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
  • B07C3/00—Sorting according to destination
  • B07C3/008—Means for collecting objects, e.g. containers for sorted mail items
• • 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
  • B07C3/00—Sorting according to destination
  • B07C3/02—Apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution
  • B07C3/08—Apparatus characterised by the means used for distribution using arrangements of conveyors

Definitions

• the field of the invention is that of sorting mail items in bins in postal sorting centers.
• the invention more particularly relates to a sorting installation comprising sorting outlets aligned along a sorting conveyor each provided with a housing for a bin in which sorted mail items are stored and also comprising a conveyor of bins which extends under said sorting outlets for transporting trays filled with mail items sorted from the sorting outlets to a feed inlet of the sorting conveyor.
• a sorting installation of this type is for example described in WO-A-Ol / 12348.
• the object of the invention is therefore to remedy aforementioned problems.
• the subject of the invention is a sorting installation comprising sorting outlets aligned along a sorting conveyor each provided with a housing for a container in which sorted mail items are stored and also comprising a bins conveyor which extends beneath the sorting outlets for transporting bins filled with mail items sorted from the sorting outlets to a sorting conveyor feed inlet, characterized in that it further comprises a robot shuttle able to roll on the ground autonomously along the sorting outlets which is provided with a handling means adapted to extract a tray from a housing of a sorting outlet and to place it on the conveyor of bins, the handling means comprising a toboggan having a low end which is slidably coupled to a guide rail running along said tray conveyor, the handling means being arranged to deposit in the upper part of the slide the tray extracted from the log sorting outlet so that the tray arriving at the bottom of the slide is injected into the tray conveyor by the effect of gravity.
• the idea underlying the invention consists in eliminating the handling of trays by the operators from the sorting outlets to the conveyor and using a simple and non-motorized system for injecting the tray on the conveyor.
• the sorting equipment according to the invention may also have the following particularities:
• the shuttle robot comprises a frame carrying a vertical slide in which is slidably mounted the upper end of said slide and in that the end The bottom of the slide is mechanically connected to the frame by a set of links forming a parallelogram able to deform to compensate for a variation in height between the ground on which the shuttle robot rolls and said guide rail;
• the shuttle robot comprises a return spring which tends to pull upwards the upper end of the slide slide in said slide;
• the shuttle robot comprises a return spring which tends to pull down the lower end of the slide
• the toboggan has a sliding surface consisting of rollers.
• the idea here is to prevent uncoupling of the shuttle robot with the rail when the height between the ground and the shuttle robot is not the same as the height between the floor and the ferry conveyor.
• the use of the two deformable parallelogram rods enables this variation in height to be accommodated, in particular the tilting movements of the slide forward.
• the slide retains a constant slope during the movement of the shuttle robot to allow the sliding of a tray to the conveyor below each sorting outlet.
• FIGS. 2a to 2c show schematically the shuttle robot in front of different sorting outlets of the sorting installation according to the invention.
• FIGS. 1, 2a, 2b and 2c show a sorting installation 1 according to the invention which comprises sorting outlets 2 aligned along a sorting conveyor 3 each with a housing 4 for a container 5 in which sorted mail items 6 are stored.
• FIG. 1 also shows a feed inlet 7 designed to put mail items 6 in series on the sorting conveyor 6 according to the conveying direction F1, and then sorted in the corresponding sorting outlets 2.
• a conveyor of trays 8 is also provided under the sorting outlets 2 for conveying the trays 5 loaded with mail items 6 from the sorting outlets 2 to the feed inlet 7 in a conveying direction F2.
• the extraction of a tray 5 from a housing 4 of a sorting outlet 2 and its injection on the tray conveyor 8 under said sorting outlet 2 are here carried out by means of a shuttle robot 9 capable of rolling at the ground SI independently along the sorting outlets 2 according to the direction of movement F3.
