Patent ID: 7959402

Claim:
A tray holding apparatus comprising: a holding section which holds a stack of trays, each tray including a tray body capable of accommodating items therein, and a flange extending in the direction of a perimeter of the tray body from an upper edge of the tray body, the holding section comprising a pair of arms which have corresponding support pawls capable of supporting the flange and which are supported so as to freely rotate between a first position where the support pawls support the flange from below and a second position where the support pawls are laterally separated from the stack, and from the flange, two separation sections which respectively comprise two separation rods, two separation pawls each attached to the leading end of the corresponding separation rod, two separation cylinders each accommodating the corresponding separation rod to allow the separation rod to be advanced and retreated and being supported by the corresponding arm, and two driving devices each connected to the corresponding arm so as to be opposite to the corresponding support pawl with corresponding rotating shaft between them, and driving the corresponding arm between the first position and the second position; a lifting and lowering section which moves upward and downward between a place below the stack and this stack, the lifting and lowering section enabling a first movement in which the separated tray is moved to the place below the stack and a second movement in which the tray in the place below the stack is moved to the stack; and a control section which controls operations of the separation section and the lifting and lowering section, wherein the separation pawls are able to be accommodated between the flange of a tray supported by the support pawls in the first position of the arms and the flange of a tray lying immediately below the tray supported by the support pawls, and being movable downward in relation to the support pawls.