Sorting apparatus with arbitrary user-specified sequence control

US7398134B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Hallmark Cards, Incorporated · US

Inventors

• Daniel J. Carley · Syracuse, US
• Robert R. Montgomery · Mequon, US
• James B. Scherer · Bloomsbury, US
• George C. Smith · Euless, US
• Terry Wessel · Osage City, US
• John Barrett George · Carmel, US
• Barbara Enright-Anderson · Lenexa, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 1, 2004
• Grant date: Jul 8, 2008
• Expiry date: Nov 20, 2025

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B07C5/38
• WIPO field: Chemical engineering
• WIPO sector: Chemistry

Abstract

A sorting system may include a sorting apparatus coupled to a programmable control system which is configured to actuate the sorting apparatus so that it assembles similar products for packaging in an arbitrary, user imposed order or selection bias. In preferred implementations, a user may activate a biasing protocol pursuant to which items bearing certain images appear with a disproportionate frequency on the top of a stack of items such that the selected images are the most common images viewable through a transparent product packaging. In certain implementations, empirical sales data is used to determine weighting factors used in the biasing protocol. In still other implementations, a more specific ordering protocol is imposed by a user such that some or all of the sequence of items in a stack or collection is arbitrarily imposed.