{
  "patent_number": "US 11648589",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "Automated System for Emptying and Sorting Items from Shipping Containers",
  "original_title": "Systems and methods to enhance the utilization of order sortation systems",
  "summary": "This patent describes an automated system for quickly emptying items from shipping containers, like totes, by inverting them onto a conveyor belt for scanning and sorting into customer orders.",
  "what_it_does": "This patent outlines a system and method for efficiently processing items from containers in a warehouse. It involves an incoming conveyor that brings a container, like a tote, to a container handling system. This system then uses a pusher mechanism to slide the container to an inversion mechanism, which grasps and flips the container to dump its contents onto an item conveyor system. As the items travel on this conveyor, a barcode scanner identifies them. Finally, an automated item sorter separates these items into groups based on specific customer orders, while the now-empty container is moved away on an outgoing conveyor. For example, a tote filled with various products for different online orders would be automatically emptied, scanned, and its contents sorted for packing.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover manual unloading of containers by human workers.",
    "Does not cover systems that pick individual items from a container without inverting the entire container.",
    "Does not cover sorting systems that do not include a barcode scanner to identify items.",
    "Does not cover systems where the empty container is not automatically transported away on an outgoing conveyor.",
    "Does not cover systems that use methods other than inversion to transfer items from a container to a conveyor, such as scooping or vacuuming.",
    "Does not cover sorting items without an 'automated item sorter' as specified in the claims."
  ],
  "filed": "2021-08-05",
  "granted": "2023-05-16",
  "expires": "2041-08-05",
  "status": "active",
  "holder": "Target Brands",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/target-brands",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Taylor Marsh",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/taylor-marsh"
    },
    {
      "name": "Gervasio Mutarelli",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/gervasio-mutarelli"
    },
    {
      "name": "Justin Feider",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/justin-feider"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 1,
  "tags": [
    "consumer_electronics",
    "software",
    "ecommerce",
    "mechanical",
    "telecommunications"
  ],
  "abstract": "Systems and methods can enhance efficiencies of order fulfillment processes. For example, this document describes systems and methods for optimizing the efficiency of automated order sortation processing lines to expedite order processing in a cost-effective manner. In some embodiments, this innovation includes a fast, efficient method for supplying items to order sortation process lines so that they operate at peak efficiently, and the workers are utilized at a high level of efficiency.",
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/11648589/systems-and-methods-to-enhance-the-utilization-of-order-sortation-systems",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/11648589/systems-and-methods-to-enhance-the-utilization-of-order-sortation-systems/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US11648589",
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}