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 moveable 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.

The present invention is related to a replenishment method and device in an assembly line. A usage storage area for storing a first object set and a spare storage area for storing a second object set are defined in the replenishment apparatus. The replenishment apparatus comprises a fixing carrier in the usage storage area and a moving carrier in the spare storage area. The replenishment method comprises driving the moving carrier to move the second object set in the spare usage area to the fixing carrier in the usage storage area when a remaining number of objects in the first object set carried in the fixing carrier is zero and the first object set in the fixing carrier is removed; and moving the moving carrier to leave the fixing carrier and recover to the spare usage area.

A transfer apparatus contains a conveying unit, a sorting unit, which is configured for receiving and sorting articles from the conveying unit, and a transfer unit with a feeding unit. The transfer unit forms a transporting connection between the conveying unit and the sorting unit. A discharging unit is positioned on a portion of the conveying unit and is configured to discharge an article onto the transfer unit only when the article is at a predefined minimum distance from a previously discharged article.

A support portion includes: a first portion that is supported on a travel portion; a second portion that is coupled to a holding portion; and a damper portion that is provided between the first portion and the second portion. The damper portion includes: a guide portion that guides movement of the first portion relative to the second portion along a specific guiding direction; a link mechanism that is coupled to each of the first portion and the second portion, and that moves in conjunction with movement of the first portion relative to the second portion; and an elastic body. The elastic body is coupled to the link mechanism so as to dampen operation of the link mechanism.

A control unit controls a sorting unit and a send-out unit to transport articles received by a receiving unit to an upstream accumulating unit so that articles that belong to the same article group are accumulated on the same upstream branch accumulating unit, and articles that belong to different article groups are accumulated on different upstream branch accumulating units, to transport articles accumulated in the upstream accumulating unit to a final accumulating unit so that articles that belong to the same article group are accumulated on different final branch accumulating units, and an article group with smaller designated sequence numbers is accumulated on a downstream side, in a transportation direction, of an article group with larger designated sequence numbers, and to send out articles accumulated in the final accumulating unit from the send-out unit in accordance with the designated sequence numbers.

A method for placing packets into and/or out of storage with or without loading aids into/from a particular storage rack aisle of a storage rack, wherein a distribution path conveys packets into storage and/or out of storage, wherein the distribution path comprises adjacent introducing and/or discharging devices which lead to incoming and/or outgoing paths which each supply goods to a storage rack aisle or remove goods therefrom. If the incoming/outgoing path of a destination storage rack aisle is overloaded, the packet is supplied to another incoming/outgoing path of another intermediate storage rack aisle, wherein a transfer takes place from the intermediate storage rack aisle to the destination storage rack aisle or vice-versa within the storage rack.

The present invention is related to a replenishment method and device in an assembly line. A usage storage area for storing a first object set and a spare storage area for storing a second object set are defined in the replenishment apparatus. The replenishment apparatus comprises a fixing carrier in the usage storage area and a moving carrier in the spare storage area. The replenishment method comprises driving the moving carrier to move the second object set in the spare usage area to the fixing carrier in the usage storage area when a remaining number of objects in the first object set carried in the fixing carrier is zero and the first object set in the fixing carrier is removed; and moving the moving carrier to leave the fixing carrier and recover to the spare usage area.

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.

The present disclosure describes a storage and distribution unit for a container filling plant and a method for storing and distributing the containers. A store is provided, which comprises storage areas for containers, the storage areas being distributed in a grid pattern, a container feed for connection to a discharge line section of a filling line, and a container outlet for connection to inspection units. The storage and distribution unit comprises a robot for putting filled containers into storage by transferring them from the container feed to the storage areas as well as for taking the containers out of storage by transferring them from the storage areas to the container outlet. Making use of a programmable control unit, the robot can be controlled for selectively taking the containers out of storage independently of the moment in time at which and/or the sequence in which they have been put into storage.

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 moveable 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.