Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – With gravity-conveying means
Reexamination Certificate
2001-03-05
2002-08-27
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3652)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
With gravity-conveying means
C198S463600, C198S464400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06439366
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for separating a jumbled collection of articles into a plurality of separate and discrete articles.
The invention has particular application to the separation of a collection of garment or clothing hangers in a recycling installation for used hangers. In such an installation the hangers are to be separated prior to being sorted into groups or categories according to the particular hanger style or type. The invention is herein described in this exemplary context. It is to be appreciated however that the method and apparatus of the invention are not limited to this particular application but are suitable for use in separating a variety of different articles.
BACKGROUND
For many years clothes hangers used in the retail clothing industry have largely been disposable. That is, the hangers have been used to hang clothing either in storage or on display, and when the clothing is removed from the hanger, such as after sale, the hanger is no longer required and is disposed of as rubbish. This is particularly so where clothing is supplied by a wholesaler to the retail outlet on hangers, which is generally the case at least for larger department stores, as the retailer has no need for the hanger once the garment hung thereon has been sold. The hangers are simply collected by the retailer and disposed of as general rubbish. Despite the obvious waste, it is nevertheless a nuisance for either the retailer or the wholesaler to sort the hangers for reuse, particularly when the one retailer might have garments supplied on a wide variety of different hangers. Furthermore, significant transport costs may be incurred in returning the hangers to each wholesaler.
For the above reasons, hangers for retail use have typically been very low cost items, being mainly plastic moulded and of a relatively flimsy nature. Because of their construction, such hangers can bend and buckle if they are used to support weighty garments and in general, these do not reflect positively on the quality of the retail outlet, particularly when the garments are of an expensive nature. Retailers would typically prefer to use better quality hangers. However, rather than maintain their own inventory of quality hangers and themselves invest significant time and labour to separately hang thousands of garments, large retailers will (as already noted) usually require the wholesaler/manufacturer to supply garments with hangers. Cost considerations result in the wholesaler/manufacturer supplying the garments with low quality, disposable hangers.
Disposal of clothing hangers for the foregoing reasons is understandably regarded as wasteful, costly and detrimental to the environment. With increasing effort being made to reduce wastage in industry generally, the disposal of significant numbers of hangers does not reflect well on the retail clothing industry. There is therefore considerable motivation to recycle clothing hangers if this could be done in a cost effective manner. However, recycling of hangers is known to be a cumbersome task, because the hangers need to be sorted into groups of the same kind or style, and if the hangers to be recycled are provided for sorting in a jumbled state, then many of the hangers will be tangled together. The most common entanglement is where the hooks are tangled, which is known as the hangers being “crossed”.
There is therefore a need for a simplified operation to decross or separate hangers from a supply of hangers to be sorted and to remove groups of hangers that cannot be decrossed. Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method and an apparatus for that purpose.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided an apparatus for separating a jumbled collection of articles into a plurality of separate and discrete articles, including:
conveyor means adapted to transport a plurality of the articles in succession along a process path;
separation means adapted to permit the articles to proceed along the process path one at a time;
sensing means adapted to detect when an article is entangled or interconnected with one or more other article; and
removal means adapted to remove any such entangled or interconnected articles from the process path.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the separation means includes barrier means adapted to intermittently restrain and release passage of successive individual articles along the conveyor means process path. Preferably, the barrier means includes a pair of gate members spaced apart along the process path, each of said gate members being moveable between an open and a closed position. A downstream one of said gate members is adapted to restrain an immediately adjacent upstream article and successive following articles from proceeding along the process path when in the closed position. An upstream one of the gate members is adapted to isolate said upstream article immediately adjacent the closed downstream gate member from the other articles when in the closed position, such that the downstream gate member can be opened to release said isolated article. Furthermore, the pair of gate members are spaced apart along the process path a distance sufficient to permit only a single article to fit therebetween, and the upstream gate member is adapted to be opened after the downstream gate member is closed.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the sensing means is adapted to detect the passage of released articles along the process path beyond the barrier means. Furthermore, the sensor means is adapted to interpret a delay in the passage of a released article along the process path as indicating entanglement of that article with an adjacent following article.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the removal means includes a bridging device interconnecting two sections of the conveyor means, the bridging device able to be moved to create an opening or gap between the sections of the conveyor means to allow entangled articles to drop out of the process path. Preferably the sensing means is adapted to identify said delayed article and said following article for removal from the process path, the sensing means further adapted to actuate the removal means to remove the identified articles.
Typically, the articles to be separated are clothing or garment hangers and the conveyor means is preferably adapted to engage with a hook of each of the hangers to transport a plurality of the hangers in succession along the process path. Desirably, therefore, the conveyor means includes a screw conveyor upstream of the separation means, with the screw conveyor configured to allow a single hanger hook to fit between adjacent thread portions of the conveyor screw to facilitate arrangement of the hangers in succession.
In at least one exemplary embodiment, therefore, the present invention provides a hanger separating facility that separates a hanger from one end of a line of hangers and releases that hanger for conveyance by conveying means to a hanger sorting facility, while retaining the remaining hangers from release from the hanger line. Conveyance of the separated hanger is retarded if it is crossed with another hanger remaining in the line of hangers and sensing means is provided to sense that retardation and to cause the separating facility to release a predetermined number of hangers from the line of hangers immediately adjacent the retarded hanger, for removal of those hangers prior to the sorting facility.
The apparatus of the invention advantageously removes crossed hangers from the line of hangers, so that those hangers can be sent to be decrossed, and so that the remaining hangers can proceed directly to the sorting facility. Decrossing of the crossed hangers can be by any suitable method or means and the decrossed hangers can be returned to the apparatus of the invention for conveyance to the sorting facility, or they can be sent directly to the sorting facility.
In the apparatus according to the invention, the line of hangers
Amster Rothstein & Ebenstein
Dillon, Jr. Joe
Ellis Christopher P.
Rosebay Terrace Pty Ltd.
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