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Assembly station with rotatable turret which forms and unloads a completed stack of articles

  • US 7,371,041 B2
  • Filed: 03/26/2002
  • Issued: 05/13/2008
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2001
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. An apparatus for forming stacks of articles, comprising:

  • a first article feeder station presenting a plurality of first articles at a first loading position;

    a second article feeder station presenting a plurality of second articles of a characteristic different size than the first articles at a second loading position; and

    a bidirectionally rotatable turret assembly comprising;

    a first stacker arm supported by the turret assembly and selectively movable in either a clockwise direction or a counterclockwise direction to a selected one of the first and second loading positions; and

    a second stacker arm supported by the turret assembly and responsively movable, by the selected movement of the first stacker arm, to another loading position; and

    end effectors independently operable on each of the stacker arms, each end effector having a mandrel sized to simultaneously support a plurality of the first and second articles from the respective feeder stations to form alternating stacks of the first and second articles on both stacker arms.

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