MXPA99003727A - Method and apparatus for the processing of articles at high speed - Google Patents

Abstract

A baggage handling system includes a series of luggage trays for transporting luggage and a conveyor belt for transporting luggage and a conveyor belt for transporting the trays at a given speed. A derailleur selectively removes the luggage from the conveyor belt and places the luggage in an accumulator. A discharger is provided to unload the luggage of the accumulator. The accumulator in a way lowers the speed of the luggage as it is received from the conveyor belt and lends the luggage with the decreased speed to a discharge device at a generally constant speed, such speed being dependent on the speed at which the luggage It is diverted from the conveyor belt. The unloader uses a dump mechanism using wheel guides and an actuator to gently dump the luggage of the accumulator to another area such as the meeting area in a baggage handling system of an airplane.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE PROCESSING OF ARTICLES AT HIGH SPEED The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus and the handling of articles, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus for the processing of cargo and its selection which places the articles in a processing station in a controlled manner.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conveyor belt systems are widely used to transport materials from one point to another. In factories, conveyor belts transport objects along production lines from one processing point to the next, take the materials from the storage point and return the finished products to the warehouse location. At airports, conveyor belts are used to move baggage and other cargo from counters to meeting areas where items are placed inside trucks to be transported to waiting aircraft. Conveyor belts are also used to bring items from the plane to the baggage claim area within an airport terminal. These systems can be really long, move in a wide range of speeds and be arranged in many different configurations. When objects such as luggage arrive at their final or intermediate destination, they should generally go to sleep before continuing to process them. At low speeds, objects can fall at the end of the conveyor belt and form a pile and then follow a manual process, or can be pushed laterally from the conveyor belt by means of a diverter or pusher. When objects are transported on a tray or other conveyor, as is commonly done with baggage, a device such as a tumbler must be provided to dump or otherwise remove baggage from the conveyor. The luggage is relatively durable, and these treatments do not damage the piece very much, however, when luggage or other objects move at high speeds they can not tip over safely or fall at the end of the conveyor belt. The kinetic energy of moving luggage must be absorbed in order to stop the object, and when energy is absorbed by the suitcase by itself or other nearby suitcases, then damage often occurs. Dumps that operate at high speeds can also damage luggage, and when baggage must be manually processed after leaving the conveyor, the potential for injuries to people working near the terminal end of the conveyor belt is raised. Finally, if the baggage items arrive in rapid succession to a station, it can be difficult for the people who process the items to work efficiently. However, decreasing the speed of a conveyor belt can also result in lower total throughput and reduced efficiency. Therefore, systems nowadays generally operate at a relatively high speed, and safety precautions must be taken to minimize damage to luggage or other objects left by the conveyor belt and injuries to individuals working near the conveyer belt .

