Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or... – With gravity-conveying means
Patent
1996-01-16
1998-02-17
Bidwell, James R.
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...
With gravity-conveying means
209900, B65G 3700
Patent
active
057183210
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The machine-readable post codes which should be specified on items of post, such as letters, postcards, packets and the like, as an identification for a location, a postal district, a PO box or a major recipient permit rapid, mechanical distribution of post. In this arrangement, sorting of the incoming items of post takes place with the aid of controllable conveyable-article carriers which are each loaded, preferably mechanically, with an item of post in special input locations and then discharge said item of post to a sorting container assigned to the respective postal code. After transfer of the item of post to the associated sorting container, the empty conveyable-article carrier can then once again be loaded with an item of post when it passes an input location.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,300,026 discloses a sorting apparatus for mail, which exhibits conveyable-article carriers which circulate in pairs on a conveying device and are intended for receiving, for transporting and for discharging, in a controllable manner, the mail to sorting containers. The conveying device comprises two chains which circulate endlessly at a spacing from one another, are guided in meandering fashion over corresponding rollers, and guide the conveyable-article carriers, in a plurality of planes located one above the other, along a row with sorting containers in each case. The meandering routing of the conveying device in a plurality of planes means that the sorting apparatus gives a relatively large overall height with correspondingly poor accessibility to the sorting containers arranged in the upper planes.
French Patent Document 24 54 338 discloses a sorting apparatus for mail, which exhibits a plurality of conveyable-article carriers which circulate on a conveying device and are intended for receiving, for transporting and for discharging, in a controllable manner, the mail to sorting containers. The conveyable-article carriers are fastened in pairs opposite one another on circulating transporting gondolas of the conveying device, the transporting gondolas, which are driven for example by an endless chain, being guided, by rollers, on a vertically aligned rail extending in the transporting direction. In the region of two adjacent, U-shaped deflections of the conveying device, the transporting gondolas are guided along a total of four parallel double rows with sorting containers, it being possible for the mail to be ejected from the conveyable-article carriers into said sorting containers. Due to the fact that the sorting containers are set up in four double rows and due to the interspaces required for the access of operating staff, a very large surface area is required in order to set up the entire sorting apparatus.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides an improved sorting apparatus for mail and the like. The sorting apparatus according to the present invention has a plurality of conveyable-article carriers which circulate on at least one conveying device and which are adapted for receiving, transporting and discharging, in a selective and controllable manner, articles to selected sorting containers. The conveyable-article carriers movably circulate through at least two planes, via at least one vertical deflection of the conveying device that carries the carriers between the planes. The sorting containers are positioned in at least two levels corresponding to at least two predefined operating planes of the conveying device. Also, the conveyable-article carriers in each plane are guided along in two rows, spaced apart from one another in the corresponding level with sorting containers. This arrangement permits use of a multiplicity of sorting containers within a confined space.
As used herein, the term "sorting container" includes any suitable compartment for receiving the sorted conveyable articles. Specifically, such sorting containers may be boxes, bags, or the compartments of a rack storage system.
Besides sorting and distributing mail in public post offices or central in-house
REFERENCES:
patent: 3300026 (1967-01-01), Lens et al.
patent: 4310276 (1982-01-01), Castagnoli
patent: 4635787 (1987-01-01), Thake
patent: 4688678 (1987-08-01), Zue et al.
patent: 5096047 (1992-03-01), Morikiyo et al.
patent: 5109987 (1992-05-01), Daboub et al.
patent: 5195641 (1993-03-01), Signoretto
patent: 5293983 (1994-03-01), Grapes et al.
patent: 5419457 (1995-05-01), Ross et al.
patent: 5535874 (1996-07-01), Ross et al.
Brugger Rudolf
Hopler Adolf
Lange Wilfried
Schulz Volkmar
Schuster Rudolf
Bidwell James R.
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
LandOfFree
Sorting apparatus for mail and the like does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Sorting apparatus for mail and the like, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Sorting apparatus for mail and the like will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1777642