Package making – Group forming of contents unit and subsequent or further... – From plural or different supply sources
Patent
1997-03-28
1999-08-31
Moon, Daniel B.
Package making
Group forming of contents unit and subsequent or further...
From plural or different supply sources
53155, 53168, 53237, 53238, 36447804, 414268, 414273, B65B 3554
Patent
active
059438410
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a commissioning system comprising at least one central conveyor, in particular a central belt, for receiving products to be taken from a storage means by commissioners and to be assembled according to an order, and a conveying installation to move away in collecting containers the products transferred at a transfer site at the end of the central conveyor.
The storing of a large number of products in wholesale, and the commissioning of various products according to an order is a problem which typcially occurs particularly in pharmaceutical wholesale, but also in the delivery of sound carriers (cf. DE 42 25 041 A). Orders are filled several times per day. The assembly and delivery of the products required should be effected as quickly as possible after the respective order has been received. To this end, also commissioning machines are frequently used (cf. e.g. EP 592 729 A); the latter do quickly and reliably put together the ordered products, yet they are comparatively expensive to buy, and, as a rule, they can only be used for certain products. In most instances, commissioning machines must be refilled manually and require a careful maintenance and service. An important element of a commissioning machine is the ejector which ejects a product from a stack. A malfunction at one ejector thus may block the entire course of commissioning.
With manual commissioning, such a malfunction cannot occur. With manual commissioning, usually each commissioner completely fills an order according to an order list or document, the type and number of pieces of products per order being largely variable, i.e. the commissioners are irregularly employed (unproductive time), which is detrimental from an economic point of view.
From DE 41 04 527 A and EP 282 785 A furthermore commissioning installations for items are known in which the items, e.g. medicaments, are stored in a paternoster shelf and from there are manually removed according to the commissioning orders and deposited in selected, tiltable intermediate storage containers, from where they are automatically transfered into transport containers passed by therebelow on a conveyor belt, when the order has been finished. Yet, due to the paternoster shelf, on the one hand, as well as to the transfer of the items directly into the transport containers, on the other hand, storage, and in particular also the commissioning possibilities, and above all the speed of commissioning or handling, is limited.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention has as its object to provide a commissioning system which has a low susceptance to failure, enables a guidance of the commissioners without any documents and ensures a uniform rate of employment of the commissioners and thus a reduction or elimination of unproductive times. Furthermore, the commissioning system is to be designed such that also a combination of automatic and manual commissioning is enabled in a synergistic manner.
The commissioning system of the above-defined type is characterized in that the central conveyor has a plurality of adjacently arranged containers associated therewith to receive the products, and that a pre-determined number of the adjacently arranged containers each define a respective commissioning region for a commissioner, a pre-determined number of associated product types on stock being associated to each commissioning region, and at least one of the commissioning regions neighbouring a respective commissioning region forming a supplementary commissioning region to that commissioning region, that the containers empty their contents onto the central conveyor under the control of a control computer, and that for each commissioner a terminal, in particular a portable radio terminal, is provided for communication with the control computer.
The structure according to the invention provides in an advantageous manner for a type of semi-automatic cmmissioning, in which the commissioner is guided without any documents on the basis of data transmitted to him or he
REFERENCES:
patent: 2570918 (1951-10-01), Chodziesner
patent: 3247929 (1966-04-01), Langley
patent: 3379321 (1968-04-01), Weir
patent: 3561619 (1971-02-01), Weir
patent: 3616944 (1971-11-01), Field
patent: 3624792 (1971-11-01), Lipfert
patent: 4426189 (1984-01-01), Weber et al.
patent: 4501528 (1985-02-01), Knapp
patent: 4542808 (1985-09-01), Lloyd et al.
patent: 4792273 (1988-12-01), Specht
patent: 4870799 (1989-10-01), Bergerioux et al.
patent: 4874281 (1989-10-01), Bergerioux et al.
patent: 4921087 (1990-05-01), Nakamura
patent: 5230206 (1993-07-01), Christ
patent: 5238145 (1993-08-01), Pippin
patent: 5271703 (1993-12-01), Lindqvist et al.
patent: 5322406 (1994-06-01), Pippin et al.
patent: 5352081 (1994-10-01), Tanaka
patent: 5509538 (1996-04-01), Spindler et al.
Knapp Holding GmbH
Moon Daniel B.
LandOfFree
Commissioning system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Commissioning system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Commissioning system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2422912