PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16070944
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-07
Publication Date: 2019-02
Patent Classification: ["198", "597000"]

Abstract:
Apparatus includes a conveyor and pusher elements, mounted on carriages predisposed slidably on support rods fixed transversely to belts of the conveyor to displace the articles transversely to an advancement direction thereof. Idler rollers are below the carriages. First and second sliding pathways, alternating in sliding the rollers, are of such a shape that when the rollers pass along the first sliding pathway, the carriages maintain a stationary position on the support rods and when the rollers pass along the second sliding pathway, the carriages translate along the support rods so that the pusher elements translate transversely to displace and push the articles transversely. A switching device abuts the rollers and deviates them so that the rollers can be inserted and slide in either the first or the second sliding pathway.

Claim (Index 1):
An apparatus for displacing articles advancing continuously along an advancement direction, the articles having to be displaced and pushed transversally, while they are made to advance continuously along the advancement direction, internally of relative containers which in turn are made to advance continuously, flanked to and in synchrony with the advancement of the articles, comprising:\n a loop-closed conveyor organ comprising a pair of belts wound on relative activating pulleys according to a winding pathway which comprises at least a straight conveying branch, the conveyor organ being arranged in such a way that the straight conveying branch has a conveying direction that is parallel to the advancement direction of the articles and is activated in a continuous way, and in synchrony, with the advancement velocity of the articles along the relative advancement direction, a series of support rods which are transversally fixed to the pair of belts of the conveyor organ; a series of pusher elements for transversally displacing and pushing the articles which are advancing along the relative advancement direction, the pusher elements being borne by relative carriages that are mounted on the support rods so that the pusher elements, when the support rods are moved along the straight conveying branch, advance along an advancement direction and with a velocity corresponding to the advancement velocity of the articles along the relative advancement direction so that each thereof is opposite a relative article advancing along the relative advancement direction, the carriages being mounted on the support rods slidably so that the pusher elements can be movable along the support rods and transversally to the advancement direction thereof and transversally to the straight conveying branch, movement means that are associated to the conveyor organ and comprise: a series of rollers, each mounted idle below a carriage of the carriages, and sliding guides having a shape such that the rollers of the carriages can slide internally thereof; the sliding guides comprising at least a first sliding pathway and a second sliding pathway, alternative to one another, for the sliding of the rollers of the carriages which are to move along the straight conveying branch, the first sliding pathway being arranged with respect to the belts of the conveyor organ so as to have an inlet situated at a start of the straight conveying branch and having a progression and profile such that when the rollers move along the first sliding pathway, the carriages are forced to maintain a stationary position on the respective support rods so that the pusher elements are maintained in a retracted position with respect to the articles advancing along the relative advancement direction, the second sliding pathway being arranged with respect to the belts of the conveyor organ so as to have an inlet situated at a start of the straight conveying branch and having a progression and profile such that when the rollers of the carriages move along the second sliding pathway, the carriages are forced first to translate along the respective support rods, transversally of the belts, so that the pusher elements, during advancement thereof along a first portion of the straight conveying branch, are forced to translate transversally to the advancement direction thereof and transversally to the straight conveying branch from the retracted position up to an advanced position, so that they can abut the articles and displace and push the articles transversally in order to insert the articles into the containers and, subsequently, are forced to perform an inverse translation on the respective support rods, during advancement thereof along a second portion of the straight conveying branch, so that the pusher elements are forced to translate in a contrary direction from the advanced position to the initial retracted position thereof, a switching device, for deviating the rollers of the carriages so that the rollers can be inserted and slide either in the first sliding pathway or in the second sliding pathway, the switching device comprising: an exchange element comprising a channel having a shape such as to receive a roller and enable sliding of the roller internally thereof, the exchange element being predisposed at a curved portion for winding belts about the relative activating pulleys which are arranged upstream of the start of the straight conveying branch, and in a position immediately upstream of both the inlet of the first sliding pathway and the inlet of the second sliding pathway, at the start of the straight conveying branch, in such a way as to be able to receive, in the relative channel, the rollers of the carriages which are moving along the curved portion of the conveyor organ; actuator means which are connected to the exchange element and which are activatable so as to translate the exchange element transversally to the movement direction of the belts and of the rollers along the curved portion, between a first position, at which the channel of the exchange element is connected to the inlet of the first sliding pathway so that the roller which is sliding along the channel can insert, and therefore slide, in the first sliding pathway, and a second position, at which the channel of the exchange element is connected to the inlet of the second sliding pathway so that the roller which is sliding along the channel can insert, and therefore slide, in the second sliding pathway.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 5.0
- Percentile: 95.0
- Lexical Diversity: 2.1875
- Patent Class: 198.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: True
- Related Applications: ['15576785', '12942117', '15113528', '11888153', '13909432']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.6865832917037327
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.4787434094967323
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.6657993034830326
- Mean Citation Score: 199.445236
- Max Citation Score: 219.22667
- Similarity Product: 150.95786547833026

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 0
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 0
- Combined Label: 0
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test