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention addresses this and other problems by providing an article handling system that includes a high speed conveyor belt for transporting objects, a diverter for selectively removing the objects from the conveyor belt, at high speed, an accumulation conveyor belt for receiving the objects of the conveyor belt at high speed, and a discharge device for removing the articles from the accumulation conveyor, whose device can be a dump when the articles are transported on the conveyor belts in trays . The accumulation conveyor lowers the speed of the items that leave the high speed conveyor belt and presents them to the discharge device at a generally constant speed, a speed independent of that at which the objects deviate from the conveyor belt. Furthermore, the invention comprises a novel tumbler mechanism that gently overturns the articles of the conveyor belt with a smooth movement without movements, without shaking and which is of a simpler construction than the tumblers hitherto known. The dump is highly useful in relation to the article submitted to the handling system, but can also be used very effectively in many other situations where a baggage dump is needed, and even in some applications where previous dump trucks have been too violent or too expensive to keep them. The dump includes a generally horizontal platform having a front edge and a trailing edge and a fastener for holding a container on said platform. The platform has a first platform support and a guide to guide the first platform support. The guide has a first end on a first level and a second end on a second level, the second level being lower than the first level. A second support platform supports the trailing edge at a level higher than the second level. An actuator is positioned to move the platform and the first platform support along the guide until the front edge support reaches the second end of the guide. The present invention also includes a method for handling baggage comprising luggage carrying trays which load luggage onto a conveyor belt at a first speed and diverting at least a portion of the luggage trays transported on the conveyor belt to an accumulation stopper for form an accumulated line. The luggage is unloaded from the deviated trays at a second speed independent of the speed of the conveyor belt. The trays can then be removed from the accumulation line after unloading the luggage. The second speed can be at a generally constant speed to improve the discharge. The download may include dumping each tray to unload the luggage. During dumping, a forward position of the tray may travel along an arcuate path and downward during discharge, and a backward portion of the tray may travel in a generally horizontal path during discharge. The present invention is particularly related to baggage handling systems such as those used in airports, and for simplicity, the invention will be described herein in terms of an airport baggage handling system. It should be understood, however, that this invention is not limited to the applications of an airport and could be used in connection with any article handling system in which the smooth handling of an article is required. It is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide an item handling system to minimize damage to the items that are processed. It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved dump device for dumping objects from a tray. It is a further object of the invention to provide a baggage handling system which includes an accumulation stop to operate at a speed independent of the speed of the conveyor belt at high speed. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a baggage handling system in which the luggage trays are directed to an appropriate processing station, emptied of their contents, and automatically transported to a storage location where they can be stored. for use later. It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an improved luggage tray turner that is activated by the rotation of a rotary motor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects of the invention will be appreciated -better upon reading and understanding the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention along with the following drawings of which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a luggage handling system according to the present invention which includes a luggage tray turner. Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the tumbler shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is an elongated raised side view of the luggage tray in the dump shown in Figure 2; Figure 4 is a top plan view of the luggage tray shown in Figure 2; Figure 5 is an elevated side view of the luggage tray shown in Figure 2; Figure 6 is a raised end view of the luggage tray shown in Figure 2; Figure 7 is a front elevated view of the dumper shown in Figure 2; Figures 8A-8J are side elevational views of the dump of Figure 2 showing the dump moving through a complete operational cycle; Figure 9 is a top plan view of a second embodiment of a dump truck according to the object of the invention; and, Figure 10 is an elevated side view of the dump of Figure 9.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES In a preferred embodiment of the article subjected to the handling system 10, as seen in Figure 1, the invention comprises a line of high speed conveyor 12 for transporting luggage trays 14 containing luggage articles u another loading 16, at least one accumulation conveyor 18, a high-speed diverter 20 for selectively diverting the trays 14 from the high-speed line 12 to a line of accumulation conveyor 18, and a dump 22 for receiving the trays 14 of the accumulation line 18 and dump the baggage 16 out of the trays 14 in one of the airport meeting areas 24 for later processing. The high-speed conveyor belt 12 is preferably a conveyor belt, and the accumulation conveyor belt 18 can be an accumulation conveyor belt with zero pressure, or an accumulation conveyor belt of a simpler construction that allows the trays to be impacted by a against the other. A stopper 25, shown in Figure 7 is provided at the end of the accumulation conveyor belt before the dump 22 to prevent the trays 14 from moving towards the dump 22 until