Patent ID: 7424340

Claim:
A pneumatic transport system, comprising: a carrier containing a material; a plurality of interconnected stations for transporting the carrier, each station including, (a) first and second pneumatic travel tubes for interconnecting the stations, (b) a rotatable cartridge assembly having a plurality of tubes, each tube configurable to be aligned with the first and second pneumatic travel tubes, the plurality of tubes having a first tube for pass-through of the carrier and a second tube having a tube wall, a first and second end of the tube wall defining first and second openings for loading the carrier into the second tube, (c) a wear plate assembly in slidable communication with the rotatable cartridge assembly, the wear plate assembly having a spring mechanism to bias the weight of the rotatable cartridge assembly off the wear plate, and (d) a collar coupled to the first or second pneumatic travel tube, the collar having a spring to bias the collar against a surface of the wear plate; and a computer system for executing object oriented computer code and controlling the configuration of each of the plurality of interconnected stations to provide transport of the carrier between first and second stations while passing through intermediate stations between the first and second stations without stopping movement of the carrier, the computer system having a path generator for defining a plurality of available paths between two interconnected stations and wherein the computer system selects a route for the carrier to travel between the two interconnected stations from the plurality of available paths between the two interconnected stations.