EP0111432A1 - Device for the progressive storing of flat objects - Google Patents

Abstract

1. A device for the automatic storage of flat objects, comprising a reference surface, called "floor" (7) of a magazine, between a stationary stacker (1) at one end and a stationary unstacker (10) at the other end, intercalary means (5, 6) with intercalary fingers (13, 14) for retaining objects on edge and in stacks on the floor (7), and drive means (9) coupled to said intercalary means so that said fingers (13, 14) define storing and transfer compartments (8) for transferring stacked objects to the unstacker (10), characterized in that in view of ensuring the transfer of objects from the stacker (1) to the unstacker without interruption of the operation of stacker and unstacker and of creating a dynamic storage upstream of the unstacker (10), an even number of said intercalary means (5, 6) is provided, which are combined in pairs, the means in each pair being defined as rear (5) and front intercalary means (6) attributed to two successive compartments and comprising particular retractable locking means (12) ensuring their selective coupling with said drive means (9), in order to present, at the end of each formed stack, the rear and front intercalary means (5, 6) of one pair in front of the stacker (1), then to separate the means of this pair and to convey only the formed stack towards the unstacker (10) against the compartments (8) of previously formed stacks which are waiting for storage.

Description

The invention relates to a device for the dynamic storage of flat objects, more particularly thin objects which can be, for example, letters (postal envelopes or others) or else checks for slips or similar documents.

It is known from French patent No. 77 05935 of the applicant an installation for the implementation of sets of objects in piles or in rows. In this installation, a magazine comprising a jogging bench is associated with a plurality of intermediate elements. These elements define, with the bottom of the magazine and the jogging edges, a set of lockers. The volume of these lockers is determined by construction. A drive means comprising a chain fixed to the intermediate pieces allows the advancement of these compartments to a unstacking head. The lockers of this installation are designed to receive flat objects on edge such as postal folds, for example, and the purpose of the mechanism is, during its advancement, to approach them with an unstacking head.

This unstacking head, in the example described, is of the pneumatic type and comprises a rotary extractor drum with an axis parallel to the surface of the objects and the perforated wall of which is depressed from a fixed chamber connected to a source of fluid under vacuum, so that the first of the flat objects brought into contact with this drum will come to be pressed against it by suction. The drum is rotated along its axis. By its rotation it ensures the extraction of the aspirated object. Additional means are provided for retaining the object following that being extracted. Downstream of this drum a belt conveyor collects the extracted objects for their further processing. The operation is repetitive so as to ensure the removal of all the objects from a rack, the lockers being unstacked one after the other.

In this installation, the lockers are loaded manually. In this case in particular, the operator takes care of placing the flat objects in the lockers closest to the destacker according to the stock present in the store. An attempt to replace the operator consisted in placing a stacking head opposite the first empty rack in the stock. The state of the stock being variable, it was necessary to design a movable stacking head. The mobility of this stacking head is the source of many drawbacks. Indeed, a stacker can comprise, as well as a destacker, a rotating drum, a controlled vacuum system and a set of actuators and detectors. This configuration results in significant mechanical complexity linked to the number of members that have to move. Setting up or scrolling. dividers with variable abscissa are also delicate. Finally, the step-by-step movement of this assembly as a function of the repetitive stacking of objects, in particular by virtue of its inertia, causes crippling reliability defects.

The object of the invention is to remedy the aforementioned drawbacks, as well as, in particular, to provide a high-capacity dynamic storage device by using a set of fixed stackers and destackers associated with a storage store carrying out the transport of objects in an original way.

The invention provides a device for dynamic storage of flat objects comprising a stacker for placing all the objects to be stored on edge, against each other, and in a storage magazine provided with successive lockers delimited by intermediate means, said means dividers being driven by drive means, and a destacker to take up the objects stored in the racks, characterized in that the destacker and stacker are fixed and in that the intermediate means are independent of the drive means and cooperate two by two with these by retractable locking means to each time form the front and rear of a said locker and to carry out the transport of a packet of corresponding objects along the store.

• - la figure lA montre le schéma de principe du dispositif de l'invention ;
• - les figures 1B et 1C montrent un mode de fonctionnement des moyens d'entraînement du dispositif de l'invention ;
• - la figure 2 montre l'organisation des moyens de commande pour le mode de fonctionnement précédent ;
• - les figures 3A, 3B, 3C, 4A, 4B, 5 et 6 montrent des exemples de réalisation des moyens intercalaires de l'invention ;
• - les figures 7A et 7B représentent l'organigramme précisant le fonctionnement des moyens d'entraînement.

The invention will be better understood and other advantages thereof will appear on reading the detailed description which follows and which is given with reference to the appended drawings in which:

• - Figure lA shows the block diagram of the device of the invention;
• - Figures 1B and 1C show an operating mode of the drive means of the device of the invention;
• - Figure 2 shows the organization of the control means for the previous operating mode;
• - Figures 3A, 3B, 3C, 4A, 4B, 5 and 6 show exemplary embodiments of the intermediate means of the invention;
• - Figures 7A and 7B show the flow chart detailing the operation of the drive means.

In these different figures, the same references designate the same elements.

