FR2521962A1 - DEPILEUR OF FLAT OBJECTS SUCH AS POSTAL PLATES - Google Patents

Abstract

THE INVENTION RELATES TO A DEPILER OF FLAT OBJECTS SUCH AS POSTAL MAIL. SUCH A DEPILER LOCATED BETWEEN A FEEDING STORE AND THE DEPILING FACE CONTAINS MEANS 3 ENSURING THE FOLDINGS WHICH ARE PRESENT AT THE LEVEL OF THE DEPILING HEAD A REAR TILT. IT MAY FURTHER INCLUDE MEANS 6 EMPHASIZING THE SEPARATION BETWEEN THE FOLD IN THE PROCESS OF UNPILING 8 AND THE FOLD 7 WHICH FOLLOWS IT IMMEDIATELY AND A COMBINATION OF DETECTION MEANS C1 AND C2 OF SELECTIVE CONTROL MEANS OF THE MACHINE ORGANS ACCORDING TO THE PARAMETERS GOVERNING DEPILING.

Description

FLAT OBJECT DEPILER

SUCH AS POSTAL PEN

  The invention relates to a destacker of flat objects such as postal folds. A mailpiece sorting machine feed assembly essentially comprises a feed magazine acting as a buffer stock and a presentation unit to a speed setting member and for speeding in a unitary manner (the one after the other) each fold, finally a conveying device intended for

route the folds unitarily.

  It turns out that, faced with certain constraints such as an enlargement

  of the characteristics of the folds to be processed (beyond the norms in use), the devices of known types are unsuitable to fully meet the performance objectives.

  Among the most important constraints to be taken into account

  In the broadening of the spectrum, one can for example cite: the treatment of lots of folds of very different weights (from very light, less than two grams, to very heavy, for postal folds greater than sixty grams; very porous postal folds, or glossy the treatment of postal folds with geometric characteristics

  altered by the manufacturing process of the fold itself (eg

  ple: single leaf folded in two or three with local sealing);

  the treatment of non-standard serial mail folds.

  In the face of these new constraints, the previously known devices

  cited sometimes lead to a level of performance

insufficient.

  Indeed, the dispensing devices for picking one by one and in the order in which they are the objects of a stack or a row to send them a constant pitch (as opposed to constant spacing systems) for example in a treatment plant have satisfactory operation only if the position of the objects at the time of unstacking is determined very accurately. This is precisely the purpose of the invention. It relates more particularly to a flat-article destacker unit intended to ensure the connection between a feed store acting as a buffer stock and a presentation unit to a dispensing member. speed setting for speeding unitarily one after the other in a constant pitch each object for its introduction into a conveying device for conveying the objects unitarily, characterized in that it comprises control means (3) able

  to impose on objects arriving from the food store an inclination

  sound at an angle O rearward with respect to the direction of the conveying thereby determining for each object a tilting angle maintained constant until it is individually taken care of by the

unstacking face.

  The invention will be better understood with the aid of the following explanations and the attached figures, among which FIGS. 1 to 7 show diagrammatically the various means used.

  in a destacker according to the invention.

  Figures 8, 9 and 10 schematically represent other

  malfunctions that these means can avoid.

  To facilitate understanding the same elements carry

  the same references in all figures.

  1 schematically represents the position that has proved optimal and that must take the feet of the objects to be unstacked before reaching the unstacking face 2 of a setting member speed (not shown) They must remain inclined an angle O "

  which, for each specific application, must be maintained

  until the fold concerned is caught by the speed setting member.

  The objects taken as an example in the following description

are flat letters or folds 1.

  As shown in FIG. 2, by way of nonlimiting example,

  a means 3 capable of ensuring this inclination of the letters

  Unstacking may consist of a set of motorized belts 33 which follows the letter drive path of a downstream feed magazine (not shown in the figure) and which may be of the type of is described in the

  French Patent Application 2,382,387.

  In such a device, the sets of letters are inserted between the pushing members driven in motion to near

  the unstacking member, where they are then retracted.

  In FIG. 3, such a pusher member is shown in FIG.

  just before its retraction In accordance with the invention, it is

  the positioning of the lettering feet as defined by means of FIG. 1, by means of a blowing system 4 placed at the rear of the foot of the letter placed immediately after the zone of action of the

  The last pushing organ 5 The arrows show the direction of the suffering

flage.

  As shown in Figure 4, this same result can also

  can be obtained by means of a pushing device 5 provided with means

  inclination to tilt it at the angle "defined above.

  in the vicinity of the unstacking face 2.

  As shown in FIG. 5, a photoelectric cell C 1 is placed in position to detect the presence of the foot 9 of a

  letter for example on motorized belts.

  A new problem arises at this stage of unstacking, namely the separation of the letter 8 supported by the unstacking face 2 and the letter 7 which follows immediately This separation is ensured by the aspiration of the letter 8 against the unstacking face through the orifices 12, and accentuated by means of a blowing ramp 6 placed above the packet of letters fed to the speed setting member This is a means of selecting the letter 8 pressed against the unstacking face 2 before its speeding in order

of his training.

  Such a speed setting member is schematically represented

  shown in Figure 6 It essentially comprises the face of

252 1 9 6 2

  unstacking 2 itself having suction orifices 12 cooperating with a drum II of speeding In accordance with the invention a detection means C 2 is placed as close as possible to the drum II of speeding The function of the means of

  detection will be explained in the following description.

