Patent ID: 8596948

Claim:
An automated system for loading bottles into a shipping rack structure having a depth of at least two bottles in each compartments in the shipping rack structure, the system comprising: an elevator for accepting horizontally-oriented bottles and raising a plurality of bottles into a column configuration, forming a column of single bottles in aligned position with a plurality of compartments of the shipping rack structure, the elevator comprising a plurality of seats disposed along a conveyor, each seat for accommodating a single bottle as it loads into place, the plurality of seats disposed to align with a plurality of compartments along a column of a loading rack structure; a pusher element for moving the column of single bottles off of the elevator seats and into the associated compartments of said shipping rack structure; and a process control unit for using as input data a set of parameters associated with the arrangement of compartments within said shipping rack structure, the set of parameters including a number of columns in the shipping rack structure, a number of rows in each column and a depth of each row where the depth of each row is defined as the total number of bottles stored in a compartment, said process control unit coupled to the elevator and the pusher element to activate/deactivate each component in sequence to provide for the automated movement of the elevator to raise the proper number of bottles into place required to fill a column of the shipping rack structure, followed by the automated movement of the pusher element to transfer to the column of single bottles into the shipping rack structure, the depth of movement of the pusher element controlled by how deep into the compartments the current column of single bottles is to be placed.