Conveyor system for automatically transporting items

Details Conveyor system for automatically transporting items Conveyor system for automatically transporting items

1999-08-09

2001-05-15

Werner, Frank E. (Department: 3652)

Conveyors: power-driven

Conveyor arrangement for selecting among plural sources or...

By loading or unloading section at selected one of a...

C198S890000, C414S382000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06230873

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a conveyor system for automatically transporting items, particularly mail items, along a conveyor path by means of vehicle systems, with the vehicles having load carriers that can be positioned horizontally in a stable manner for receiving unit loads; for unloading the loads, a lever gauge of the load carriers extends horizontally into a guide rail disposed to the side of the conveyor path at predetermined unloading stations, causing the lever gauge to be vertically deflected as the vehicle system travels further, the deflection effecting a tilting of the load carrier, by way of a mechanical diversion, into one of two stable tilting positions, and with the tilted load carriers being reset by way of the lever gauges and guide rails designed specifically for this purpose.
So-called tilting-bucket sorters have long been used in practice to transport and sort unit loads. The items are received by rail vehicles having load carriers on their top side; these load carriers are held horizontally for load transport, and can be tilted for ejecting the load.
A conveyor system of the type mentioned at the outset is known from WO 90/09944. This system comprises vehicle systems whose vehicles do not have their own drive, and all active functions are initiated by way of path devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,928 discloses a tilting-bucket sorter having an active traction vehicle for the vehicle systems, in which, however, a relatively complicated tilting mechanism is used.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to configure a conveyor system of the type mentioned at the outset so as to prevent, as simply as possible, an undesired engagement of the lever gauge for tilting the load carriers.
According to the invention, the object is accomplished in that at least one vehicle of the vehicle system has its own drive, and that the lever gauge can be located outside of the regions of engagement of the guide rails in the stable, horizontal load-carrier position, and does not enter the region of engagement until an active disconnect element on the vehicle is actuated.
Because the drive and the disconnect element can be fed by a common energy source, for example by the electrical current of the system, the embodiment is extremely simple.
Because only a single lever gauge is guided in an E-shaped shifting gate on the respective vehicle, with the upper and lower legs of each shifting gate defining one of the two stable tilting positions and the center leg defining the stable horizontal position, a single lever gauge can be used to attain tilting to two sides.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5018928 (1991-05-01), Hartlepp
patent: 652650B (1993-02-01), None
patent: 90/09944 (1990-09-01), None

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