In FIG. 1A, there is a schematic diagram of the storage device of the invention. A fixed stacking head or stacker 1 provides edge storage in a store 2 of flat objects 3. The flat objects 3 are grouped in packs 4, by a set of intermediate means 5 and 6 and are supported by the bottom 7 of the shop. One or two jogging edges, arranged in planes parallel to the plane of the figure, on either side of the packages 4, complete the construction of the mobile lockers 8. The lockers thus formed are brought by a drive means 9 in contact with a destacking head 10 or destacker.

The operation of the dynamic storage device of the invention is as follows: when the flat objects arrive, which can be random, the stacker 1 stacks these objects in a stacking rack provided only with a front intermediate means 6. The intermediate means 6 is said before because it will be at the front of the package during the transit of the latter in the storage store. When the stacking of the package is finished, this can be determined for a certain number of objects to be stacked, for a certain thickness of the package to be produced, or for a certain waiting time after the last stacked object, a pair of rear 5 and front 6 intermediate means is brought to the rear of the package during stacking. This couple then comes apart, the rear intermediate means 5 leaving with the packet made up, while the new front intermediate means 6 is waiting downstream of the stacker to receive the new objects to be stacked. The rack 8, the thickness of which is variable for the reasons mentioned, therefore passes through the store and comes up against the packages awaiting unstacking and contained in the storage area of this store. The storage area of the store is called an area where the packages can be stored pending unstacking.

During the unstacking operation, an unstacker 10, similar to that described above, takes the objects from the packages. During this operation, all the stored compartments advance simultaneously to the destacker 10 at the rate of the destacking. The lockers being stored one behind the other, pairs of front intermediate means 6 and rear intermediate means 5 are reformed. During advancement, when these pairs of intermediate means arrive near the unstacking head 10, they are retracted to allow the removal of objects from the next package.

By the effects described, it can therefore be seen that the device of the invention allows dynamic storage of the objects to be stored, and that moreover the stackers and destackers are fixed. Finally, the speed of transit of the packets formed up to their stop on the last packets of the stock being higher than the speed of stacking or unstacking, the device of the invention does not cause a delay in the processing by the destacker 10 of the flat objects stacked by the stacker 1. It is notably this situation which would prevail if a fixed stacking head had been placed at the end of the installation of the art cited.

In a very simplified version of the invention, the storage magazine is only provided with two front intermediate means and two rear intermediate means, arranged alternately and running on a looped circuit 11. Furthermore, the drive means have a single chain 17 extending all along the device and looping back on itself. This chain comprises a lug 18 coming to bear on a retractable cleat 12 located at the foot of the rear intermediate means 5. The rear intermediate means 5 thus comprise the retractable cleat 12 fixed to a carriage 15 which supports a set of thrust fingers 13. In this version, the front intermediate means 6 comprise a carriage 16 supporting a set of retaining fingers 14. The cleat 12, retractable may consist of a steel blade, of given flexibility, and coming to bear against the lug 18 chain. When the packet thus pushed comes into abutment on the stock awaiting unstacking, the flexible cleat undergoes a high stress, bends momentarily and the lug of the chain escapes. The lug of the chain still escapes under the cleat of the other rear carriage 15, waiting in the stock. The chain thus continues to rotate with each passage of the lug, the packages being propelled by jerks towards the destacker. Because of the compressions undergone during these advances, by the objects contained in the packages, these react to push forward the objects to be unstacked before a new compression cycle is restored by the new passage of the lug of the chain.

When the last object of a packet approaches the destacker, the pair of rear and front intermediate means escapes. This situation is made possible by a particularity of the fingers which will be seen later. The arrival of the lug of the drive chain causes the advance of the rear intermediate and front intermediate pair torque in a return movement up to the upstream side of the stacker 1. The rear carriage 15, located in this case in front the front carriage 16 is linked to the latter at this time by a latching device. The torque is then always brought by the chain downstream of the stacking head, where a cam acts on the latching device to disunite the torque created. The lug of the chain at this time only drives the rear carriage of the locker which has just been formed, and brings the latter into abutment on the package during unstacking. The retractable cleat 12 in this case constitutes the retractable locking means of the invention. Stacking new objects can also be produced during these same periods since a front intermediate means is then pending downstream of the stacker.

In another operation with a single chain 17, this pushes, at the rate of unstacking, the entire stock in the direction of the stacker. When a new stacked package is ready to be sent to the stock, the chain 17 makes a turn. It puts in place a new front carriage downstream of the stacker; it quickly pushes the package which has just been stacked towards the stock, and once in abutment on it, it continues to advance at the rate of unstacking.

In a preferred manner in the invention, the number of intermediate means will not be reduced to 4, but will be notably greater, the drive means being arranged differently. These drive means appear in section in FIGS. 1B and 1C, presented directly above FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1B which is a top view, a distinction is made between the stacking drum 1 and the unstacking drum 10. There is also a distinction between the pushing fingers 13 and the retaining fingers 14, the cross-section of which indicates that the rounded parts of these fingers are in contact with the objects contained in the lockers. There is also a jogging edge 19 located on the left side relative to the direction of advancement of the lockers (arrow F). Through the exploded view of the packages of objects and the stacker and destacker drums, there is a set of five chains numbered from 20 to 24. These chains are arranged longitudinally in the direction of advancement of the packages and are arranged next to the other. Each of these chains is driven by a motor independent of the motor of the other chains. Each chain comprises, as the case may be, one or a plurality of retractable lugs, represented by dashes across the chains in FIG. 1B and by small teeth in FIG. 1C.

