Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed... – By conveyor and means driven for turning successive conveyed...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-07
2001-09-18
Noland, Kenneth W. (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor for changing attitude of item relative to conveyed...
By conveyor and means driven for turning successive conveyed...
C198S416000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06290053
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the sorting art, and, more particularly, to conveying arrangements for properly orienting articles being sorted.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Within the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) various mail tray configurations are used in conjunction with conveyors to process the mail at a rapid pace. One of these tray types is called the “Small Managed Mail” (SMM) tray, also known as the half tray. These trays are nearly square in shape, actually they are about 14″ long and 12″ wide when they are made, but, since they are formed of cardboard, they become easily misshapen. They are of such a small size that it is easy for them to become mis-oriented on the conveyor which is transporting them. Frequently these are roller conveyors. When a tray is not correctly rotated it is not possible for automated equipment to properly read bar code labels, or otherwise properly handle these trays. The trays need to be oriented such that the labels are facing forwards or backwards so that they can be read by automated reading equipment.
A mail and package delivery service such as the USPS typically handles millions of items each year. Package handling requires some automation, such as using machine vision, or readers, to read addresses, a necessity in order to deliver all the items to their proper destinations.
In the past there has been no simple, effective way to rotate these trays into the correct orientation, while at the same time insuring that the trays which are already correctly oriented are not rotated into the incorrect orientation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,137 discloses an orienting device for loaves of bread in which the loaves are cut in half and rotated 180 degrees so all loaves on the conveyor are oriented the same. All incoming product is acted on in the same manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,714 discloses a device for bread dough pieces which, regardless of orientation, centers them on a conveyor and bends them over on themselves prior to baking. No decision is made as to the orientation of the product and all product is acted on in the same manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,177 deals with bowling pin orientation on a conveyor system. The device is intended to orient on a single axial orientation bowling pins of the type having a relatively heavy base portion and a relatively light neck portion.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,429 describes a centering device for irregular ceramic articles on a conveyor line. This device is intended to center the object on the conveyor and is not intended to orient the object to a proper alignment. The device uses two sets of clamps to center the object within the device and then allows the object to be transported along the conveyor. All objects are acted on in the same manner, with the final result being an object “centered” on the conveyor, but not “oriented” on the conveyor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,675 describes a large disc (>5 feet in diameter) which uses centrifugal force to force objects to the outer rim of the disc for purposes of separation and alignment. All objects which enter the device are acted on in the same manner regardless of orientation prior to entering the device. This device will not work with objects which are nearly square in shape, since it depends on the difference in width versus length to accomplish the alignment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple, inexpensive device which will correctly orient half trays that are incorrectly oriented, while at the same time leave correctly oriented half trays alone.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a device which does not hinder the passage of any other type of mail tray on the conveyor.
A further object of the present invention is to locate incorrectly oriented half trays and rotate only those trays which are not in proper orientation.
These and other objects are accomplished by using ramps and bumpers to properly position trays on the conveyor prior to the tray rotator. The half tray rotator takes advantage of the tray handle, a unique feature of the tray itself, to begin the rotation of improperly oriented half trays. This initial rotation insures interference with a secondary bumper which completes the rotation of 90 degrees, to the proper orientation. Trays which are correctly oriented prior to entering the device will simply pass through unhindered.
The actual device which initiates the rotation is a spring loaded arm with a finger capable of grabbing the handle on the tray. As a tray passes by it depresses the arm, and moves the finger out of the way, when the tray has passed the finger protrudes out, if a tray is mis-rotated the finger sticks into the hand hold of the tray causing the rotation to begin. If the tray is correctly oriented already, the finger can not grasp the hand hold, and the tray passes by.
The present invention uniquely identifies SMM which are incorrectly oriented and rotates them to proper orientation. All other tray types, including full size letter trays, flats tubs, and correctly oriented SMM trays pass through the device unaffected.
The difficulty with the SMM tray orientation problem is that by design the trays are nearly square in shape. (Theoretically they are 12 inches by 14 inches, however in practical application, after they have been used they are very nearly square). The present invention acts by identifying the one feature of a half tray that is rotated incorrectly, that being the hand hole on the side of the tray. If a tray is incorrectly oriented the invention device hooks the hand hold and rotates the tray. It is a very common problem that half trays rotate incorrectly on conveyor line, either within the USPS processing centers, or in other mailing facilities.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3432023 (1969-03-01), Lucas
patent: 4410177 (1983-10-01), Richardson
patent: 4512137 (1985-04-01), Koberlein
patent: 4741429 (1988-05-01), Hattori et al.
patent: 5299675 (1994-04-01), Schumann et al.
patent: 5421714 (1995-06-01), Morikawa et al.
Banker Kenneth J.
Caporali Michael E.
Hendzel Louis J.
Erlich Jacob N.
Kaye Harvey
Lockheed Martin Corporation
Noland Kenneth W.
Perkins Smith & Cohen LLP
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