Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-04-20
2003-08-19
Valenza, Joseph E. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...
Reexamination Certificate
active
06607066
ABSTRACT:
This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT International Application No. PCT/DK99/00332 which has an International filing date of Jun. 17, 1999, which designated the United States of America.
The present invention relates to a conveyor for transporting articles of mixed sizes, such as luggage and/or mail. More particularly the invention relates to a conveyor comprising a plurality of interconnected conveyor units, each comprising an article supporting member, such as a tray or a conveyor belt or any other suitable supporting member. The article supporting members of the conveyor units may be used individually for transporting articles, and two or more consecutive conveyor units may in an aligned state form a common article support surface for transporting articles larger than the individual article supporting member.
The present invention further relates to a pair of conveyor units for use in the conveyor.
BACKGROUND
Conveyors comprising a plurality of interconnected conveyor units, each comprising an article supporting member are generally known. It is further known to allow articles being conveyed by such conveyors to be carried by supporting members belonging to two or more adjacent conveyor units. However, articles carried by supporting members belonging to two or more adjacent conveyor units tend to shift on the surfaces of the supporting members when the conveyor units enter curves in a horizontal plane along the guide track, since a conveyor unit positioned in front of another conveyor unit will enter the curve before the other conveyor unit, resulting in mutual dispositioning of supporting members supporting the same article. The position of the article may shift so much that the performance and/or operation of the conveyor is disturbed. In some cases, the article may shift so much that it leaves one or more of the supporting members supporting the article, and it may even leave all of the supporting members supporting the article. This is in particular a problem if the conveyor units have to enter many curves while conveying the article. This may occur, e.g., when the guide track is very long and/or if the article has to be conveyed along the guide track several times, e.g. when a barcode, e.g. containing information about the destination of the article, needs to be read and the barcode is not very clear, e.g. due to damage and/or due to the barcode being positioned between the article and the surface of the supporting member, for which reason several passages of the barcode reader is required, thus the article has to travel the entire path of the guide track several times.
European patent No. EP 0 540 464 B1 discloses a conveyor comprising a plurality of trucks coupled together to form an endless chain of trucks, each truck having two dishes which are arranged one behind the other in the direction of travel, the two dishes forming a substantially continuous common supporting surface. The two dishes are capable of pivoting individually so as to unload goods being conveyed by the truck. It is thus possible to tip both, only one or none of the dishes at a certain destination station.
When large articles need to be conveyed by a conveyor as described above, the trucks need to be sufficiently long that the articles may be accommodated by the two dishes of a truck. This puts a lower limit to the radius of curvature of the curves of the guide track which may cause the area requirements of the conveyor to increase.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a conveyor for transporting articles of mixed sizes, the conveyor comprising a plurality of article supporting members, each member individually being able to support articles and at least some of the members being able to form a common article supporting surface for larger articles together with one and optionally more than one adjacent members, the members forming a common article supporting surface being substantially aligned in a projection on a horizontal plane so as to prevent articles from shifting their position when the members move at a path that curves in the horizontal plane and the members being supported by individual conveyor units that are mutually pivotally connected so as to allow the interconnected conveyor units to pass curves having a small radius of curvature, thereby reducing the area requirements of the conveyor.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a conveyor wherein the article supporting members forming a common article supporting surface are substantially aligned during all mutual pivotally movements of the conveyor units.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a conveyor wherein the article supporting members may be shifted between an aligned and a non-aligned state with an adjacent member.
It is a yet still further object of the invention to provide a conveyor wherein a plurality of the article supporting members may be shifted between an aligned and a non-aligned state with both its immediately adjacent article supporting members so as to increase the flexibility of the conveyor regarding transport of large and small articles.
It is a yet still further object of the invention to provide a conveyor wherein more than two consecutive article supporting members may be aligned so as to make the conveyor more flexible regarding variations of the size of the articles that are conveyed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a conveyor for transporting articles, the conveyor comprising
a stationary guide track having curved track sections,
at least one loading station for loading articles onto article supporting surfaces of the conveyor,
at least one discharge station for receiving articles from article supporting surfaces of the conveyor, and
a plurality of interconnected conveyor units which are mutually pivotally coupled, each conveyor unit comprising
a frame part,
an article supporting member mounted on and supported vertically by the frame part, the article supporting member having an article supporting surface, and
means for discharging articles from said article supporting member at a predetermined discharge station,
at least one of the plurality of conveyor units belonging to a first group of conveyor units, each of the conveyor units belonging to the first group of conveyor units comprising
first means for aligning the conveyor unit with another immediately adjacent conveyor unit belonging to a second group of conveyor units,
each of the conveyor units belonging to the second group of conveyor units comprising
second means for aligning the conveyor unit with another immediately adjacent conveyor unit belonging to the first group of conveyor units,
said first aligning means and said second aligning means being designed so that when a first conveyor unit belonging to the first group of conveyor units and an adjacent second conveyor unit belonging to the second group of conveyor units are aligned with each other by their respective first aligning means and second aligning means, the article supporting member of the first conveyor unit and the article supporting member of the second conveyor unit are substantially aligned in a projection on a horizontal plane so as to form a substantially common article supporting surface during all mutual pivotally movements of said first conveyor unit and said second conveyor unit.
The stationary guide track may be, e.g., a pair of mutually spaced rails adapted for receiving pairs of wheels which may be positioned on the individual conveyor units. It may alternatively be, e.g., a monorail or any other suitable kind of track. The stationary guide track defines the path of the conveyor. It is preferably a closed track, but it may alternatively be open-ended and establishing a conveyor connection between a loading station which is positioned at one end of the guide track and a discharge station which is positioned at the other end of the guide track.
The stationary guide track may comprise curved track sections being curved in a substantially horizontal plane and/or it may co
Andersen Per
Frederiksen Flemming
Kibsgaard Steen
Stensgard-Bay Hans
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Crisplant A/S
Valenza Joseph E.
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