Importance

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Abstract

Picking apparatus for picking and dispensing plastic sheet wrapped videocassette packages onto a high speed product gathering conveyor comprises a package dispensing mechanism with a package feed magazine containing a replenishable stack of these packages stacked on a platform of the dispensing mechanism. The dispensing mechanism is controlled by a computer and has a pair of dispensing belts with cogs that engage the package at the bottom of the stack and dispense it at a prescribed time off the platform and onto the conveyor. A set of nozzles with a pressurized air supply is operated to forcibly direct air between adjacent packages in the stack in a sequential manner to reduce adhesion therebetween prior to their dispensing and a bumper operated by a controlled plunger timely bumps the package at the bottom of the stack to help free it from the one immediately above and start it in the dispensing direction. Both the air circulation and the bumper act to reduce the force required of the dispensing cogs to dispense the package onto the conveyor in a timely and assured manner.

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First Claim