GB2204303A

GB2204303A - Card sorting apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2204303A
Application number: GB08808484A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Kuichi Takeda
Original assignee: Tanaka Seiki Co Ltd
Current assignee: Tanaka Seiki Co Ltd
Priority date: 1987-04-10
Filing date: 1988-04-11
Publication date: 1988-11-09
Anticipated expiration: 2008-04-11
Also published as: GB2204303B; KR880012464A; FR2613855A1; GB8808484D0; FR2613855B1; KR920003988B1; DE3812005C2; CH675379A5; JPS63252871A; DE3812005A1; NL8800879A

Description

OA 52-814 2 d! U;! 11, 0 3 "Card Sorting Apparatus" The present invention

relates to a card sorting apparatus, and more particularly to a card sorting apparatus which can sort cards, documents or papers by reading coded marks given on a card, document or paper and sorting it according to the information included in the read coded marks and putting it into any one of a plurality of sorting stacker boxes.

In a conventional card sorting apparatus, documents for slips, etc. have been sorted according to bar codes on the documents which represent a group of places of destination, kind of goods, etc. In such a conventional sorting apparatus cards or documents have been fed one by one and some of such apparatuses have included a feed path changing mechanism or a gate along the path of cards or documents to guide a selected card or document into a separate path from the other remaining cards or documents. In such a case, coded information to be sorted is read by a bar code reader before feeding a card into a card feeder and when the card reaches a predetermined position set by a program, its feed path is changed or a gate is opened to feed the card to a selected card stacker box.

According to such a card sorting apparatus as explained above, it is necessary to prepare a predetermined number of feed path changing mechanisms or gates along the card feed path to guide the cards to the card stacker boxes. This necessitates a rather complicated position changing mechanism of the feed path changing plates or gate opening and-closing mechanism. Thus the entire apparatus becomes rather large. Due to the complicated structure, 2 - speeding up of sorting is not easily accomplished.

Also, problems in feeding the cards have been experienced due to the complicated structure.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a card sorting apparatus which is small in size and which can sort the cards more speedily without any trouble in feeding and sorting of the cards.

According to the invention there is provided a sorting apparatus for sorting a plurality of cards, comprising means for moving cards along a card feed path, a plurality of card collecting locations disposed alongside said feed path, means for removing a card from said feed path in a direction normal to said feed path to a selected collecting location, and control means for controlling the removal of cards from the feed path to said collecting locations.

In a preferred embodiment the control means comprises a sensor which reads coded marks on a surface of a card. The cards may be supplied from a card hopper containing cards therewithin, in such a manner that a longer side of each of the cards are at right angles when fed with respect to the card feeding direction, the cards being fed intermittently so that the cards may be stopped at predetermined positions along the feed path until a card or the cards is or are pulled out from the feed path. At each collecting location a card stacker may be provided which can receive the cards fed by the card feeding means.

Preferably the cards are removed from the card feed path by holding an end of a card between a constantly rotated roller and an idling pinch roller when the card is fed by the card feeding means near a predetermined position corresponding to one of the card stacker boxes and further guiding the card in a direction of the longer side of the card.

3 - Preferably the control means controls the removal of a card by transmitting a control signal to the card removing means in response to an output from the sensor and a predetermined control program.

Furthermore the control means preferably synchronizes the card feeding means with the card removing means.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figure 1(a) is a plan view of an embodiment of a card sorting apparatus according to the present invention; Figure 1(b) is a front view of the embodiment shown in Figure 1(a); and Figure 1(c) is a right hand side view thereof. Figure 1(a) is a view cut by the B-B line of Figure 1(b) and Figure 1(b) is a view cut by the A-A line of Figure 1(a).

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing a principal portion of the embodiment of the card sorting apparatus shown in Figures 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c).

As shown in Figures 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c), a card feeding mechanism 10 is provided at a center portion of the apparatus and feeds cards 1. The card feeding mechanism 10 comprises drums 4,6,14 and 16, and endless belts 7 and 17, the endless belt 7 being passed around the drums 4 and 6, and the endless belt 17 being passed around the drums 14 and 16, so that the drums 4 and 14 work together rotated in opposite directions from each other by gears 4a and 14a. The belts 7 and 17 thus hold cards therebetween and feed them along a path.

