PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 15909033
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-03
Publication Date: 2018-09
Patent Classification: ["414", "795200"]

Abstract:
An automatic egg tray stacking apparatus turns alternate egg trays through the operation of movable guides at the junction with a loading conveyor before conveying the egg trays toward a stacking mechanism that first stops the egg tray and then lowers the stack on top of the egg tray before re-elevating the partially formed stack to permit the entrance of a new egg tray into the stacking mechanism. Once the stack of egg trays is completed, the stack is allowed to move onto a stack conveyor and is moved forwardly for shipment. The stacking mechanism is operated by a single actuator having dual pneumatic cylinders that provide a three position operation of the lifting function with the stacking mechanism having lifter members engaging all four sides of the lowermost egg tray of the elevated stack. A control mechanism operates the apparatus with input from appropriately positioned sensors.

Claim (Index 10):
An egg tray stacking apparatus comprising:\n a loading conveyor carrying a supply of egg trays to be formed into a stack; a first conveyor oriented perpendicularly to said loading conveyor and being positioned to receive egg trays from said loading conveyor; an egg tray orientation control mechanism at an intersection of said loading conveyor and said first conveyor to orient alternating egg trays perpendicularly to adjacent egg trays so that the orientation of said egg trays on said first conveyor alternates in succeeding egg trays; a stacking mechanism operable at a stacking location along said first conveyor, said stacking mechanism including a lifter member for engaging each side of an egg tray and elevating successive egg trays to form a stack of egg trays; and an actuator mechanism operatively connected to said stacking mechanism to move said stacking mechanism vertically in a selective manner between three vertically spaced positions.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 32.0
- Percentile: 90.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.80952
- Patent Class: 414.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['12286700', '10143861', '11412051', '10919179', '13139915']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.8296008003029028
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.5124045077975585
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.7978811710523683
- Mean Citation Score: 250.904004
- Max Citation Score: 272.376
- Similarity Product: 163.23104775524138

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

Dataset: test