needed. This arrangement allows the dump 22 to operate at a constant pace and to dump objects smoothly into the gathering area. When the trays 14 deviate from the high-speed line 12 at a faster rate than that of the dump 22 with which it operates, the trays 14 accumulate upstream of the dump 22 without affecting the passage of the dump or slowing down the speed of the dump. the line at high speed. The length of the accumulation conveyor 18 will depend on the speed of the high-speed line 12, the speed of operation of the dump 22, and the number of luggage trays 14 that can normally be expected to arrive at the accumulation line 18 in a given space of time. A typical airport framework, for example, it can be known that approximately 180 trays are expected to reach the given meeting area 24 over a period of 30 minutes, a speed of approximately six trays per minute. Dump 14 can operate safely at a rate of six suitcases per minute or more, and therefore the stop needs to be long enough to accommodate excesses in the number of trays. An additional belt conveyor 26 is placed downstream of the dump 22 to receive the empty baggage trays 14 and to transport them to a storage location (not shown) or return them to the counters or other places where they are needed. As seen in Figure 2, the dump 22 of the preferred embodiment of the subject invention comprises a belt conveyor section 28 mounted on a movable platform 30 so as to be able to receive trays of the accumulation conveyor 18. The platform includes an entrance edge 31 and an edge of outlet 33. Platform 30 includes rail members 32, and a portion 34 of each tray 14 is placed below these rails 32 when tray 14 is on dump 22 to maintain the tray on the dump while being overturned. The platform 30 is mounted on two sets of wheels, an input assembly 36 which is spaced by a first distance and an output assembly 38 spaced by a second distance. Due to differences in the spaces between the wheels of these assemblies, the separate supports 40, 42 are provided for each set of wheels. Both support assemblies include a first portion 44, 46 for supporting the platform 30 and the conveyor belt 28 in a primarily horizontal configuration. The brackets 40 of the input wheels 36 curve outwards and downwards from this first position 44 while the supports 42 of the output wheels 38 are generally horizontal. In this way when the platform 30 is pushed in the direction of the input wheels 36 by a suitable actuator 48, the leading edge 31 of the platform travels in a downward direction while the rear of the platform remains essentially at its level original. This causes the luggage tray 14 which is retained in the dump 22 to be tilted forward and to pull its contents into a receiving area 50 further down. The actuator 48 then pulls the trailing edge 33 of the platform 30 back toward the actuator 48 to return the platform to its original position. In contrast to previous dumps where the luggage was abruptly overturned from the tray, the present arrangement allows for a smooth operating system that overturns the trays gradually to gently remove the baggage from these. The inner walls with curved or large radius 52 of the trays 14 contribute to this smooth or overturned transfer of the tray luggage, a full cycle of the overturning sequence is shown in Figures 8A-8J. In addition to tipping the luggage trays gently, the actuator 48 activating the dump 22 can be an ordinary rotation motor 54. The dump 22 moves from its horizontal starting position, shown in Figure 8A through a dump cycle. complete, and returns to its horizontal position with a rotation of the motor drive shaft 56. This is an improvement over the prior art systems in which complex actuators were used to control the position and operation of the dump. This improvement therefore makes the dump trucks more economical to operate and build. The trailing edge 33 of the tipping platform 30 is engaged to a first rod 58 having a free end 59 which extends in the general direction of the motor 54. A second rod 60 is fixedly connected to the motor driving shaft 56 and broken along with this one. The end 62 of this second rod 60 is then connected to the free end 59 of the first rod 58 by means of a pin 63 or other mechanism which allows the connected ends of the rods to rotate on a common axis. As the second rod 60 rotates through the first 180 degrees of a motor cycle, the first rod 58 and therefore the platform 30 are pushed in a direction in the direction of the input shaft 31 of the platform 30, moving away from the engine 54. This sequence is shown in Figures 8A to 8E. At the halfway point of a full revolution of the motor shaft 54, FIG. 8E, the platform 30 is in a generally vertical position so that any luggage in a tray on the platform falls out of it. As the second rod 60 continues its rotation with the drive shaft 54 back to its starting position, Figures 8E to 8J, the first rod 58 is pulled in the direction of the trailing edge 33 of the platform 30, back to the engine 54, until the platform 30 has returned to its original starting position, when the engine has completed a cycle. In this way each cycle of the dumper corresponds to a motor cycle, and the position of the dumper can easily be controlled by controlling the motor and without the use of complicated joints and controls. Figures 9 and 10 show a second embodiment of the present invention in which the input wheels 36D are located proximate the edge 31 of the platform 30, but which is otherwise substantially identical to the dump of the first embodiment. While support wheels 36 such as 36D, and 38 have been described as pairs of wheels, a single wheel, or three or more wheels can easily be replaced by those pairs of wheels without exceeding the scope of this invention. As such, an invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments thereof which complies with each and every one of the objects of the present invention as set forth above and provides an improved and new method and apparatus for high-speed processing of articles. Of course, several changes, modifications and alterations of the teaching of the present invention can be contemplated by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope intended for it. It is intended that the present invention be limited only by the terms of the appended claims.