The card feeding mechanism 10 is driven intermittently by a motor 5 and pulley through a belt V, the pulley being directly connected with the drum 4, and thus the mechanism can feed cards intermittently. Near an inlet of the card feeding mechanism 10 there is provided a bar code reader 2 which can read a bar code printed on each of the cards 1. When 4 the cards 1 are fed by the endless belts 7 and 17, one end of each of the cards 1 protrudes from the belts 7 and 17 as shown in Figure 1(a). Along the feed path of cards held between the endless belts 7 and 17, there are provided a plurality of hourglass shaped rollers 8a,8b... 8f, which are driven by a motor 15 through an axle 8s which conects the rollers 8a, 8b... 8f, to constantly rotate them. Faced with the rollers 8a, 8b...

8f, barrel shaped idling pinch rollers 9a, 9b...

9f are provided, respectively. The constantly rotated rollers 8a, 8b... 8f and the corresponding pinch rollers 9a, 9b... 9f are disposed normally apart from each other and the protruding ends of the cards 1 can pass in the space between the rollers.

A pulley 8p provided at one end of the axle 8s.

is rotated in a direction shown in Figure 1(c) by an arrow by the motor 15 through a pulley 15p and a belt V 2, and so the rollers 8a, 8b... 8f connected with the axle 8s are constantly rotated in the same direction. In front of the rollers 8a, 8b... 8f, there is provided a card stacker 12 having boxes 12a, 12b... 12f, respectively.

The shape of the constantly rotated rollers 8a, 8b... 8f is of a hourglass shape, while the shape of the pinch rollers is of a barrel shape. The shape of the constantly rotated rollers and the pinch rollers are complementary to each other.

The pinch rollers 9a, 9b... 9f are movable up and down by solenoids lla, llb... llf provided respectively. By the pushing down of a solenoid, a corresponding pinch roller is pushed down so as to hold the protruded end of the card 1. Even if a card 1 is of a thin paper, it may be held in a somewhat curved manner in a transverse (or shorter side) direction of the card due to the complementary shape of the pair of the rollers.

Therefore, the card may be held between the rollers in an almost straight manner with respect to the longer side of the card onto a desired card stacker box.

An explanation will now be given as to the pulling out operation of the cards 1.

As shown in Figures 1(a), 1(b) and 1(c), cards 1 contained in a card hopper 3 are fed one by one through the lower portion of the card hopper by a card feeding roller 3a onto a feeder 2a provided under the bar code reader 2, where a bar code printed on the surface of a card 1 is read by the bar code reader 2. The information read is sent to a control circuit, not shown, as an output of the bar code reader 2.

The card 1 passed on the feeder 2a is further fed to the card feeding mechanism 10. By the card feeding mechanism 10, the cards 1 are fed intermittently while being held between the endless belts 7 and 17 in such a manner that the longer sides of the cards 1 are at right angles with respect to the moving direction of the endless belts 7 and 17, as clearly shown in chain lines in Figure 1(a).

A card 1 is fed intermittently so that the card 1 is moved, for example from the position 7a to that of 7b and stopped for a while there and further moved to a position of 7c. In this state, one end of each of the cards 1, that is, the lower portion thereof in Figure 1(a) and the left portion in Figure 1(c) is protruded from the belts 7 and 17. The protruded ends are fed in a space between the constantly rotated rollers and the pinch rollers.

When a card 1 is stopped in front of a desired card stacker box of the stacker 12, a pinch roller provided just above the very end of the card 1 is lowered and the end of the card 1 is held between the pinch roller and the corresponding constantly rotated roller.

