GB1040915A - Improvements in sorting conveyors especially for postal systems - Google Patents

Abstract

1,040,915. Selective discharge devices. AEROJET-GENERAL CORPORATION. June 19, 1964 [June 19, 1963 (3)], No. 25427/64. Heading B8A. A conveyer for sorting postal articles comprises a plurality of slats 10 mounted on articulated carriages 36 forming an endless band and means for causing at a predetermined locality along the band a transverse tilting of the slats causing the carried article to slide therefrom. Each slat 10 is carried at the upper end of a support post 30 pivotal on a pin 33 extending along the length of the carriage 36. The lower end of each post 30 has a roller 55 rotatably mounted thereon about a vertical axis and which normally runs in a channel 58a centrally disposed beneath the upper run of the conveyer. At a tipping station for the discharge of an article, the roller 55 is shunted by means of a solenoid-operated gate 136, Fig. 11 (not shown), into a tilt track channel 130 which diverges from the centre channel 58a into an elevated position parallel but inclined thereto, whereupon the slat 10 tilts. The tilt track channels may diverge from either side of the centre channel depending on the direction of tilt required. The articulated carriages 36 incorporate rollers 40 which roll along tracks 46 extending in the upper and lower runs of the conveyer between a pair of drive sprockets and a pair of idlers 100, 103, Fig. 9 (not shown). Notches in the sprockets drivingly engage the horizontally mounted rollers 40 and vertically mounted rollers 49 on the carriages 36. As the latter in the upper run of the conveyer approach the sprockets any shunted rollers 55 are automatically shunted back into the central channel 58a which has an arcuate portion extending between the upper and lower central track. In operation, an operator at station 15 programmes on keyboard 17 the destination for an article passing thereby and as the discharge conveyer 20, 23 therefor is approached the rollers 55 on the slat posts 30 are shunted into the tilt track for article discharge, all the following slats 10a-10e &c. are tilted until a slat associated with a different programmed destination approaches whereby the shunting gate 136 (not shown) is returned to the non-shunting position. The slats 10 of the sorting conveyer may be completely shrouded in a flexible covering or alternate slats may be mounted by resilient means to the adjacent slats which are mounted on the carriages 36. Articles are fed on to the sorting conveyer from a pair of endless belt spacing conveyers, Fig. 16 (not shown), each article cutting the light beam of a photo-electric cell as it discharges from the downstream spacing conveyer. The spacing conveyers are stopped and started according to the spacing therebetween as registered in a time constant circuit by the photo-cell. A magnetic tape band, Fig. 19, runs in synchronism with the sorting conveyer and incorporates twelve recording channels corresponding to twelve solenoid switches operating the shunting gates 136 (not shown). At the upstream end of the tape band is a bank of twelve code erase heads, downstream of which is a bank of code recording heads and further downstream are the code read out heads, each one corresponding to a particular tape channel and its corresponding discharge station switch. As an article is received on the conveyer 10, an operator presses a button to energize a station selection relay whereafter as the parcel passes through a beam of light acting on a photo-cell PE all existing magnetic codes are erased and the selected code is put on tape. Upon reaching the relevant discharge station, the switch is operated causing the slats to tilt. This code remains on the tape, causing all the slats to tilt at that station, until another code is selected and all existing codes are erased.