In FIG. 1C, these same five chains are also represented but in side view, that is to say, in a manner identical to the presentation of FIG. 1A. An active area of these chains cooperates with the carriages of the intermediate means. This area is located in a plane, the bottom plane 7 of the store. To help with the representation, these chains have been arbitrarily presented at staggered levels. It should however be understood that the active upper part of the drawn chains can be in practice at the same level.

Finally, it can be seen in FIG. 1B that each carriage is provided with at least three tabs. These tabs are shown in FIG. 1B by small dots arranged in alignment with the fingers 13 or the fingers 14 of each carriage. These tabs are materialized by sticks in FIG. 1C. The row 1 cleats denoted 12.1 cooperate depending on the position of the carriage in the store with the chain 20 or the chain 21. The rank 2 cleats, denoted 12.2 or 12.3 depending on whether they relate respectively to a front carriage or a rear carriage, cooperate respectively with the front transfer chain 22 or the rear transfer chain 23. Finally, row 3 tabs denoted by 12.4 cooperate with the return chain 24. In this embodiment of the intermediate means of the invention, it can therefore be seen that these are provided with a set of fingers 13 or 14 to hold the packages of objects, are provided with carriages 15 or 16 circulating on the circuit 11, and are driven by a set of chains 20 to 24 acting for the needs of the cause on the cleats 12.1 to 12.4 located opposite these chains, below the carriages 15 or 16. The cleats in cooperation with the retractable lugs constitute the retractable locking means of the invention.

The operation of this complex mechanism is as follows: when stacking objects in the crate in formation, the stacking chain 21 evolves at a speed controlled by the stacking rate by pushing by one of its retractable lugs 25 the stop 12.1 of the front trolley of the crate in formation. When the content of this rack is deemed sufficient, the return chain 24, fitted with a retractable lug 26, pushes on the third row cleat 12.4 of the front carriage 16 of the pair of rear carriage - front carriage, waiting upstream of the stacker. By its rapid advancement action, this chain places this torque downstream of the stacker. Carriage front 16 thus installed plays the role of front carriage for a new locker, while the rear carriage which precedes it ensures the closure of the previous locker.

At this moment, the two rear transfer chains 23 and front 22, each provided with a single retractable lug 27 and 28 respectively, come to hang respectively in the second row tabs 12.3, 12.2 of the package which has just been fully stacked . These two chains 22 and 23 in an overall movement from the stacker to the destacker bring this package into abutment against the existing stock. By the way, the first row cleats 12.1 of the carriages of this locker retract the lugs 25 of the chain 21. This operation being carried out, the two chains 22 and 23 in a movement opposite to the previous return to be put in place on standby at the entry of the stacker 1. They are thus ready to start again their action for a next rack. Their passage under the second row cleat 12.2 of the waiting front carriage is made possible because their lugs retract.

During the penetration of the rack transferred into the storage area, the first row tabs 12.1 of the front carriage 16 or rear 15 of the rack 8 retract the retractable lugs 29 of the unstacking chain 20. These retractable lugs return to their place by rising as soon as the cleats 12.1 have passed. When the transferred rack comes up against the stock and the front transfer and rear transfer chains are withdrawn, the last rack brought in is thus taken into account by the unstacking chain, the last raised lugs of which are now supported respectively on the first row cleats carriages front 16 or rear 15 of this rack. The unstacking chain advances at the rate of unstacking and is controlled by this function.

As soon as a pair of rear carriage 15, front carriage 16 created by the piling up of racks in the stock arrives close to the unstacking head, at a distance for example equal to one tenth of the height of the objects to be stored, a mechanism which will be seen later allows the removal of the fingers. Rear carriage couples - front carriage, however, continues to be advanced by the unstacking chain. When a new bin is created by the stacker, the lug 26 of the return chain 24 can then grasp this pair of rear carriage - front carriage downstream of the destacker to recycle it in the direction of the stacker.

In summary, the movements of the chains are as follows: the stacking chain is controlled by the stacker, the unstacking chain which follows it is controlled by the destacker, the transfer chains have a sequential action in a back and forth movement has just been initialized by the constitution of a new locker, and the return chain after the installation of a pair of rear carriage - front carriage, downstream of the stacker, continues its movement causing the passage by its lug 26 every pairs of rear carriages - front carriages, which have passed the destacker. For this purpose, the structure of this chain 24 is such that its active zone is located from upstream to downstream of the stacker, near the unstacking, and on the return path of the circuit 11 connecting the unstacker to the stacker. The last two active areas are only intended to the extent that automatic recycling of the carriages is envisaged. This recycling is not essential to the device of the invention. By a test device, this chain 24 interrupts its action as soon as any one of the pairs arrives on standby upstream of the stacker. The test can, for example, be constituted by the passage of any of the tabs of one of the carriages of this couple on a pedal 33.2 disposed upstream of the stacker. In a reverse direction movement, this return chain 24 then comes into place upstream of the stacker just behind the first pair of waiting carriages. This movement in the opposite direction is made possible by the retractable nature of the lug 26.

