EP0220832A2 - Verfahren und Gerät zum Sortieren von Waren - Google Patents

Verfahren und Gerät zum Sortieren von Waren Download PDF

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Publication number
EP0220832A2
EP0220832A2 EP86307349A EP86307349A EP0220832A2 EP 0220832 A2 EP0220832 A2 EP 0220832A2 EP 86307349 A EP86307349 A EP 86307349A EP 86307349 A EP86307349 A EP 86307349A EP 0220832 A2 EP0220832 A2 EP 0220832A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
cutlery
belt
pieces
path
piece
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP86307349A
Other languages
English (en)
French (fr)
Other versions
EP0220832A3 (de
Inventor
Vasant Janardan Shend'ge
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
British Airways PLC
Original Assignee
British Airways PLC
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by British Airways PLC filed Critical British Airways PLC
Publication of EP0220832A2 publication Critical patent/EP0220832A2/de
Publication of EP0220832A3 publication Critical patent/EP0220832A3/de
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B07—SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS; SORTING
    • B07C—POSTAL SORTING; SORTING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES, OR BULK MATERIAL FIT TO BE SORTED PIECE-MEAL, e.g. BY PICKING
    • B07C5/00—Sorting according to a characteristic or feature of the articles or material being sorted, e.g. by control effected by devices which detect or measure such characteristic or feature; Sorting by manually actuated devices, e.g. switches
    • B07C5/04—Sorting according to size
    • B07C5/10—Sorting according to size measured by light-responsive means
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B07—SEPARATING SOLIDS FROM SOLIDS; SORTING
    • B07C—POSTAL SORTING; SORTING INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES, OR BULK MATERIAL FIT TO BE SORTED PIECE-MEAL, e.g. BY PICKING
    • B07C99/00—Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Definitions

