SYSTEMS, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DESTACKING STACKED ARTICLES

摘要

A destacker for automatically destacking a plurality of vertically stacked articles that is particularly useful in destacking magnetic moulds used in the chocolate manufacturing industry. Each article comprises at least one slanted notch. The destacker includes at least one hammer having a blade that moves from a retracted position to an extracted position, wherein at the extracted position the blade engages a gap formed by the slanted notch between the bottommost article and the article located above the bottommost article to release the bottommost article from the plurality of stacked articles. The bottommost article then drops onto a conveyor to be transported to the production line. The destacker further includes oppositely disposed pair of mould carriers and oppositely disposed pair of mould lockers that assist the destacker to feed the stack of moulds in a downward direction.