Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – Plural laterally spaced locations fed to or received from a...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-22
2003-12-30
Valenza, Joseph E. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
Plural laterally spaced locations fed to or received from a...
C198S370060
Reexamination Certificate
active
06669012
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a conveyor device, and particularly to a conveyor device for controlling the posture and position of a package during conveyance process in the distribution of goods.
BACKGROUND ART
It is necessary to move packages in a direction orthogonal to the direction of advancement of the conveyor in order to control merging and divergence of packages in distributing goods.
Namely, when a case is considered where packages are merged or diverged, as shown in
FIG. 11
, for example, first, in order to merge packages flowing from three lines, it is necessary to move the packages closer to the center of the conveyor, and then, in order to diverge them in two directions, it is necessary to distribute the packages to the left and right to come in line with the positions of the conveyors that are the divergence destinations.
In case of goods distribution equipment of conventional methods, a member referred to as a “shoe” that operates along a rail located at a fixed angle with respect to the traveling direction of the package presses against the package so as to push and thereby to move the package in an orthogonal direction at the position at which it is wished to provide divergence.
FIG. 10
shows a method based on such shoes for the divergence to the left and right wherein each of a number of shoes
101
located on the rail
100
located at a fixed angle with respect to the direction of travel are generally retracted to a standby position, and is moved thereby pushing the package W in the direction of the sorting unit when a corresponding package W comes close to a corresponding sorting unit
102
, so that the package W is ejected to the side of the sorting unit
102
.
These conventional conveyance methods have the following problems.
(1) The diverging method employing shoes is a mechanical diverging method and it is therefore necessary to modify the conveyor device as a whole in order to change the layout. This requires a large amount of labor, time and money.
(2) It is necessary to have a distance of exactly one shoe between packages in order to move the shoes and thereby to push the packages.
(3) The shoe movement is determined by the rail and thus no operation is possible to take into consideration the width and posture of the package. The package moving down in a tilted condition cannot be aligned in a line and each package can only be pushed by the same number of shoes, regardless of whether the package is large or small, and thus, pushing of large packages becomes unstable.
(4) When a package is pushed by shoes, the positions of each package are aligned along a surface where it is pushed, but when the width of the each package is different, the alignment of the position of center cannot be achieved and the alignment of the package along a surface on an opposite side to the shoe cannot be achieved.
(5) The angle of the rail for pushing the shoes is mechanically fixed, and thus, there may be cases where a package may be kicked off depending on the condition such as the weight, size or speed of conveyance of the package. Consequently, it may be necessary to change the conveyor device as a whole in order to change the conveyance speed.
(6) When it is intended to perform at a high speed complex branching and merging controls as shown in
FIG. 11
, the number of types of the conveyor device to be used becomes many and the shape of conveyor device to be used becomes long. Consequently, the work of mounting becomes complex and requires a large amount of space.
(7) More than anything, it was not possible with the conventional device apparatus to mount a package at any position on a conveyor portion of the conveyor device or to change the posture of a package in any manner.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to provide a device which makes it possible to maintain a package in any posture, to change into any posture, and to move a package in a goods distribution system etc. The object is also to provide a device which enables the implementation of a goods distribution system of flexible type wherein it is possible to reduce the number of types of goods distribution equipment employed in the construction of a goods distribution system and also to eliminate the need to enlarge the device itself and thereby being flexible when a high speed is to be achieved.
In order to achieve the aforementioned object, the invention of claim 1 is directed to a conveyor device comprising a main conveyor portion formed by linking together a plurality of conveyor sub-units, and a driving means for driving the main conveyor portion, wherein each of the conveyor sub-units comprises a secondary conveyor portion, a drive means for secondary conveyor portion for driving the secondary conveyor portion forward and in reverse, and means for communicating with a control instruction device, and wherein a conveying direction of each of the secondary conveyor portion is orthogonal to a conveying direction of the main conveyor portion.
The conveyor sub-units constituting the main conveyor portion of the conveyor device each has a conveyor portion (the conveying portion of each conveyor sub-unit is hereinafter referred to as “a secondary conveyor portion”). In another words, each conveyor unit has by itself a function as a conveyor.
The conveyor direction of each secondary conveyor portion (secondary conveyor direction) is in a direction orthogonal to the conveyor direction of the main conveyor portion of the conveyor device (main conveyor direction).
The control instruction device is a control means for instructing the operation of the conveyor sub-units or the operation of the conveyor device comprising the conveyor sub-units and is a control device, such as a host computer, provided externally of the conveyor sub-units.
The communication means for communicating between the conveyor sub-units and the control instruction device may be cabled or wireless. The conveyor device is made capable of moving packages on the main conveyor portion in a direction orthogonal to the direction of travel of the main conveyor portion and of changing the posture of the package as a result of each conveyor sub-unit driving the secondary conveyor portion based on the instructions from the control instruction device.
The invention of claim 2 is directed to a conveyor device comprising a main conveyor portion formed by linking together a plurality of conveyor sub-units, and a drive means for driving the main conveyor portion, wherein each of the conveyor sub-unit comprises a secondary conveyor portion, a drive means for secondary conveyor portion for driving the secondary conveyor portion forward and in reverse, and a means for performing inter-units communication with other conveyor sub-units, wherein at least one of the conveyor sub-units comprises a means for communicating with a control instruction device, and wherein a conveying direction of each secondary conveyor portion is in a direction orthogonal to a conveying direction of the main conveyor portion.
Each conveyor unit has a means for mutually communicating with other sub-units (hereinafter referred to as “inter-sub-units communication means”), and thus, each conveyor unit becomes capable of operating based on the information from other conveyor units. As a result, packages on the main conveyor portion can be moved in a direction orthogonal to the direction of travel of the main conveyor portion and of changing the posture of a package by each conveyor sub-unit driving the secondary conveyor portion based on the instructions from the control instruction device.
It is by no means necessary for the means for communicating with the control instruction device and the inter-sub-unit communication means to be two separate means, and the same means maybe used for these means.
The invention of claim 3 is directed to the conveyor device of either claim 1 or 2, wherein some or all of the conveyor sub-units each comprises a detection means for detecting a position of a package on its own secondary conveyor portion.
Some
Komazawa Yuichi
Yoshida Takashi
Fitch Even Tabin & Flannery
Technowave, Ltd.
Valenza Joseph E.
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