  • This invention relates to the sorting of articles and particularly, but not exclusively, to the sorting of mixed cutlery.
  • knives, forks and spoons are all elongate articles, they can readily be moved from their random arrangement to one in which they all lie substantially parallel to one another merely by carrying them along a belt or the like so that they pass between progressively approaching walls and are delivered through a gate in the required substantially parallel disposition.
  • each passenger taking a meal on an aircraft receives his/her cutlery in a wholly or principally transparent synthetic plastics bag accompanied by a selection of other items such as, for example, an absorbent paper napkin and sealed salt, pepper, sauce, sweetener and other containers.
  • the bag must contain the correct selection of these items which will usually comprise, as regards the cutlery, at least one each of a knife, a fork, a dessert spoon and a teaspoon.
  • these items of cutlery are all contained in the bag the same way round, that is to say, with the handle end of each item of cutlery directed towards the same end of the bag.
  • a method of sorting elongate articles of dis-similar shape comprises moving successive articles along a path with their longitudinal axes substantially perpendicular to their direction of travel and with one end of each article in register with a datum line extending lengthwise of said path, providing a plurality of energy receivers at different perpendicular distances from said datum line which distances are such that elongate articles of different lengths will mask corresponding numbers of those receivers as they travel past them, whereby the identity of each successive elongate article may be recognised, and providing sorting means responsive to the article identifying means to direct articles of each detected shape to a destination individual thereto.
  • This method will identify and sort various articles, such as metallic knives, forks, dessert spoons and teaspoons, and apparatus embodying the method will direct them to various storage locations but will not orientate each elongate article in the same way as regards its different opposite ends.
  • This is desirable, although not absolutely essential, for items of metallic cutlery and, in accordance with further features of the invention, identification of the handle and food/drink engaging ends of the various items is possible in a basically similar manner to that which merely identifies their nature.
  • the time of masking of the various cells can be related to a controlled speed of travel of the articles along said path in such a way that not only will the nature of each item be identified but also its orientation as regards its handle and food or drink engaging ends.
  • a dessert spoon will be identified by its length whilst its orientation will be identified by the fact that the width of its handle in a direction parallel to the direction of displacement along said path is considerably less than the width of its bowl.
  • the blade and handle ends of knives are of different widths and the handle and tine or prong ends of forks are readily identifiable by the pattern of masking of appropriately disposed photo-electric cells or other receivers as the cutlery passes them at a controlled speed.
  • the means which is responsive to the identification of the articles will direct each identified article orientated one way down one chute to a corresponding destination whereas each similar article which is orientated the other way round will be directed down an alternative chute to the same destination but by way of a mechanism that will turn it end-for-end through substantially l80° before it reaches that destination.
  • the overwhelming majority of the pieces of cutlery are clean, dry and undamaged and pass from the visual inspection belt onto a second belt which advantageously is moving in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of the first mentioned belt.
  • This second belt has the reference l in the accompanying drawing.
  • the transfer of the pieces of cutlery from the first belt to the second belt l is accomplished by known mechanism that separates said pieces and places them on said second belt l in dispositions in which their longitudinal axes are perpendicular, or substantially perpendicular, to the length of the supporting suface of the second belt l and to the direction 2 in which that belt travels at a strictly controlled speed.
  • the belt l has a width 3 of l20 mms and is spaced at its left hand edge, considered in the direction 2, by substantially l6 mms from a datum line 4 that also extends parallel to the direction 2.
  • the datum line 4 may take the physical form of a planar wall and may advantageously but not essentially be arranged to move in the direction 2 at the same speed as the belt l.
  • the first cell 5 is located at l55 mms from the datum line 4 and the second cell 6 is located at l40 mms from that line, it being apparent from the drawing that these two cells 5 and 6 are both beyond the edge of the belt l that is remote from the edge thereof nearest to the datum line 4.
  • the third cell 7, however, is located at only l2 mms from the datum line 4 and is thus in the l6 mms gap between that line 4 and the neighbouring edge of the belt l.
  • each knife 8 is l6l mms in length
  • each fork 9 is l52 mms in length
  • each dessert spoon l0 is also l52 mms in length
  • each teaspoon ll is l06 mms in length.
  • the times during which the various cells, 5, 6 and 7 are masked can be employed to detect the difference between the equal length forks 9 and dessert spoons l0 and the disposition of each piece of cutlery as regards whether its handle end, or its other end, is against the datum line 4.
  • the blade of a knife 8 is l3 mms wide whereas the handle thereof is only l0 mms wide.
  • the handle of a fork 9 is l2 mms wide whereas its opposite end has four tines or prongs with three spaces between them so that, as these tines or prongs are interposed between either the cell 6 or the cell 7 and the source of illumination, they will mask the cell concerned in a rapid four times off interposed between four times on pattern.
  • a dessert spoon l0 has substantially the same handle width as does both a knife 8 and a fork 9 but its bowl end has a width of 27 mms and will thus mask either the cell 6 or the cell 7 for a length of time dependent upon the fixed speed of travel in the direction 2.
