US 11,713,147 B2
Article picking and treating apparatus
Philippe Jean Marie Duperray, Châteauroux (FR); and Wim Dekocker, Leuven (BE)
Assigned to Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A., Brussels (BE)
Appl. No. 17/631,356
Filed by Anheuser-Busch InBev S.A., Brussels (BE)
PCT Filed Jul. 30, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/071601
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jan. 28, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/019053, PCT Pub. Date Feb. 4, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 19189056 (EP), filed on Jul. 30, 2019; and application No. 19219880 (EP), filed on Dec. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0324599 A1, Oct. 13, 2022
Int. Cl. B65B 21/18 (2006.01); B65B 21/06 (2006.01); B65B 21/20 (2006.01); B65B 35/36 (2006.01); B65G 47/53 (2006.01); B65B 39/00 (2006.01); B65G 47/84 (2006.01)
CPC B65B 39/007 (2013.01) [B65B 21/06 (2013.01); B65B 21/20 (2013.01); B65G 47/53 (2013.01); B65G 47/841 (2013.01); B65G 2201/0244 (2013.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus for picking and treating articles comprising:
a pair of parallel closed loop conveying tracks having one or more pairs of vertically movable modular track portions, each pair of said vertically moveable modular track portions including a first modular track portion being part of a first track of said pair of closed loop conveying tracks and a second modular track portion being part of the second track of said pair of closed loop conveying tracks;
a plurality of support means configured transversally to the pair of closed loop conveying tracks, each support means extending between and connected to the pair of conveying tracks at its opposite ends through a support moving mechanism;
a plurality of gripper sets movingly configured onto one or more of the support means;
wherein said apparatus is adapted such that in operation a horizontal movement of the plurality of support means across the pair of circular tracks and a vertically upward and/or downward movement of the one or more pairs of modular track portions are synchronized in such a way that one or more of the gripper sets of one of the support means is adapted to selectively pick up a set of articles from a first location while one or more of the gripper sets of another support means selectively treat a set of already picked articles at a second location.