Claims (25)

1. A baggage handling system that is characterized in that it comprises: a series of luggage trays for transporting luggage; a first conveyor belt for transporting said trays at a given speed; at least one unloader to unload baggage from said baggage trays; an accumulation stop between the first conveyor belt and at least one unloader; and, a diverter for selectively diverting the trays of the first conveyor belt to at least one accumulator stopper; so the trays can be discharged by the unloader at a speed substantially independent of the speed.

2. A baggage handling system according to claim 1, characterized in that it includes a second conveyor belt connected to the unloader for transporting the trays away from the unloader after the trays have been unloaded.

3. The baggage handling system according to claim 2, characterized in that it includes means for individually moving the trays of the accumulation stop to the unloader.

4. The baggage handling system according to claim 3, characterized in that the accumulation stop has a first end adjacent to the first conveyor and a second end adjacent to the unloader, the second end being at a lower elevation than the first end. .

5. The baggage handling system according to claim 4, characterized in that the second conveyor belt is at a lower elevation than the unloader.

6. The baggage handling system according to claim 5, characterized in that the accumulator stop comprises a roller conveyor belt operated by gravity.

7. The baggage handling system according to claim 6, characterized in that at least one unloader comprises a baggage tug.

8. The baggage handling system according to claim 7, characterized in that said baggage dumper comprises: a generally horizontal platform having a front edge and a trailing edge; a dump conveyor belt mounted on the platform parallel to the front and rear edge and in alignment with the accumulation stop; a fastener for holding a luggage tray on the conveyor belt; a pair of input support wheels separated by a first distance; a pair of rear support wheels separated by a second distance; a first pair of guide wheels for supporting and guiding the support input wheels, each of the first pair of guide wheels having a first end at a first elevation and a second end at a second elevation; a second pair of guide wheels for supporting and guiding the rear support wheels, the second pair of guide wheels being generally located at the first elevation and being generally horizontal; and, an actuator for moving the platform along the support guide wheels.

9. The baggage handling system according to claim 8, characterized in that the trays include edge portions to cooperate with the fastener.

10. The device for unloading the containers is characterized in that it comprises: a generally horizontal platform having a front edge and a trailing edge; a fastener to hold a container or platform; a first platform support; a guide for guiding the first platform support, the guide having a first end at a first level and a second end at a second level, the second level being lower than the first level; a second platform support to support the trailing edge at a level higher than the second level; and, an actuator for moving the platform and the first platform support along the guide until the front support edge reaches the second end of the guide.

11. The device according to claim 10, characterized in that the first platform support comprises at least one wheel and the guide comprises at least one rail to support at least the wheel.

12. The device according to claim 11, characterized in that at least one wheel comprises a pair of wheels separated by a first distance and at least one rail comprises a pair of rails separated by the first distance.

13. The device according to claim 12, characterized in that the second platform support comprises first and second rear support wheels spaced apart or a second distance, the device further includes guides for the first and second rear wheels.

14. The device according to claim 13, characterized in that the guides for the first and second rear support wheels comprise first and second lanes spaced apart by the second distance.

15. The device according to claim 14, characterized in that the actuator comprises a motor having a drive shaft connected to the platform by an arm.

16. The device according to claim 15, characterized in that the motor moves the platform in a first direction during the middle of its cycle and in a second direction during the second half of its cycle.

17. The device according to claim 15, characterized in that the rear support rail is generally horizontal and located on the first level.

18. The device according to claim 10, further characterized in that it includes a conveyor belt mounted on the platform extending in a direction parallel to the front and rear edges.

19. The baggage dumper for overturning the luggage trays characterized in that it comprises: a generally horizontal platform having a front edge and a trailing edge; a conveyor belt mounted on the platform parallel to the front and rear edges; a fastener to hold a luggage tray on the conveyor belt; a pair of front support wheels separated by a first distance; a pair of rear support wheels separated by a second distance; a first pair of wheel guides for supporting and guiding the front support wheels, each of the first pairs of wheel guides having a first end at a first elevation and a second end at a second elevation; a second pair of wheel guides for supporting and guiding the rear support wheels, the second pair of wheel guides being generally located at the first elevation and being generally horizontal; and, a linear actuator for moving the platform along the support wheel guides.

20. A method for handling luggage characterized in that it comprises: a) transporting luggage trays containing luggage on a conveyor belt at a first speed; b) diverting at least a portion of the luggage trays transported on the conveyor belt to an accumulator stop to form an accumulation line; and c) unloading the luggage of the diverted trays at a second speed independent of the speed of the conveyor belt.

21. The method of claim 20, characterized in that it comprises removing the trays from the accumulation line after baggage unloading;

22. The method of claim 20, characterized in that the second speed is at a generally constant speed.

23. The method of claim 20, which comprises dumping each tray to unload the luggage.

24. The method of claim 23, characterized in that the forward portion of the tray travels along an arcuate path and downward during discharge.

25. The method of claim 24, characterized in that a backward portion of the tray travels in a generally horizontal path during discharge.