  • a teaspoon ll masks only the cell 7 but its handle has a width of substantially 9 mms whereas its bowl end has a width, in the direction 2, of substantially 22 mms.
  • PLC programmable logic controller
  • chutes There are located, downstream along the belt l from the cells 5, 6 and 7, the entrances to various chutes and means to displace the identified pieces of cutlery into appropriate chutes.
  • Such means may be of known construction and may, for example, comprise solenoid-operated "pushers", electro-magnets which are powered momentarily and move the pieces of cutlery off the belt l whilst so powered, or other known displacing means.
  • the mechanisms for reversing the lengthwise orientation of "wrongly" disposed pieces of cutlery may be of turntable formation with each "turntable" rotatable about a preferably horizontal or substantially horizontal axis.
  • a wrongly disposed piece of cutlery entering a length of the corresponding chute carried by the respective "turntable” will have its presence sensed by a magnetic reed switch or by the masking of a further photo-electric cell and such sensing will initiate the immediate rotation of the "turntable” through l80°, preferably with the piece of cutlery held directly by an electro-magnet, or by an electro-magnetically operated clamp, in the displaceable portion of the chute only whilst such displacement takes place.
  • each chute portion As soon as the reversal of the movable chute portion has taken place, the piece of cutlery is freed and can continue its journey, under gravity, towards the storage receptacle having the same lengthwise orientation as do the similar unreversed pieces of cutlery. It is desirable that the portion of each chute which leads to each reversing mechanism should incorporate an electro-magnetically or otherwise operated gate or block arranged to prevent a second piece of cutlery from reaching the reversing mechanism whilst the latter is performing a reversing operation on a first piece of cutlery. Alternatively, in very large installations, the reversing mechanisms could be constructed and arranged to receive a plurality of identical pieces of cutlery and to reverse the lengthwise orientation of all them in a single operation.
  • Known machinery which is already in use takes an appropriate selection of cutlery from the storage receptacles, for instance, a knife, a fork, a dessert spoon and a teaspoon, delivers that cutlery to a plastics or other bag together with a paper napkin and sealed containers of salt, pepper, sugar, sauce and the like and finally seals the bag ready for delivery to an aircraft and use during a meal on a subsequent flight.
  • a fourth photo-electric cell could be incorporated at a distance from the datum line 4 which is greater than that of the first cell 5 to sense both the identity, and the lengthwise disposition, of a larger knife when, as is sometimes the case, two different larger and smaller sizes of knife are employed.
  • Such a knife is given the reference l2 in the accompanying drawing. Under these circumstances, appropriate further chutes will be required together with means to displace the larger knives l2 into them.
  • ultrasonic emitters and receivers could be employed arranged in such a way that interruption of the reception of sound by any ultrasonic receiver would indicate the presence of an article between that receiver and the sound source and the length of time and/or the pattern of the interruption would indicate the lengthwise orientation of the identified article in much the same way that has been described above.
  • Signals or pulses generated by a shaft encoder or a linear transducer could be employed to detect the widths of the ends of the cutlery pieces to identify those pieces and/or to determine their lengthwise orientation, instead of using the pattern of masking of the photo-electric cells, 5, 6 or 7 or the pattern of masking of equivalent sound receivers.
  • the system could be expanded to detect significantly damaged pieces of cutlery and/or incorrect pieces and the accompanying drawing shows a long knife l3 which is not a "brand" companion of the pieces of cutlery 8 to l2 inclusive.
  • the knife l3 is shown as overlapping the datum line 4 and it will be realised that, if a photo-electric cell or other detector were to be placed on the datum line 4 it would detect such a knife l3 and would enable the programmable logic controller to displace that knife l3 into a "reject" chute.
  • the tip of the knife l3 could move along the datum line 4 and an additional photo-electric cell or other receiver be positioned beyond both the first cell 5 and the additional fourth cell that has been mentioned above.
  • the method and apparatus of the present invention is ideally suitable for sorting metallic cutlery, since it is simple and reliable in operation, without being too expensive, and can be supervised by unskilled staff, it will be appreciated that it could be employed in sorting and/or grading articles other than pieces of cutlery. Purely for example, it could be employed in grading root crops, such as carrots, that are classified by their length and by their crown diameters. Mixed bolts, screws, studs and the like could be sorted both as regards identification and lengthwise orientation using a system in accordance with the invention as could many other articles.
  • the numbers and dispositions of the photo-electric cells or other energy receivers that are used can readily be varied having regard to the size and nature of the articles to be sorted, only appropriate programming of the programmable logic controller also being required to suit the particular sorting operation that is to be undertaken.
  • the surface of the belt l which carries the knives, forks, spoons and other articles should be horizontally disposed and it may be inclined to the horizontal in such a way that the various pieces of cutlery will all tend to slide downwardly over that surface into endwise engagement with a planar wall or the like embodying the datum line 4. If, as mentioned above, the planar surface that embodies the datum line 4 is the surface of a belt or the like that is movable in the direction 2 at the same speed as the belt l, then there will be no tendency for any piece of cutlery or other article to slip sideways provided that the inclination of the belt l to the horizontal is not too great.
  • Apparatus in accordance with the invention will operate reliably at a fast speed that will enable thousands, rather than hundreds, of pieces of cutlery or other articles per hour to be sorted.