In the version described, the movements of the various chain motors will be controlled by a logic control circuit 32 appearing in FIG. 2 and having two actions of different types. The first of these actions is to determine the thickness of the packages to be created. We previously said that this thickness could be fixed in advance, in which case we know that it will be reached when the third row cleat of a front carriage passes over a pedal 33.1, see figure IB, in this case we are sure to always have packages of the same thickness. Both the front and rear carriages have third row catches, so it will of course be necessary to take information on two. If the thickness of a packet is to be determined by the number of plies, the predetermined positions (185) of a counter 30 linked to the stacker 1 indicate when the packet is finished. If finally the stacking movement is random, we can decide to consider that a pack is anyway finished a certain period of time after stacking the last object. This period of time is determined for example by the falling edge of a pulse delivered by a rocker of the monostable type 31 excited at each operation of stacking an object.

The control logic circuit 32 takes account of all of these indications at the same time. It acts first on the return chain 24 so that it has downstream of the stacker a couple of rear carriage and front carriage to allow the constitution of a new package. After a delay time τ having enabled this action to be carried out, it puts the motor of the transfer chain before 22 into service, then with a slight delay hr compared to the commissioning of this engine, it puts the engine into service of the rear transfer chain 23. This delay is intended to allow the lug 28 of the front transfer chain 22 waiting downstream of the stacker to cross the thickness of the package which has just been formed and even a little more than this thickness so as to cause a slight decompression of the package which has just been formed. The purpose of this operation is to make easier a complementary operation of jogging the packages against the jogging edge 19 during the transfer of the package.

The second operation which must be carried out by the control unit consists in continuously measuring the position of the rear of the stock in storage warehouse 2. This position measured by upstream of the unstacking head is a function, at a given moment, of the thickness of the packages which have been brought there since the commissioning of the machine, reduced by the distance traveled by the unstacking chain since this same instant. Knowing the bottom position of the stock, the control unit stops the movement of the front transfer chain 22 when it has estimated that the lug 28 of this chain has reached this position. The control unit then stops the movement of the rear transfer chain slightly later, so as to ensure that the packets of objects are recompressed. The compression state of the packets can then be equal to or different from that which existed when the packet was built. In a preferred manner in the invention, all of the chain drive motors will be stepping motors acting on the chains in such a way that knowledge of the position of the motor ipso facto results in knowledge of the position of the chain corresponding.

In summary, the control logic knows the thickness of a pack by the number of steps taken by the motor of the stacking chain since the beginning of this pack. The control unit knows the position of the rear of the stock before the new packet arrives, by adding the thicknesses of the packets which have been stored there minus the number of steps taken by the unstacking chain motor. The control unit therefore knows the number of steps, in principle equal, that the motors of the front and rear transfer chains must take to ensure correct stockpiling.

FIG. 2 indicates that the positions of the chains 20 and 21 are taken into account by the control logic 32. The putting into service of these chains is linked to the operation of the stacker drum 1 or stacker 10 respectively.

For the optional recycling operation, the control unit must know the state of the empty carriages available upstream of the stacker. This information can be provided for example by passing a cleat of the carriages on a pedal correctly placed upstream of the stacker. For example, the passage of a cleat 12.3 of a rear carriage on a pedal 33.2 stops the operation of the chain motor 24. In this way, the chain 24 permanently maintains, upstream of the stacking head 1, a rear carriage - front carriage pair, available for creating a new package.

The removal of the front transfer chain has no effect on the operation of the dynamic storage device of the invention. It simply reduces the mechanical comfort thus obtained for carrying out the jogging operation. In the same spirit, the stacking chain can be eliminated, then instructs the stacker to be powerful enough to exert a push on the pack being built up to allow stacking of all the objects to be stacked. Finally, the rear transfer chain and the return chain can be merged into a single operating chain identical to the chain 17 of the simplified variant seen above. In this case, the control logic is simplified and the unstacking chain allows regular unstacking of the objects contained in the packets.

Details relating to the front and rear intermediate means will now be examined by the description of the following figures. Figures 3A, 3B, 3C show a first type of these intermediate means. We distinguish in Figure 3A the jogging edge 19, as well as the bottom 7 of the magazine 2 seen in section. The intermediate means 6 which is shown comprises a carriage 16 and a set of retaining fingers 14. The carriage 16 circulates on the circuit 11 materialized by the raceways 34, 35 and 36 which extend throughout the store and on which the carriage 16 is supported by means of rollers 37. The arrangement of the paths 34, 35 and 36 made, for example, of heavy sheet metal, makes it possible to avoid the rolling of the carriage on itself during its evolution while along the store.

In FIG. 3C, showing a section in a plane A seen from above of the carriage 16, it is noted that the carriage has a length, measured in the direction of movement indicated by the arrow, of the order of three or four times the diameter of the rollers 37. In order to avoid the pitching of the carriage during transfer, sets of rollers 37 are mounted both at the 'front and rear of this cart. The carriage described in Figures 3 thus has 12 rollers.

