William W Wilson
Mortuary Science in Southampton, PA

5493104, Feb 20, 1996

Aug 19, 1993

8/109195

William J. Wilson - Holland PA

The Langston Corporation - Cherry Hill NJ

B61L 116, G06M 700, B65H 2934

235 98R

An apparatus and associated method separates from a stream of boxes a desired number of boxes into a stack of boxes. A conveyor moves the stream of boxes along a path. A speed wheel mounted upstream of the conveyor- or register the speed of the stream of boxes by determining the machine speed. An adjustable backstop is spaced from the conveyor by a length of the boxes in the board path direction for stopping the longitudinal movement of the boxes. A photocell is mounted in association with the conveyor to count the boxes and determine when a trailing edge of the last box passes. It is automatically determined when a leading edge of the box will engage the backstop after the trailing edge passes the photocell. A plurality of fingers are inserted into the stream of boxes by firing a cylinder when the leading edge of the last box engages the backstop therein placing the finger in the stream to temporarily stop the flow of boxes to the stack.

5257299, Oct 26, 1993

Jun 2, 1992

7/896483

William J. Wilson - Holland PA

The Langston Corporation - Cherry Hill NJ

G06M 704, G06M 302

377 6

A method and a system for counting irregularly shaped articles that are being moved along a path into and out of a machine. A microprocessor is responsive to three external devices with the first device being located at the input stage of the machine and detecting the leading and the trailing edges of the articles being moved into the machine and respectively generating start and stop events to the microprocessor. The second device is a distance sensing means used to determine the length of each of the articles being moved. The third device detects the movement of the articles in their formed state, such as a box, out of the machine. The microprocessor in response to the first occurring start event initiates the counting of the incremental changes from the distance sensing means and terminates the counting in response to the first occurring stop event. The accumulated count is then decremented by one incremental change so as to serve as a reference length used to compare against each of the subsequent articles. The microprocessor in response to the second occurring start event initiates the counting of the incremental changes from the distance sensing means and counts such until the amount of the incremental changes corresponds to the reference length whereupon the occurrence of the exit signal from the device at the output stage causes the count of the articles to be incremented.