• the shuttle robot 9 is attached to a guide rail 10 which extends in front of the conveyor of trays 8 over its entire length, as shown in Figures 1 and 2a to 2c.
• the shuttle robot 9 comprises a frame 11, here L-shaped with a plate 11a with wheels and a backrest 11b, on which is mounted a handling means 12 adapted to extract a tray from a housing of a sorting outlet and place it on the conveyor of bins.
• the handling means 12 comprises a motorized gripping head 13 comprising two horizontal parallel bars, telescopic and vertically movable to extract a tray 5 from the housing 4 of a sorting outlet 2.
• the handling means also comprises a slide 14 for tray 5 which extends under the telescopic head 13 from a high end 14b to a low end 14a which is used to effect the coupling with the guide rail 10 slidably.
• the coupling of the lower end 14a of the slide with the guide rail 9 is produced by means of three roller wheels 15 which bear against a stop 16 of the guide rail 9.
• the slope of the slide 14 is thus chosen so that the tanks 5 slide by gravity on the conveyor of trays 8.
• the slide 14 may also include rollers 17 mounted free to rotate in order to facilitate the sliding of the trays 5 and tolerate slower slope inclinations of the toboggan.
• the telescopic gripping head 13 goes down and depositing the tray 5 extracted from the housing 4 of the sorting outlet 2 in the upper part of the slide 14 for its injection on the conveyor of trays 8.
• the shuttle robot 9 also comprises two rods 18 parallel to each other and mechanically connecting the lower end 14a of the slide and the frame 12 of the shuttle robot 9 so as to form a parallelogram able to deform when a variation in height between the ground SI and the guide rail 10 and / or the lower end 14a of the slide.
• the rods 18 will preferably have tie rods of identical length so that the distance between the frame 12 and the lower end 14a of the slide is always the same.
• the rods 18 here have a multiple role of maintaining the parallelism of the slide 14 with the frame 12 relative to the guide rail 10, to maintain the slide 14 stretched on the frame 9 and to prevent tilting of the slide 14 by its low end 14a.
• the shuttle robot 9 shown in FIGS. 2a to 2c is here coupled to the conveyor of trays 8 in front of different sorting outlets 2.
• the height H1 between the ground SI and the lower end 14a of the slide is less than the height H2 of Figure 2b which itself is less than the height H3 of Figure 2c.
• the inclination of the slide is thus constant and the uncoupling of the shuttle robot 9 at the level of the three roller wheels 15 with the conveyor of trays 8 is avoided, in particular the roller wheel 15 situated under the conveyor of bins 8 which prevents uncoupling by frontal traction of the shuttle robot 9 with respect to the conveyor of trays 8, which is generally released during the tilts of the slide 14 to 1 'front.
• the shuttle robot 9 comprises a slideway 19 which extends vertically from the bottom of the frame 12 and in which is slidably mounted. high end 14b of the slide 14.
• the sliding of the high end 14b of the slide in the slideway 19 can also be damped by means of a return spring 20, or an elastic, which tends to pull up the high end 14b of the slide sliding in said slideway 19.
• a return spring 21 is disposed between the lower end 14a of the slide and the frame which tends to pull downwards. the lower end 14a of the slide towards the ground SI.
• shuttle robots 9 may be used on the same guide rail 10 in order to accelerate the rate of extraction and injection of trays 5 on the conveyor of trays 8.

Landscapes

• Sorting Of Articles (AREA)
• Discharge Of Articles From Conveyors (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=62092097

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

Families Citing this family (2)

Family Cites Families (6)

• 2018
  • 2018-02-13 FR FR1851196A patent/FR3077743B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2018-12-12 EP EP18833470.0A patent/EP3752298A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2018-12-12 CA CA3089156A patent/CA3089156A1/fr not_active Abandoned
  • 2018-12-12 WO PCT/FR2018/053222 patent/WO2019158830A1/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2018-12-12 US US16/339,153 patent/US11219924B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related

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