Patent 7475767 was granted and assigned to Key Technology, Inc. on January, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention is a vibratory distribution system which utilizes a metering gate assembly useful for selectively passing and diverting articles from a stream of articles to either or both a downstream conveyor or a cross conveyor. The metering gate assembly is capable of providing a proportional distribution in response to a user specified control point. The metering gate assembly includes an actuator that is borne by the conveyor bed, and a control valve that is operable to hold a slide gate in a desired position despite the violent vibratory motion imparted by the conveyor bed.