Patent ID: 9096390
Filing Date: 2015-08-04
Classification: B07C,B41F,B65G

Abstract:
1. A conveyer apparatus for inspecting and processing pellet-shaped articles, each of the pellet-shaped articles including a first side with a first characteristic, a second side with a second characteristic opposite the first side, the first characteristic being visually distinguishable from the second characteristic, and a belly band that interconnects the first side and the second side, the conveyer apparatus comprising: a conveyer including a plurality of carrier links to convey a plurality of pellet-shaped articles along a predetermined conveyer path, each carrier link having a pocket to receive and transport a pellet-shaped article in a vertical orientation along the predetermined conveyer path; a first inspection unit including at least one camera to inspect the first side and/or the second side of each of the pellet-shaped articles and determine an orientation of each of the pellet-shaped articles on the conveyer based on detection of the first characteristic and/or the second characteristic; a processing unit including at least two processing devices, each located on an opposite side of the conveyer to process the first side and on the second side of each of the pellet-shaped articles based on the determined orientation; and a second inspection unit including at least one camera on each side of the conveyer to inspect the first side and/or the second side of the pellet-shaped articles after processing by the processing unit.