Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items – By longitudinally respacing successive articles in stream
Utility Patent
1999-07-07
2001-01-02
Bidwell, James R. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor system for arranging or rearranging stream of items
By longitudinally respacing successive articles in stream
C198S461200, C198S832100
Utility Patent
active
06168008
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates generally to drive systems, and more particularly, to a drive system for a mail processing machine.
BACKGROUND ART
Mail processing machines with continuously driven conveyor chains having document feeding sections defined by feeding fingers are known. Handling stations or processing stations are lined up along such conveyor chains. Documents or sets of documents are advanced from the handling stations or processing stations into the document feeding sections by generating a movement of the documents or sets of documents in feeding direction of the continuously driven conveyor chain so that constantly stopping and re-accelerating, respectively, of the conveyor chain is not necessary.
However, as soon as the documents or sets of documents of the feeding sections of the conveyor chain approach a handling section or processing section in which a precise positioning of the document or of the set of documents in relation to the feeding direction is essential for the further handling or processing in this handling station or processing station, it is necessary to switch over from a continuous feeding to an intermittent feeding. This applies particularly as the documents or sets of documents reach an inserter station in which the documents or sets of documents are inserted into envelopes provided in opened status, the inserting taking place in a direction transverse to the feeding direction of the conveyor chain.
For this purpose, in known mail processing machines, the first mentioned continuously driven chain transfers the documents or sets of documents from its feeding section to a further conveyor chain being driven temporarily with increased speed, however, being stopped in predetermined time intervals, the transferring taking place before the documents or sets of documents reach the inserter station. The further or second conveyor chain is operated with its operation speed and its operation cycle tuned to the operation speed of the first mentioned conveyor chain so that, at a transfer location, the feeding fingers of the intermittently driven conveyor chain raise or emerge above the level of the conveyor track in a region behind the respective feeding fingers defining a feeding section of the continuously driven conveyor chain on the rear side. Because of different widths of the respective trace of the continuously driven conveyor chain on the one side and of the intermittently driven conveyor chain on the other side, the feeding fingers of the intermittently driven conveyor chain override the feeding fingers of the continuously driven conveyor chain sidewise, and, thereby take over the set of documents being advanced. This having happened, the feeding fingers of said continuously driven conveyor chain moving slower and having become disengaged from the document or the set of documents dive or drop below the level of the conveyor track. The feeding fingers of the intermittently driven conveyor chain push the document or the set of documents in a desired position of the handling station or inserter station and, as soon as the desired position has been reached, are stopped by switching off the drive of the intermittently driven conveyor chain for a short time interval.
The respective handling station having completed its operation cycle and the document or set of documents having been further advanced or having been inserted in a direction transverse to the feeding direction horizontally, the intermittently driven conveyor chain is reactivated and the operation cycle described above can now repeat.
For tuning the operation speeds of the respective conveyor chains, and for synchronizing the operation cycles, mechanical gears, means for speed control and closed-loop speed control, and furthermore clutches controllable by electrical signals and the like can be utilized. In some cases, the required control and regulation means are sensitive to defects and malfunction and may not reliably avoid the diverse parts of the driving system to lose synchronism.
Providing a guided tuning, i.e., a mechanically geared synchronism, results in high expenditure for bearings, parts of gears, diverting an reversing means and further parts of the transmission.
From German Patent 3815216, a drive system having two cascaded conveyor chains for hollow bodies and a handling station is known. The conveyor chains and the handling station are driven by a common driving motor, whereby the output shaft of the driving motor, which is parallel to the driving shafts of said two conveyor chains, is coupled between said driving shafts of the conveyor chains via three horizontally oriented bevel gears of a bevel gear drive, the respective axes of said bevel gears consecutively defining 90° angles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The drive system of the present invention is adapted for use with a suitable mail processing system, such as a mail processing system comprising:
a first conveyor chain being continuously moved and having first document feeding sections by first feeding fingers;
a second conveyor chain following the first conveyor chain in feeding direction, being moved intermittently and having second document feeding sections defined by second feeding fingers; and
the second conveyor chain taking over sets of documents of the first conveyor chain and, in operation, advancing the sets of documents to a handling station with increased speed.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a novel drive system for a mail processing machine so that a geared drive and asynchronism of the parts operated in mutually tuned manner of the mail processing machine is obtained at comparatively reduced expenditure and with a comparatively simple and clear structure.
This object, in accordance with the present invention, is achieved by a drive system having the features defined above and wherein a common drive motor serves for driving horizontal, parallel driving shafts of the first and second conveyor chains, respectively, the common driving motor having an output shaft which is parallelly oriented to the first and second driving shafts and which is coupled to the first driving shaft of the continuously moved first conveyor chain via three horizontally oriented bevel gears of a bevel gear drive, the respective axes of the bevel gears consecutively defining 90° angles and wherein the output shaft is furthermore coupled to the second driving shaft of the intermittently moved conveyor chain via a step gear drive, the input shaft and the output shaft of the step gear drive having respectively opposite sense of rotation and being oriented parallelly to the first and second driving shaft.
Advantageously, the bevel gear drive is mounted on the frame structure of the mail processing machine adjacent the step gear drive, wherein the input shaft and the output shaft of the bevel gear drive are coaxial and, as are the input shaft and the output shaft of the step gear drive, are positioned below the conveyor track of the conveyor chains oriented transverse to the feeding direction.
It is with this design that an indexed belt drive or a chain drive can be led from the output shaft of the bevel gear drive directly upward to the driving shaft of the continuously driven conveyor chain, and a further indexed belt drive or chain drive can be led from the output shaft of the step gear drive directly upward to the driving shaft of the intermittently driven conveyor chain. The input shaft of the bevel gear drive and the input shaft of the step gear drive can be coupled directly, e.g., by an indexed belt drive or a chain drive, and rotate in the same direction. The output shafts of the bevel gear drive and of the step gear drive also rotate in one and the same direct, however, respectively opposite to the sense of rotation of the corresponding input shafts, since, in the step gear drive, a reversal of the sense of rotation takes place. Also a reversal of the sense of rotation takes place by the three bevel gears of the bevel gear drive.
The shaft of the middle or second bevel gear of the bevel gea
Brauneis Axel
Sting Martin
Bell & Howell GmbH
Bidwell James R.
Jenkins & Wilson, P.A.
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