6 For example, a card 1 which is to be received into the box 12b is stopped at a position 7b, and a solenoid llb is operated by a control signal from the control circuit, not shown, and it pushes down the pinch roller 9b so that the pinch roller 9b holds an end of the card 1 between the roller 8b, as clearly shown in Figure 2. Since the roller 8b, just like the rollers 8a, 8c... 8f is constantly rotated in the direction of the arrow in Figure 2, the card 1 now held between the rollers is pulled out into the direction of the stacker box 12b of the stacker 12 and received therein. During the intermittent feeding, a plurality of cards 1 may be pulled out and received into the boxes at one operation, or in some cases even a card may not be sorted into a box. The problem of which cards are to be sorted and when they are to be pulled out from the feed path is carried out according to a predetermined program and using the control circuit, not shown, which decides it according to the output of the bar code reader 2 and operates solenoids lla, llb... llf independently and in synchronization with the intermittent movement by the card feeding mechanism 10. The pulling out operation is started only by the pushing down of the related solenoid to lower the related pinch roller. Thus the card pulling out is made very speedily. The cards 1 are fed one by one and in such a manner that the longer sides of the neighbouring cards are moved closely adjacent with each other.

Therefore, it is not necessary to prepare a large space for other than the card feeding mechanism 10, thus enabling the entire apparatus to be far smaller than the conventional apparatuses.

The number of the stacker boxes, six in the -1 shown embodiment, may be selected as desired by the users of the apparatus.

The_card hopper 3 and the card stacker 12 may be made detachable from the body of the apparatus, thus the supply and taking out of the cards 1 may be made easily.

Although the invention has been described with reference to sorting cards, it will be appreciated that it is not limited thereto and may be used to sort other similar articles such as documents and papers.

It is to be clearly understood that there are no particular features of the foregoing specification, or of any claims appended hereto, which are at present regarded as being essential to the performance of the invention, and that any one or more of such features or combinations thereof may therefore be included in, added to, omitted from or deleted from any of such claims if and when amended during the prosecution of this application or in the filing or prosecution of any divisional application based thereon. Furthermore the manner in which any of such features of the specification or claims are described or defined may be amended, broadened or otherwise modified in any manner which falls within the knowledge of a person.skilled in the relevant art, for example so as to encompass, either implicitly or explicitly, equivalents or generalisations thereof.

i

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A sorting apparatus for sorting a plurality of cards, documents or papers succesively, the apparatus comprising:

means for feeding cards or the like which forms a successive card feed path by moving a pair of endless belts in the same direction, one face of each of the endless belts being faced with each other, and the cards being held and fed between the endless belts; means for pulling out the cards provided along the successive card feed path and comprising constantly rotated rollers and idling pinch rollers facing each other, a space normally being provided between them through which one end of each of.the cards passes when the cards are fed by the pair of endless belts; the card pulling out means pulling out a card by holding one end thereof at a position of a card stacker box where it is to be pulled out from the card feed path, when the idling pinch roller is driven to cooperate with the corresponding roller, and for further guiding it in a direction at right angles with respect to the successive card feed path; means for controlling the card pulling out means which selectively drives the card pulling out means to pull out cards out of the card feed path at a sorting position thereof.

2. A sorting apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the card feeding means moves the cards successively one by one into the card feed path.

3. A sorting apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein card stacker boxes are provided at I - 9 - the respective card sorting positions which receive the cards respectively pulled out of the card feed path.

4. A sorting apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein each of the constantly rotated rollers is of a hourglass shape and the pinch rollers are of complementary barrel shape.

5. A sorting apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the controlling means comprises a sensor which reads a code given on the surface of a card and sends a control signal according to a predetermined program for an output from the sensor to the card pulling out means, so as to control the operation of the portions of the card pulling out means in synchronization with the.operation of the card feeding means.

6. A sorting apparatus for sorting a plurality of cards, comprising means for moving cards along a card feed path, a plurality of card collecting locations disposed alongside said feed roath, means for removing a card from said feed path in a direction normal to said feed path to a selected collecting location, and control means for controlling the removal of cards from the feed path to said collecting locations.

7. A sorting apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Published 1988 at The Patent Office, State House, 66;"71 High Holborn, London WCIR 4TP- Further copies may be obtained from The Patent Office, Sale-s '.Branch, St Mary Cray Orpington, Kent BR5 3RD. Printed by Multiplex techniques ltd, St Mary Cray, Kent. Con. 1/87.