An apparatus for inspecting an appearance of capsule 40 in which cap 42 is fitted to body 41 includes a carrying body that carries capsule 40 housed in housing part 33, contact body 34 that rotates capsule 40 carried inside housing part 33 due to a contact friction, imaging device 17 that takes an image of the capsule rotating, and a determination device that determines if the capsule is good or poor based on an imaging data taken by imaging device 17. Wherein contact body 34 moves an inside of housing part 33 to a side of body 41 by rotating the capsule, which is housed in housing part 33 being separated from other capsules, around an axis direction, and the determination device determines an orientation of capsule 40 based on a position of capsule 40 in housing part 33.

An apparatus for inspecting an appearance of capsule 40 in which cap 42 is fitted to body 41 includes a carrying body that carries capsule 40 housed in housing part 33, contact body 34 that rotates capsule 40 carried inside housing part 33 due to a contact friction, imaging device 17 that takes an image of the capsule rotating, and a determination device that determines if the capsule is good or poor based on an imaging data taken by imaging device 17. Wherein contact body 34 moves an inside of housing part 33 to a side of body 41 by rotating the capsule, which is housed in housing part 33 being separated from other capsules, around an axis direction, and the determination device determines an orientation of capsule 40 based on a position of capsule 40 in housing part 33.

A welding station for welding parts of electronic cigarettes includes feeding means, set in a feeding area for feeding parts of electronic cigarettes to be welded; welding means, set in a welding area, downstream of the feeding area, for welding the parts of electronic cigarettes; and a transfer device, set between the feeding means and the welding means for receiving from the feeding means the parts of electronic cigarettes to be welded and transferring them from the feeding area to the welding area. The transfer device includes a first transfer sector and a second transfer sector, pre-arranged for receiving from the feeding means, respectively, first parts and second parts of electronic cigarettes to be welded and transferring them into the welding area. The first transfer sector and the second transfer sector are mobile in rotation about an axis, independently of one another.

A can body take-away assembly for a can bodymaker with a vertically oriented reciprocating, elongated ram assembly and a domer is provided. The take-away assembly includes a drive assembly and a can body transport assembly. The drive assembly includes a motor and a support member. The take-away assembly motor is operatively coupled to said support member and structured to move said drive assembly support member in a generally horizontal direction The can body transport assembly includes a number of gripping assemblies. Each gripping assembly is coupled to said drive assembly support member. Each gripping assembly includes a number of pairs of opposed gripping members sized to grip a can body. The gripping assemblies are structured to travel across the path of said ram assembly and to selectively grip a can body.

A conveying method includes first and second pads conveying workpieces with speeds of the first and second pads being varied; circumferential velocities of the first pads and the second pads are accelerated by variable speed mechanisms; the first and second pads move and separate in a state in which a distance between the first pad and the second pad, whose speeds were increased, is increased; the circumferential velocities of the first pads and the second pads are decelerated by the variable speed mechanisms; and a first slider and a second slider, which were subjected to deceleration, overlap each other in a part in a circumferential direction, which causes the first pad and the second pad to approach each other, and the first pad and the second pad move and approach each other in this state in which the first pad and the second pad have approached each other.

A product order fulfillment system including a multi-level transport system and a lifting transport system. Each level of the multi-level transport system having a corresponding independent asynchronous level transport system separate and distinct from the asynchronous level transport system corresponding to each other level of the multi-level transport system. Each independent lift axis of the lifting transport system being configured to independently hold at least one case and being communicably coupled to each asynchronous level transport system so as to provide for exchange of the at least one case between each asynchronous level transport system and each independent lift axis. Each independent lift axis is communicably coupled to each other independent lift axis of the more than one lift axis and forms a common output of mixed cases so as to create an ordered sequence of mixed cases in accordance to a predetermined case out ordered sequence.

In a run-up region 117 provided upstream, in the transport direction, of a branch point 116 in a main transport passage 110, a main transport mechanism 210 and a branching transport mechanism 230 both transport a transport case 7. When the transport case 7 is fed to a branching transport passage 130, the main transport mechanism 210 finishes transporting the transport case 7 before the transport case 7 reaches the branch point 116.

Article picking and treating apparatus The present invention provides an apparatus for picking and treating articles simultaneously, said picking and treating each being operated at a first and a second conveying line.

An apparatus for sorting and stacking slab-shaped elements has an inlet line; plural suction gripping units; a sorting carousel rotatable around an axis and including multiple carousel arms mutually solidly constrained and each bearing a respective one of the plurality suction gripping units; a plurality of seats for receiving the slab-shaped elements, forming stacks thereof; and a support crown solidly constrained to a frame. The carousel axis and an axis of the support crown coincide with one another. Each carousel arm is supported by the support crown at or in proximity of a respective free end. A first slab-shaped element from the inlet line can be gripped by a first one of the suction gripping units, rotated by a first one of the carousel arms which bears the first suction gripping unit, and released by the first suction gripping unit on a first of the seats.

Systems and methods are provided for conveyor operation and maintenance that employ one or both of a “smart shoe” technology where one or more conveyor shoes incorporate features, such as an RFID tag, and a “missing pin detection” technology where one or more pin components of conveyor shoes incorporate features, such as an RFID tag, allowing selective wireless tracking and identification capability. A conveyor system comprises a shoe management system allowing interactions directly with one or more RFID readers, which can detect, store and/or monitor information associated with “smart shoe” and/or “missing pin detection” RFID tags, where interface between this application and the reader can be implemented via a socket interface. An open platform communications (OPC) wrapper can be created around the interface so that a Human Machine Interface (HMI) could interact directly with shoe management system.