MARK ALAN KILLIAN
Engineers in Lancaster, PA

5967728, Oct 19, 1999

Nov 26, 1997

8/978835

Charles C. Gales - Lancaster PA
Mark A. Killian - Lancaster PA
Colin T. McShane - Oxford PA
Richard T. Nornhold - Ephrata PA

Emtrol, Inc. - Lancaster PA

B65G 102

414284

A rail system and transfer vehicle for a storage retrieval system. The rails are fabricated to include a vehicle support surface that supports a transfer vehicle, a load support surface that supports the skid, tote, vessel, or pallet to be stored, a spacing surface that defines the distance between the load support surface and the vehicle support surface. Attached to the load support surface is an alignment surface that extends upwardly at an angle between 40 and 80 from the horizontal. When a misaligned pallet is lowered, it first contacts the alignment surface and as it continues to be lowered, interaction between the alignment surface and the misaligned pallet causes the pallet to move into alignment with the rail system before coming to rest on the load support surface. The rail system can be used in conjunction with a high weight capacity transfer vehicle. Load lift is provided by a plurality of interconnected screw jacks.

8181767, May 22, 2012

Feb 25, 2010

12/712485

Charles C. Gales - Lancaster PA, US
Mark Alan Killian - Lancaster PA, US

Weldon Machine Tool, Inc. - York PA

B65G 47/22

198404, 1986261, 1986901

The invention is directed to an inverting device which takes one or more articles from a first device, inverts the article(s), and discharges the article(s) onto a second device that may be at essentially the same relative height as the first device. The inverting device has a rotating device with two opposed surfaces that are spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the height of the article. Once the article(s) has been moved into position in the rotating device, the rotating device rotates 180 degrees about a transverse axis, resulting in the inversion of the article. The new orientation of the article may facilitate further processing in a manufacturing environment, such as cleaning, filling, labeling, stacking or any other activity that relies on a specific product disposition.

2004007, Apr 15, 2004

Jul 3, 2003

10/613618

Raymond Anater - Lancaster PA, US
Charles Gales - Lancaster PA, US
Mark Killian - Lancaster PA, US

B65G057/04, B65G059/04

414/793200, 414/796400, 414/797100, 294/065500

An automated container management system including at least one robotic device, a container inverting apparatus, a conveyor system, a container stack, and a storage and retrieval system transfer vehicle. The first and second robotic devices each having a container cooperation head. The container cooperation head has pneumatically driven magnetic lift assemblies for stacking and unstacking multiple containers as a single unit between the conveyor system and the container stack. The container storage and retrieval system transfer vehicle services the container stack. An inverting apparatus inverts the multiple containers before stacking and after unstacking to facilitate storage of the multiple containers in an inverted position.

6234303, May 22, 2001

Sep 7, 1999

9/391640

Charles C. Gales - Lancaster PA
Mark A. Killian - Lancaster PA
Kenneth E. Gundel - Lancaster PA

Emtrol, Inc. - Lancaster PA

B65G 1510

198817

The invention is directed to a conveyor assembly for use in conveying a load from a first device or member to a second device or member. The conveyor assembly has a frame with a pair of frame support members spaced from each other in an essentially parallel manner. A pair of belts are provided proximate the frame support members, with each belt having a wide portion and a narrow portion. The wide portions of the belts cooperate with surfaces of the frame support members when the belts are in a first position. The wide portions of the belt cooperate with a container such that as the belt is moved from the first position to the second position, the container is moved accordingly. The narrow portion allows a transport assembly to be moved into and out of the conveyor assembly, whereby the configuration of the belt allows the conveyor assembly to be used for containers which are more narrow than the transport assembly, thereby effectively providing the transport assembly with an effectively smaller width.