  In order to improve the individual separation of the head letter of the set of folds inclined backwards, at the time of the entry into action of the suction by erasing the previous letter, the thickness of the letter to put in speed can This is why an image capture head 14 is placed as shown in FIG. 7 on the path of the part.

  of the letter so as to determine the thickness.

  The information gathered then leads to an adjustment of the parameters

very training.

  The operation of an unstacker according to the invention is

described below.

  At first an operator fills letters with

  spaces between the pushing organs of the food store

  When this operation is completed, the store is started As soon as a first pile of letters arrived near the unstacking face 2, the CI detection means gives a positive information At this time the store is stopped and the game of

  motorized belts 33 is, or is being operated as well as

  firstly, the pusher member pushing the pile of letters ready to be unstacked and detected by the detection means C 1 can also be placed in a rearwardly inclined position. the moment To The magazine is then stopped until the separation and aspiration of the folds by the speed-up device leads the

  Ci cell to no longer be occulted.

  Unlike what happens in known devices, the letter is then in an inclined position, it is not pressed (pressed) by the feed store against the unstacking face At the moment To + TI the implementation vacuum chamber road acting on the suction ports 12 is started; this has the effect of pressing the first letter presenting itself to unstacking against the unstacking side 2 The second detecting means C 2 detects the plating of this first letter of the pile of letters which is presented It is the instant To + Tx The second upper blowing means 6 are then started at the time To + T 2 They have, as has been said previously, the function of not allowing the plating on the

  unstacking face as the only letter that needs to be speeded up.

  This instant may or may not coincide with the time To + Tx The transition of the concealed state of the cell Ci, with the unobtrusive state of this same cell results in a control signal which ensures the restarting of the store and the beginning of a new cycle So we can in the case of each application

  introduce a selective command of the different means of detection

  tion and control, possibly by means of

  in order to take into account the nature of the objects to be unstacked.

  Speeding up a 6 mm letter translates into a change in

  cation of the state of the letter stock in the vicinity of the gearing member very different from the case where the speeding letter has a

  thickness of a few tens of mm The interpretation of the informa-

  From the detection means C 2, this difference can be taken into account. It is also quite usual for mail batches of equivalent general characteristics to appear at the entrance of a machine. The repeatability of the information of the two detection means CI and C 2 allows automatic adjustment

  unstacking procedures to the category of mail concerned.

  It may happen that an incident occurs during the course of

  This is the case, for example, when the unstacking step (gap between two pusher bodies 50 and 51) is not unloaded (FIG. 8). Thus, against the jogging face of the letters (A), a capacitive cell can be provided for The front finger 50 associated with this step is then stopped before retraction so as to avoid an exaggerated backward inclination corresponding in fact to a full spread on two steps (FIG. 9) of the folds (A). next finger, 51 would then print them, during his advance, an unacceptable deformation (Figure 10) then prohibiting a plating against the face of plating 2 After this judgment,

  a complete start-up procedure is repeated as described above.

  above. The regulation actions, thanks to the means implemented in the present invention can therefore relate to the level and frequency of pulsations of the upper air jets, the delay of the commissioning of the general power supply of the letters and the speed rotation of the conveyor belt brought letters feet against the face of

  unstacking, the intensity of the depression of the drum setting speed.

  An unstacker according to the invention thanks to the combination of means which characterizes it leads to a maximum yield at a fixed rate It makes it possible to reduce the double setting rate and

  the very fact of tending towards zero, which is a fundamental constraint

  for this type of application By limiting the desynchronization, it dispenses to implement a complementary device to

the entrance of the machine.

  By cadence is meant the number of folds put in speed in the conveying device per unit of time The unstacking efficiency, meanwhile, corresponds to the number of folds correctly introduced into the conveying device, that is to say presenting

  in a unitary way with a correct attitude and a synchro-

  as desired, in relation to the number of theo-

  likely to be speeded up.

2521 962

Claims (8)

  A flat-object unstacker for connecting a supply store acting as a buffer stock and presentation unit to a speed setting member for speeding up each object one after the other for its introduction into a conveying device for conveying the objects unitarily, characterized in that it comprises control means (3) capable of   to impose on objects arriving from the food store an inclination   sound at an angle O (towards the rear with respect to the conveying direction thus determining for each object an angle of inclination maintained constant until it is taken individually by the unstacking side 2.   2 unstacker according to claim 1, characterized in that it further comprises means (6) capable of accentuating the separation between the object (8) supported by the unstacking face (2) and the object (7) who follows immediately.   3 unstacker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized   characterized in that it further comprises means (14) for evaluating the thickness of the object supported by the setting member.   speed capable of acting on the speeding up of the depilated object.   4 unstacker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized   characterized in that it comprises a first detection means CI, the arrival of the foot (9) of the first letter to be unstacked capable of   trigger the functioning of the control means 3 of the gle D (,   Deblocker according to one of claims 2 to 4, characterized   it further comprises second detection means C 2 capable of acting on the means 6 capable of accentuating the separation   between the supported object and the object that immediately follows it.   Depositor according to one of Claims 2 to 5, characterized in   it comprises selective control means actuated according to the signals provided by the detection means (CI), (C 2).   7 Unstacker according to one of the preceding claims, characterized   in that the means of control 3 of the English are con-   staggered by a set of motorized belts (33).   8 unstacker according to claim 7, characterized in that the control means 3 of the angle O <also comprise a first lower blowing means (4).