The present disclosure provides a material sorting system adapted to engage a material handling vehicle. The material sorting system can include a base including fork pockets adapted to receive a pair of forks from the material handling vehicle and a carousel assembly coupled to the base. The carousel assembly can include a plurality of storage units, and an actuation mechanism configured to move the plurality of storage units relative to the base. The base can also include at least one electrical contact within the base and in electrical communication with the carousel assembly.

A material handling vehicle may include a clamp assembly, the clamp assembly including a housing, a grip assembly, and a power source. The grip assembly may be pivotally engaged with the housing. The power source may be in electrical communication with the grip assembly. The grip assembly includes a lobe pivotally engaged with the housing and a contact supported by the lobe, the contact being electrically conductive.

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.

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 processing line processes logs of convolutely wound web material and has upstream and downstream sections. A main accumulator has buckets that receive, hold, and release logs. An input feeder receives logs from the upstream section and conveys them to a bucket of main accumulator. A loader has a loader accumulator and loader buckets that receive, hold, and release logs. A transfer conveyor between the main accumulator and the loader receives a log from the main accumulator bucket and conveys the log a loader bucket independently of the input feeder. The loader receives a log from the transfer conveyor. The loader conveys the log in the loader bucket to a discharge of the loader. The loader discharge discharges the log from the loader bucket to the downstream section of the processing line.

A cyclic type layered storage and output equipment includes a first pick-and-place device and a second pick-and-place device set at two opposite sides of an automatic material distribution and storage machine for delivering drill bits for detection and storing the detected drill bits by using horizontal transportation and layered storage technology. It can reduce the equipment space. After the overall inspection is completed, all the stored drill bits are transferred to another processing equipment together.

A cyclic type layered storage and output equipment includes a first pick-and-place device and a second pick-and-place device set at two opposite sides of an automatic material distribution and storage machine for delivering drill bits for detection and storing the detected drill bits by using horizontal transportation and layered storage technology. It can reduce the equipment space. After the overall inspection is completed, all the stored drill bits are transferred to another processing equipment together.

In one embodiment, an inventory storage module has first and second conveyor segments that are vertically spaced from one another and third and fourth conveyor segments that connect the first and second conveyor segments to define a movement path that is elongate along a longitudinal direction. The module has a plurality of container carriers that are supported by the first to fourth conveyor segments. Each container carrier supports at least one inventory storage container that can support at least one inventory item therein. The module has at least one movement system that can push the container carriers along the first and second conveyor segments along the longitudinal direction between the first and second module ends. The storage module can translate inventory storage containers around the movement path until a desired one of the inventory storage containers is presented at one of the first and second module ends.

A storage and retrieval system including a vertical array of storage levels, each storage level having storage locations, a multilevel vertical conveyor system configured to transport the uncontained case units to and from the vertical array of storage levels, each storage level being configured to receive uncontained case units from the multilevel vertical conveyor system, at least one autonomous transport confined to each storage level, the at least one autonomous transport being configured to transport the uncontained case units between respective storage locations and the multilevel vertical conveyor system, and a controller configured to effect operation of the multilevel vertical conveyor system and at least one autonomous transport for assembling orders of uncontained case units of different types without moving bundles of the same uncontained case unit type throughout the storage and retrieval system.

A hanging register storage unit for a bending machine for spacer frames of insulating glass panes includes: a plurality of hanging registers which each have a storage site for a stack of unbent spacer profiles; a storage station having a plurality of receiving sites for in each case one of the hanging registers; a removal station having at least one receiving site for one of the hanging registers; and a conveyor device for transporting hanging registers between the receiving sites of the storage station and the receiving site of the removal station.