Agricultural storage container manipulator

摘要

An automated, high volume container manipulator and process useful with an agricultural seed box. In an exemplary application, the manipulator removes an upper ring of a seed box, rotates the ring 180 degrees and places the ring over the lower seed box base in a nested condition. Container lid removal, transport and replacement devices and processes are also included.

主权项

1. A manipulator device for use with an agricultural seed box having a base and a removable upper ring, the device comprising:
a rigid first tower frame defining a process area; a conveyor defining a conveyor path of travel, the conveyor operative to support an agricultural seed box by its base and move the agricultural seed box along the conveyor path of travel into and out of the process area; a manipulator device located at the process area, the manipulator device including a rigid manipulator carriage and a first gripper and a second gripper moveably connected to the manipulator carriage, the manipulator device operable to selectively support an agricultural seed box's upper ring for lifting from its base and inversion relative to the manipulator carriage by engaging the first and second grippers with respective opposing upright walls of the upper ring, the first and second grippers each including a gripper frame and a plurality of pads extending from the gripper frame, with the plurality of pads being arranged in a generally common upright plane to engage an upright wall of the upper ring at multiple outboard locations; and a lifting device connected to the first tower frame and engageable with the manipulator carriage to define a manipulator carriage path of travel substantially perpendicular to the conveyor path of travel, the lifting device operative to, with the manipulator device supporting the upper ring, selectively move the manipulator carriage along the manipulator carriage path of travel from a first position to an elevated second position sufficient to invert the upper ring.