The fingers 14 rising vertically above the carriage advantageously pass through slots made longitudinally in the bottom 7 of the magazine 2. They are linked to the carriage 16 by a vertical fork 38 held in a hole 39 formed in this carriage. Due to the thickness of this carriage, the fork 38 can neither tilt back and forth, nor to the sides. In order to avoid rotation on itself of the fork 38, a pivot 40 integral with the carriage is plugged into a hole 41 formed in the horizontal return 54 of the fork 38. All along the store the fork 38 rests by the 'Intermediate of a roller 42 on a raceway 43. The roller 42 is brought into contact with the route 43 by means of a spring 44 bearing, on the one hand on the carriage 16, and on the other hand on a flange formed in the lower part of the fork 38. In a preferred manner in the invention, this spring is a helical spring sleeved on the fork 38. To illuminate what has been said previously, the raceway 43 s 'erases near the unstacking head. This allows the spring 44 to cause its fingers to retract the retraction of the fingers 14. During this operation, the pivot 40 slides in the hole 41 of the horizontal return 54.

When setting up such a pair of rear carriage - front carriage downstream of the stacker, it can be seen that the fingers of these carriages are parallel to the objects to be stacked. To prevent them from slipping between them, an auxiliary mechanism places a pallet against these fingers during the stacking of the first objects, about ten. Then this additional mechanism removes the pallet, the rigidity of the objects already in place is then sufficient to guide the new objects to be stacked. This pallet can consist of a set of two fingers oriented perpendicular to the fingers 13 and 14.

There are, under the carriage 16, two tabs corresponding respectively to the tabs 12.1 and 12.2 which can find their utility in the solution where the transfer means comprise only two chains. These two chains numbered 20 and 23 appear in FIG. 3A supported by raceways 45 and 46. These chains are provided with retractable lugs 26 or 27 of a type indicated in FIG. 3B. In this figure, a lug 27 in the form of a bar is mounted by a hinge 47 on a link of the chain 23. This lug is presented in the retracted position. The movement of the lug 27 is limited on the one hand in one direction by a stop 48, and on the other hand in the other direction by a spring 49 whose flexibility is calculated. This lug 27 constitutes for this example the retractable locking means of the invention.

We can still see in Figure 3A a set of rollers 50, 51 and 52, inserted slightly projecting into the bottom 7 of the magazine 2, so that their generatrix is slightly above this bottom. These rollers are arranged longitudinally in magazine 2 and are used for jogging. Indeed, animated with a movement in the figure in a counterclockwise direction, they have the effect of pushing the stored objects in the direction of the jogging edge 19. To make this operation more efficient in a preferred manner the rollers 50, 51 and 52 are covered with a layer of rubber or any other material having comparable friction effects.

FIG. 3C shows that the carriage 16 shown is a front carriage. Indeed, for reasons of space, the structure of the carriages considered judiciously extends under the package they are driving. Thus, in this figure, the carriage moving in the direction of the arrow, it comes into contact with a rear carriage whose pushing fingers 13 are drawn in dashes. The semicircular sections of these fingers come exactly complement each other when they meet. This arrangement is made possible by an offset 53 of the fingers, this offset being perpendicular to the horizontal return 54 of the fork 38. The offset 53 of the carriages front has an orientation opposite to that of the rear carriages. When the hole 39 is in the middle of the length of the carriage 16, the length of this offset is equal to the half-length of the carriage. The length of the carriage is the dimension of the latter measured in the direction of longitudinal movement.

Figures 4A and 4B show another embodiment of the carriage. The essential characteristic of this example resides in the fact that on the circuit 11 traversed by the charlots, the raceway taken by the front carriages is different from the raceway taken on the rear carriages. In FIG. 4B, the front carriages 16 take in the direction of the arrow the raceway 56 located on the left of the figure, while the rear carriages 15 take in the same direction the raceway 55 located on the right of the figure . The raceways 55 and 56 supporting the carriages, essentially each each have two solid raceways 57 and 58 extending in a plane parallel to the plane of the bottom 7 of the magazine. The two raceways 57 and 58 of a raceway are connected to each other by a hoop 59 ensuring their joining.

In the example shown, the carriages are provided with a bracket 60 rising vertically above them and nesting exactly in the space reserved between the tracks 57 and 58 and the arch 59. The ends of the horizontal branches of this bracket are provided with rollers or needle bearings 61. These bearings 61 bear on the tracks 57 and 58 during the evolution of the carriage during the transfer of a package. These needle bearings provide the lift for the carriage 16. In a comparable manner, the central mast of the bracket 60 is located between two needle bearings 62 bearing on the vertical edges opposite tracks 55 and 57.

It will be seen on examining FIG. 4B that the bearings 61 and 62 are doubled in two sets located respectively at the front and at the rear of the carriage in question. The purpose of the bearings 61 is to prevent the carriage from swaying or undergoing a rolling movement, the purpose of the bearings 62 is to prevent the carriage from advancing in crab with respect to their direction of advance in the magazine 2. Indeed, their bearing clearance inside the space contained in the raceways 55 or 56 is minimized.

The carriages 15 and 16 thus circulating on raceways 55 and 56 respectively located side by side, are each provided with beams, respectively 63 and 66 horizontal extending over a part of the channel which separates these paths. They are used for fixing hollow posts 64, 65 and 67, 68 respectively. These hollow posts are oriented perpendicular to the bottom 7 of the store. The holes which pass through these posts according to their height are intended to serve as a slide respectively for the fingers 13 or 14 of the aforementioned carriages. The profile noted in a plane parallel to the plane of the support 7 of these beams 63 and 66 and of the posts 64, 65 and 67, 68 indicate that by a nesting effect the plane of the fingers 14 will be the same as the plane of the fingers 13 (Figure 4B). In this way, the interval separating two compartments placed side by side in the storage queue will be equal only to the diameter of these fingers 13 or 14.

