ROTARY ORIENTER

摘要

A rotary orienter includes a turret rotatable about a central axis and at least one rotation pad rotatably mounted to the turret and selectively rotatable about a pad axis. The turret rotates to index the rotation pad to a receiving station, a discharge station and at least one actuating station distributed radially about the central axis. The actuating station is intermediate the receiving station and discharge station. The rotation pad indexes from the receiving station in a locked condition such that rotation of the rotation pad is prevented, and is selectively unlocked by the actuating station such that the unlocked rotation pad rotates during indexing of the turret from the actuating station to the discharge station to reorient an object received onto the rotation pad at the receiving station in a received orientation to a predetermined orientation for discharge of the object in the predetermined orientation at the discharge station.

主权项

1. A rotary orienter comprising:
a central shaft defining a central axis; a turret rotatably attached to the central shaft and rotatable about the central axis; a rotation pad defining a pad axis and rotatably mounted to the turret such that the rotation pad is selectively rotatable about the pad axis; wherein:
the turret is rotatable to index the rotation pad to a plurality of index stations including a receiving station, a discharge station, and an actuating station distributed radially about the turret;the actuating station is intermediate the receiving station and the discharge station;the rotation pad is lockable such that the locked rotation pad is prevented from rotating;the rotation pad is locked prior to being indexed from the receiving station;the actuating station includes an actuator mechanism actuable to selectively unlock the rotation pad at the actuating station;unlocking the rotation pad initiates rotation of the rotation pad; and wherein the unlocked rotation pad is rotatable about the pad axis concurrent with indexing of the turret about the central axis.