rollers comprises: a first roller and a first adjustment roller. The first roller is electrically coupled to the drive system and configured to be rotated by the drive system. The first adjustment roller is movably disposed in the shell and is configured to adjust a first distance between the first roller and the first adjustment roller.

An automatic picking fixture device: a fixture locked with a mechanical arm and includes a coupling orifice, a motor, a rotor, and a gear. The fixture includes four elongated orifices and two movable holders. The two movable holders have four through orifices corresponding to the gear, four passing orifices, and two toothed sections received in the four through orifices and meshing with and driving the gear. The four passing orifices of the fixture is configured to lock with the four pneumatic cylinders or four servo motors, and the four pneumatic cylinders or the four servo motors are configured to push four jaws outward or inward, the four jaws include four symmetrical clamping grooves configured to clamp at least one material. The four racks are fixed on the top of the fixture, and a respective rack has two rollers rolling along a respective elongated orifice.

The invention concerns a conveyor system for formatting slice-shaped food products in product stacks. The conveyor system includes an inlet, a lower product conveyor, an upper product conveyor, a vertically swiveling distributor conveyor for distributing the incoming food products selectively to the lower product conveyor or to the upper product conveyor, an output conveyor receiving the food products partially stacked from the lower product conveyor and the upper product conveyor, and an outlet for outputting the stacked food products in product rows. The individual conveying tracks of the distributor conveyor can be swivelled vertically independently of one another in order to forward the incoming food products individually for each conveying track selectively to the lower product conveyor onto the upper product conveyor.

A tray module capable of discharging static electricity to safely transfer display device members (e.g., components) includes: a tray configured to accommodate at least two members of a display device, at least two conductive protection films alternatingly stacked with the members of the display device, and a conductive pattern on the tray to provide a discharge path with the conductive protection films to ground.

Dishwashing and dish drying apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus comprises three parallel rods which each have a screw thread on an outer surface. In use, the screw thread on each rod engages with a rim or lip of a dish and when the rods are rotated the dish is caused to move through the apparatus. This allows the whole of the dish to be exposed to a liquid in the dishwashing apparatus or to an air flow in a dish drying apparatus.

A plate delivery system provides storage for plates in a first-in, last-out configuration. As the kitchen staff completes a meal (plated), the plate is presented to a staging area of the plate delivery system. The plate is moved into a storage area to be ready for the next plate at the staging area. After a number of plates are stored, the plate delivery system relocates from the kitchen to the eating area (e.g., restaurant table or banquet table) and each plate is sequentially presented by a delivery mechanism (e.g., telescoping arms, a robot, or a waitperson) for delivery to the table. In some embodiments, the plate delivery system is enclosed and has a cover mechanism. In some embodiments, the plate delivery system has telescoping arms with fingers for moving the plate from the staging area to the table.