The justification for the existence of these two raceways 55 and 56 lies in the need to provide good resistance to the pitching of the carriages. This resistance, by mechanical movement effect is directly related to the length of these. For a given packet length, it can be seen that the length of the carriages in FIG. 4A can thus be twice that of the carriages in FIG. 3A. Indeed, the length of each of these carriages can be equal to the total length of the package, while in the previous case it could only be equal to half.

Finally, under the carriages 15 and 16, there are sets of toothed wheels 68.1, 68.3 for the rear carriages 15, and 68.1, 68.2 for the front carriages 16. These toothed wheels are such that by a ratchet device they can only rotate freely in one direction relative to their axis, the other direction of rotation being prohibited. In this application, the chains 20, 21, 22 and 23 provided with retractable lugs will be replaced by notched chains or toothed belts. These toothed chains cooperate with the corresponding toothed wheels in accordance with the preceding description. The "freewheeling" movement of these toothed wheels is indicated by assuming that the carriages move away from the observer looking at FIG. 4A. During the transfer phase, the toothed wheels 68.1 roll on the double notched chain 20 for unstacking. Consequently, the top of this wheel moves away from the observer while the rolling center is fixed. This arrangement is materialized by a cross contained in a circle symbolically representing the empennage of an arrow which moves away from the observer. It is likewise shown that under the effect of the return of the transfer chains 22 and 23, the toothed wheels 68.2, 68.3 have a degree of freedom in the same direction as the toothed wheels 68.1.

The return chain 24 is also replaced by a toothed belt. The position of this toothed belt is such that it comes, for example, to cooperate with the toothed wheel 68.2 of the front carriage 16. In doing so, it pushes a couple of rear carriage - front carriage during the operations of fitting a new couple of carriage during stacking or when recycling a couple of carriages after unstacking.

The fingers 14 and 13 sliding respectively in the holes 67, 68 or 64, 65 are provided at their base with shoes 70 or 69 respectively. These shoes advantageously slide in a raceway 71 hollowed out by two bowls 72 and 73. The upper edges of these bowls are curved towards the inside of these bowls so as to form shoulders 74. These shoulders 74 by pressing on the shoes 69 or 70 have the effect of holding the latter at the bottom of the cups 72 or 73. So as to cause the retraction of the fingers 13 or 14 near the unstacking head 2, the raceway 71 undergoes a setback relative to the plane of the bottom 7 of the magazine. The amplitude of this setback is slightly greater than the apparent height of the fingers 13 or 14 above the bottom 7. Due to the presence of shoulders 74 during the advance of the carriage 15, or of the carriage 16, these shoulders press on the shoes 69 or 70 and thus cause the fingers to descend. The off-hook position of the raceway 71 appears drawn in dashes in FIG. 4A.

We distinguish in Figure 5, another embodiment of the retractable fingers. The carriage shown in this figure is identical to the carriage in Figure 3A. In this exemplary embodiment, the fingers are in the general shape of a scythe comprising a handle 75 rising with a certain inclination of the carriage 15 towards the bottom 7 of the magazine, and two flat pallets 76 and 77 forming circular crown segments, the center coincides with the articulation point O of the handle 75. The two pallets 76 and 77, penetrate inside the magazine by two slots respectively 78 and 79 made longitudinally in the jogging edge 19. When the carriage moves the objects placed on the support 7 against the jogging edge 19 are thus pushed in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the figure by the pallets 76 and 77.

These fingers are held in place throughout the magazine by sliding the handle 75 on a guide ramp 80. Contact between the guide ramp 80 and the handle 75 is ensured by a bearing 81 crimped around the handle 75 and coming to roll. on the guide ramp 80. By its weight, this bearing also contributes to maintaining the inclination of the handle 75. Near the unstacking head, the guide ramp 80 is cut. At this point, under the action of their weight, the handle 75 and the paddles 76 and 77 pivot around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the figure and passing through the point O. We note in this configuration as in the previous configurations that the retraction of the fingers is always carried out parallel to themselves.

Objects 3, of height h, one of which is represented in the form of a letter in FIG. 5, during this retraction cannot be disturbed since they always remain held by the jogging edge 19 and by the bottom 7. Indeed , these folds being arranged perpendicular to the direction of the longitudinal slots 78, 79, they is impossible to pass through these slots. This arrangement is an advantageous characteristic of the carriages because it makes it possible to avoid the risks of removing the wrinkles from the folds.

Figure 6 shows in section the preferred embodiment of the carts of the invention. The intermediate means in this case comprise, as in the case of FIG. 5, fingers composed of pallets 76 and 77 passing through slots 78 and 79 made in the bank 19 and connected to a handle. The handle has the appearance of two vertical segments 80 and 81 linked together by a horizontal part 82. The carriage proper has the appearance of a rectangular parallelepiped of approximately square section. As in the previous examples, a set of pins rising perpendicular to the faces of this rectangular parallelepiped are crimped inside rollers or needle bearings 83 or 84.

