Article picking and treating apparatus

1. An apparatus for picking and treating articles comprising:

a pair of parallel closed loop conveying tracks having one or more pairs of vertically movable modular track portions, each pair of said vertically moveable modular track portions including a first modular track portion being part of a first track of said pair of closed loop conveying tracks and a second modular track portion being part of the second track of said pair of closed loop conveying tracks;

a plurality of support means configured transversally to the pair of closed loop conveying tracks, each support means extending between and connected to the pair of conveying tracks at its opposite ends through a support moving mechanism;

a plurality of gripper sets movingly configured onto one or more of the support means;

wherein said apparatus is adapted such that in operation a horizontal movement of the plurality of support means across the pair of circular tracks and a vertically upward and/or downward movement of the one or more pairs of modular track portions are synchronized in such a way that one or more of the gripper sets of one of the support means is adapted to selectively pick up a set of articles from a first location while one or more of the gripper sets of another support means selectively treat a set of already picked articles at a second location.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , having two pairs of vertically moveably modular track portions, and adapted such that in operation, when a first support means supporting one or more gripper sets is located on a first pair of vertically moveable modular track portions and a second support means is located on the second pair, upward and/or downward movement of the two pairs of track portions is performed in order to selectively pick up a set of articles from a first location while one or more of the gripper sets of the second support means selectively treats a set of already picked articles at a second location.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the support means is a support rail adapted to movingly support the plurality of gripper sets.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein each of the gripper sets is longitudinally movable onto the corresponding support means through a gripper movement mechanism.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the gripper sets comprising one or more of individual gripping heads arranged in a predetermined configuration, each gripping head adapted to pick up an article from a first conveying line.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the support movement mechanism comprises a plurality of pair of support movers movingly configured onto the pair of conveying tracks, each of the pair of support movers adapted to movingly engage one of the support means through an engagement means.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the engagement means comprises a pair of engaging lugs each connected to the one of the pair of support movers and adapted to engage one end of the support means such that a horizontal movement of the pair of support movers horizontally moves the support means connected there between.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising a first powering means for powering the pair of closed loop conveying tracks and a second powering means for enabling a movement of each of a plurality of movers including the support movers and the gripper sets, wherein the first and second powering means are selected from one or more of, but not limited to, linear motors, servo motors and synchronic and/or asynchronic motor drives.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 , further comprising a control unit for optimizing a movement of each of the conveying tracks, the support movers, the gripper sets, and gripping heads of the gripper sets, in accordance to a desired pick-up and/or a drop operation either continuously and/or intermittently.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the support means and/or the gripper sets and/or the gripping heads are wirelessly powered and/or wirelessly controlled.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the gripper sets is adapted to pick up the set of articles from a first conveying line, and at least one another gripper sets is adapted to drop an already picked up set of articles simultaneously and at the same time in a package at a second conveying line.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein each of the gripper sets is adapted to orient the picked-up articles before dropping into the package at the second conveying line.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the first conveying line comprises one or more means for grouping and arranging the articles in a predetermined configuration.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the second conveying line comprises an output of a carton forming unit carrying a supply of cartons to be packaged with articles.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein one or more of the support means supports an article treatment device different from the gripper sets.