Appeal No. 97-1754
Application 08/462,133
4 and 5, wherein in the center of each figure there is shown a
vertical elevator shaft, and to the right thereof a pallet
staging area comprising an upper storage area for empty
pallets overlying a lower storage area for filled pallets.
Chiappe, the examiner’s primary reference, is appellants’
prior art jumping off point. With reference to Figure 1,
Chiappe operates generally in the same manner as appellants’
claimed apparatus in the sense that when the output flow of
articles from upstream work stations 14-22 matches the demand
for articles by downstream work stations 34a-34c, regulating
apparatus 46 simply moves articles from inbound lanes 26a,
26b, etc. to outbound lanes 30a, 30b, etc. However, when the
output flow of articles from the upstream work stations does
not match the demand for articles by the downstream work
stations, regulating apparatus functions to either (a) add
extra articles to the flow of articles, as when downstream
demand excesses upstream supply, or (b) remove extra articles
from the flow, as when downstream demand is less than upstream
supply.
5
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