PALLET HANDLING APPARATUS AND METHOD

摘要

Apparatus (10) and methods for handling pallets (21), such as for inspection and sorting, are disclosed. In a disclosed embodiment, an up-ender (14) includes a support frame (30), a pallet-tilting mechanism (22) coupled in a pivotal manner to the frame (30), and first and second generally upright pusher arms (24a, 24b) coupled to the frame (30). The pallet-tilting mechanism (22) is pivotable between an up position and a down position, such that when the pallet-tilting mechanism is in the up position, an upright stack (20) of pallets can be loaded onto the pallet-tilting mechanism (22) and when pivoted to the down position, the stack is rotated about 90° so that the pallets (21) become generally vertically oriented. The pallet-tilting mechanism (22) also is adapted to displace the stack (20) of vertically oriented pallets along a support surface (16). The pusher arms (24a, 24b) are positioned to receive the stack (20) of pallets from the pallet-tilting mechanism (22) and automatically index the pallets (21) in the stack (20) along the support surface (16).