Patent ID: 7641438

Claim:
A tray denesting apparatus, comprising: a receptacle for holding at least one nested stack of trays, the receptacle including an automatic tray size adjustment apparatus movable between a first position and a second position prior to loading a first one of the plurality of trays into the receptacle, wherein the receptacle maintains each of the plurality of trays in a face-up alignment and biased towards a bottom end of said receptacle; means for denesting individual trays from said nested stack of trays comprising: a bellows assembly having a plurality of shafts with a soft, flexible suction cup being disposed on a top end of each of said plurality of shafts wherein each of the plurality of shafts are movable upwards so that at least one suction cup may adhere to a bottom side of a first one of the nested stack of trays, said bottom side having an irregular surface, wherein each of the plurality of shafts is mounted on a suction base plate having an air cylinder that causes each of the plurality of shafts to be individually and selectively movable and adjustable, and a gripper blade assembly means for gripping edges of a bottom tray from the stack of trays for assisting in the denesting of said bottom tray from said stack of trays.