Landscapes

  • Discharge Of Articles From Conveyors (AREA)
  • Control Of Conveyors (AREA)
  • Branching, Merging, And Special Transfer Between Conveyors (AREA)
EP86307349A 1985-09-24 1986-09-24 Verfahren und Gerät zum Sortieren von Waren Withdrawn EP0220832A3 (de)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB8523567 1985-09-24
GB858523567A GB8523567D0 (en) 1985-09-24 1985-09-24 Sorting articles

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP0220832A2 true EP0220832A2 (de) 1987-05-06
EP0220832A3 EP0220832A3 (de) 1988-02-03

Family

ID=10585656

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
EP86307349A Withdrawn EP0220832A3 (de) 1985-09-24 1986-09-24 Verfahren und Gerät zum Sortieren von Waren

Country Status (2)

Country Link
EP (1) EP0220832A3 (de)
GB (1) GB8523567D0 (de)

Cited By (6)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5010247A (en) * 1988-10-07 1991-04-23 Spandrel Establishment Method of classifying objects according to shape
FR2668962A1 (fr) * 1990-11-09 1992-05-15 Femia Ind Procede de triage d'objets de forme allongee, notamment curvilignes tels que des haricots verts et systeme de triage pour la mise en óoeuvre de ce procede.
US5206699A (en) * 1988-05-06 1993-04-27 Gersan Establishment Sensing a narrow frequency band of radiation and gemstones
EP0581699A1 (de) * 1992-07-29 1994-02-02 VALIDEX (Société à Responsabilité limitée) Sortieranlage für Gemeinschaftsbesteck
DE4332428A1 (de) * 1993-09-23 1995-03-30 Siemens Ag Formaterkennungsvorrichtung für eine Filmkassette
EP0743104A2 (de) * 1995-05-18 1996-11-20 Premark Feg Corporation Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Identifizierung von unterschiedlichen, länglichen metallischen Gegenständen, insbesondere von Besteckteilen

Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3653507A (en) * 1970-03-30 1972-04-04 Avant Ind Silverware sorter
EP0148535A1 (de) * 1984-01-09 1985-07-17 Philips Electronics Uk Limited Verfahren zum Sortieren von Gegenständen
WO1986006661A1 (en) * 1985-05-14 1986-11-20 Regionala Stiftelsen I Värmland Med Firma Erress Apparatus for sorting cutlery

Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3653507A (en) * 1970-03-30 1972-04-04 Avant Ind Silverware sorter
EP0148535A1 (de) * 1984-01-09 1985-07-17 Philips Electronics Uk Limited Verfahren zum Sortieren von Gegenständen
WO1986006661A1 (en) * 1985-05-14 1986-11-20 Regionala Stiftelsen I Värmland Med Firma Erress Apparatus for sorting cutlery

Non-Patent Citations (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Title
COMPUTER DESIGN, vol. 20, no. 12, December 1981, pages 153-160, Winchester, Massachusetts, US; W. HOLDERBY "Approaches to computerized vision" *
COMPUTER DESIGN, vol. 22, no. 5, April 1983, pages 89-90, 92, 94, 96, Winchester, Massachusetts, US; J.K. WEST "Machine vision in the real world of manufacturing" *
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, vol. IA-19, no. 5, September-October 1983, pages 794-801, New York, US; P.C. WEST "Machine vision in practice" *

Cited By (9)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5206699A (en) * 1988-05-06 1993-04-27 Gersan Establishment Sensing a narrow frequency band of radiation and gemstones
US5010247A (en) * 1988-10-07 1991-04-23 Spandrel Establishment Method of classifying objects according to shape
FR2668962A1 (fr) * 1990-11-09 1992-05-15 Femia Ind Procede de triage d'objets de forme allongee, notamment curvilignes tels que des haricots verts et systeme de triage pour la mise en óoeuvre de ce procede.
EP0581699A1 (de) * 1992-07-29 1994-02-02 VALIDEX (Société à Responsabilité limitée) Sortieranlage für Gemeinschaftsbesteck
FR2694216A1 (fr) * 1992-07-29 1994-02-04 Validex Installation de tri pour couverts de collectivités.
DE4332428A1 (de) * 1993-09-23 1995-03-30 Siemens Ag Formaterkennungsvorrichtung für eine Filmkassette
US5569909A (en) * 1993-09-23 1996-10-29 Siemens Aktiengesellschaft Format recognition device for a film cassette
EP0743104A2 (de) * 1995-05-18 1996-11-20 Premark Feg Corporation Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Identifizierung von unterschiedlichen, länglichen metallischen Gegenständen, insbesondere von Besteckteilen
EP0743104A3 (de) * 1995-05-18 1998-02-04 Premark FEG L.L.C. Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Identifizierung von unterschiedlichen, länglichen metallischen Gegenständen, insbesondere von Besteckteilen

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB8523567D0 (en) 1985-10-30
EP0220832A3 (de) 1988-02-03

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Inventor name: SHEND'GE, VASANT JANARDAN