ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,246,920, issued on March 11, was assigned to HIRATA Corp. (Kumamoto, Japan).
"Tray transport apparatus and transfer system" was invented by Shuichi Komuro (Kumamoto, Japan) and Yoichi Hirasawa (Kumamoto, Japan).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tray transport apparatus comprises a reception portion configured to receive a container configured to accommodate a stack formed by stacking a plurality of trays, an accommodation portion configured to accommodate the stack, the accommodation portion being disposed above the reception portion, a transfer unit configured to lift the stack from the container to separate the stack from the container ...