The raceway of this carriage thus formed has a complex shape. This form consists of two horizontal parts 86 and 87 which are parallel and facing one another, in which is practiced, each time, a pair of grooves 88 and 89 serving as longitudinal housing for the rollers 83. The two horizontal parts. 87 and 86 are connected on one side by a vertical part 90, perpendicular to the latter and in which is formed a groove 91 serving as a housing for the bearings 84. Opposite the part 90, with respect to the parallelepiped carriage is fixed a vertical part 92, in connection with the horizontal part 87, but not in connection with the horizontal part 86. In this vertical part 92 is made a groove 93 to serve as a housing for a needle bearing located opposite bearing screw 84.

The guide rail thus formed for the raceway of the parallelepiped carriage has a longitudinal clearance 94 allowing the permanent attachment of the vertical segment 81 on the parallelepiped carriage. Over the length of this parallelepiped carriage, measured in the direction of its displacement, as indicated during the presentation of FIG. 3C, two sets of rollers 83, 84 will be arranged, so as to prevent the pitching, rolling and pivoting of the carriage. The carriage is therefore provided in this case with 8 rollers.

The guide rail described ends slightly upstream of the unstacking head, on a barrel 95 formed by a disc 96 on which are fixed perpendicularly several identical elements 97 of the same section as the guide rail. The length of these elements 97 fixed perpendicularly to the disc is sufficient. It is slightly larger than twice the length of one of the parallelepipedic carts. If the carriages can nest into each other, like beams 63 and 66, this length is less than twice the length of one of the carriages. The number of these guide rail elements in the example presented is 4, it can of course be different. The operation of the barrel is as follows. When a pair of rear carriage and front carriage thus arrives close to the destacker, it engages in an element 97 of guide rail secured to the barrel extending the raceway. A limit switch type detector or the control logic causes, through a motor not shown, the rotation of the barrel 95. This rotation is by a predetermined angle so that a new empty element of guide rail is placed in the extension of the raceway 86 to 94, in the example this angle is 90 °.

At this time, the couple of turned carriages is located opposite a return raceway allowing the recycling of the carriages towards the stacker. It can be seen on examining the figure that the roles of the rollers 83 and 84 have been reversed, it is now the rollers 83 which provide the lift for the carriages. It can be seen that the pallets 76 and 77 have been retracted from their position by rotation around its center O of the disc 96 and that thus they no longer interfere with the unstacking operation of the objects of the following package. The carriage which has just been turned over being taken up by the return chain 24, it is possible to produce a barrel 95 comprising only one element 97 of the guide rail. After the removal of the couple of returned carriages, this barrel restores position opposite the raceway. By extension, considering that the radius of rotation of the barrel is very large, the movement which it imposes on the carriage becomes a translation. In this case the pallets 76 and 77 are straight.

The drive means of the preferred variant of the invention comprise, as in the case of FIG. 1C, a set of five chains. Figure 6 being drawn in section shows a couple of carriages near the unstacking head. A lug 29 of the unstacking chain 20 is supported on a first row cleat 12.1 of the carriage shown to force it to move in the direction of the observer looking at the figure. It is observed that the front transfer chains 22 and rear transfer 23 respectively opposite the second row cleats 12.2 and 12.3 do not cooperate at this time with these cleats since they are then waiting at the stacking head, their lugs 28 and 27 are not visible. The action of the return chain 24 is to push a couple of front and rear carriages which have just been turned over by pressing its lug 26 on the cleat 12.2, in this case playing the role of third row cleat 12.4 seen previously. It would have been possible, however, to create, if the space requirements required, a third row cleat 12.4 specifically installed to cooperate with the return chain 24. This return chain 24 causes movement of the carriages in a parallel direction but opposite to those of the other four chains although the axis of rotation of the drive motors of this chain are in a plane parallel to the bottom 7 while the axes of rotation of the motors driving the other chains are perpendicular to this bottom 7.

The barrel described being located near the unstacking head the invention provides for installing a barrel of the same type upstream of the active generator of the stacking head. The sequence undergone by the pairs of rear carriage - front carriage, is the same in opposite direction to that which has just been described. Near the stacker 1 the chain. unstacking 20 is replaced by the stacking chain 21 cooperating in any case with the first stopper rank 12.1. The stacking barrel will be placed judiciously so that the pallets 76 and 77 are placed respectively above and below the active part of the stacking drum 1, but slightly behind the generator of this drum in contact with the package being stacked.

FIGS. 7A and 7B show the flow diagram of the transfer function governed by the control logic 32. The case presented is the preferred case of the invention, it relates to the case where there are barrels and where the return of the carriages is organized on a so-called rectangular circuit. In this circuit, the carriages undergo backward and reverse movements as opposed to the carousel circuit where the carriages go back and forth, always going in the same direction.

The flow diagram of FIG. 7A relates to the stacking phase. The two tests present at the start of this flowchart are carried out cyclically by the control unit. By these two tests is known the state of the active or non-active stacking drum and the thickness of the package of objects being formed. If the drum is active and if the thickness of the package is between a predetermined minimum length and a maximum length (for example 75mm and 150mm), the package in formation must be closed by introducing a rear intermediate means and to start a new locker by introducing a front interlayer. This is achieved by rotating the stacking barrel one notch.

The control of the rotation of the barrel will be carried out in a preferred manner according to a law of movement ensuring a correct meeting between the retaining fingers and the letters reaching the stacker. The initialization of this command is provided by a sensor detecting the passage of the rear edge of the last fold to be stacked. The introduction of the new fingers is carried out with a calculated and constant advance in time relative to the arrival of the next object.

For the reasons mentioned above concerning the correct jogging of the folds contained in the magazine, the commissioning of the front transfer chain will take place a determined time before the commissioning of the rear transfer chain. This time will be determined experimentally. The delay governing the start of the rear transfer chain relative to the front transfer chain may depend on the thickness of the packet produced and the logical possibilities of the control logic. The transfer chains can be stopped by a contact of the limit switch type. This limit switch may, for example, include a pedal, installed on the front transfer chain, and abutting in a suitable place on the structure of a rear transfer carriage when these two carriages meet in the store. of storage. This pedal constituting a contactor usefully establishes contact between two flexible wires which also leads to the control unit. This limit switch contact can also be obtained by a device for measuring the overvoltage at the terminals of the drive motors of the front transfer chains and of the rear transfer chains when the rack transported against the existing stock stops. Indeed, the variations in the current voltage characteristics of these motors can be exploited in this way. The order developed at this time by the control logic causes the return of the transfer chains upstream of the stacking head.

FIG. 7B represents the flow diagram of the unstacking operation. When the unstacking drum is active, when a pair of rear carriage and front carriage enters this barrel and when, finally, there is no pair of front carriage and rear carriage, in the low position of the barrel, on standby recycling, a stop of given duration of the store advance is then carried out. This period is used to inhibit the magazine advance during the period of release of the fingers of the carriages. It is initialized by the control of the barrel rotation cylinder. Then the unstacking is resumed while also the return chain 24 takes care of the pair of carriages thus placed on the return track to direct it towards the stacker.

It is obvious that all these mechanical operations are carried out with timings adjusted experimentally. The position sensors necessary for the operation of the device of the invention are of a type known to those skilled in the art and may in particular include photoelectric cells. For example, the initiation of the unstacking procedure will only be ensured when a cell controlling the advance of the magazine is concealed, rotation of the stacking barrel is only permitted when a cell has verified the presence effective torque of carriage in the barrel. The control logic is finally controlled by a clock whose frequency is greater than the rhythm of the stacker or destacker.

Claims (11)

1. Dynamic storage device for flat objects (3) comprising a stacker (1) for placing all the objects to be stored on edge, against each other, and in a storage magazine (2) provided with racks (8) successive delimited by intermediate means (15, 6), said intermediate means being driven by means (9) for driving and a destacker (10) for picking up the objects stored in the racks, characterized in that the destacker and stacker are fixed, in that the intermediate means are independent of the drive means and cooperate two by two with them by means (12) of retractable locking to each time form the front (6) and the rear (5) aforementioned locker, and to transport a packet of corresponding objects along the store towards the stacker. 2. Storage device according to claim 1, characterized in that the intermediate means comprise carriages (15, 16) supported by a circuit (11) extending along the store next to the drive means, and in that that the carriages are provided with fingers (13, 14) for driving the objects during their transport. 3. Storage device according to claim 2, characterized in that the fingers of the carriages are retractable parallel to themselves through a jogging face (19) during the operations of delivering a package of objects to the destacker and in a sense prohibiting any risk of pickling. 4. Storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the drive means comprise at least one chain (17) to cooperate in one direction with a cleat (12) of the rear intermediate means of the lockers. 5. Storage device according to claim 4, characterized in that the drive means comprise at least two chains, a transfer chain (17) conforming to that of claim 4 and a chain (20) unstacking, said chain of unstacking being speed-controlled at the speed of the destacker and comprising a plurality of retractable lugs (29), realizing with retractable lugs (12.1) integral with each intermediate means a retractable locking means. 6. Storage device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the drive means comprise at least four chains (20, 21, 22, 23) coming to cooperate with a set of lugs (12.1, 12.2 , 12.3) juxtaposed with each other and fixed to the intermediate means, preferably a set of ratchet wheels (68.1, 68.2, 68.3), to form at least three separate retractable locking means comprising: - a first stacking chain (21) cooperating with a stacking cleat (12.1), - a second front transfer chain (22) cooperating with a front transfer cleat (12.2) - a third rear transfer chain (23) cooperating with a rear transfer cleat (12.3), - A fourth unstacking chain (20) cooperating with the stacking cleat (12.1). 7. Storage device according to claim 2 and claim 6, characterized in that the circuit (11) is looped and in that a fifth return chain (24) cooperates with one of the cleats (12.4) to allow recycling in the device of a pair of front and rear intermediate means. 8. Storage device according to claim 2 and claim 6, characterized in that the circuit (11) comprises two sections terminating at their ends vis-à-vis on two barrels (95) allowing the passage of the carriages of a section to the other by shifting and in that the fifth chain (24) cooperates with one of the tabs (12.2) to ensure the recycling of the shifted carriages. 9. Device according to any one of claims to 8, characterized in that the circuit comprises two raceways (55 and 56) assigned to the circulation respectively of the front carriages or rear carriages. 10. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the retractable locking means comprise mechanical lugs (25 to 29) held by means (49) elastic against a stop (48) to impose an action in one direction and to slide without hanging in another direction. 11. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the retractable locking means comprise toothed wheels (68.1) with pawls coming to cooperate with toothed belts.

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