US3006640A

US3006640A - Article stacking arrangement

Info

Publication number: US3006640A
Application number: US824034A
Authority: US
Inventors: Keilig Wolfgang
Original assignee: International Standard Electric Corp
Current assignee: International Standard Electric Corp
Priority date: 1958-07-03
Filing date: 1959-06-30
Publication date: 1961-10-31
Anticipated expiration: 1978-10-31

Description

Oct. 31, 1961 w. KEILIG ARTICLE smcxmc ARRANGEMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 30, 1959 INVHVTOR. WOLFGANG If IL /6 ATTORNEY Oct. 31, 1961 w. KElLlG ARTICLE STACKING ARRANGEMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 50, 1959 INVENTOR. WOLFGANG K7L 16 TORIIEY Oct. 31, 1961 w. KEILIG 3,005,640

ARTICLE STACKING ARRANGEMENT Filed June 30, 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVEN TOR. W01. F 6/1/1/6' KE//. /6

ATTORNEY United States Patent" 3,006,640 ARTICLE STACKING ARRANGEMENT Wolfgang Keilig', Berlin-Friedman, Germany, assignor to International Standard Electric Corporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed June 30, '1959, Ser. No. 824,034 0 Claims priority, application Germany July 3, 1958 l 3 Claims. (Cl. 27187) Theinvention concerns an arrangement that serves to stack fiat articles, especially post letters and cards. The prior stackingarrangements comprise an equipment by which the articles are delivered to the stacking place either in succession .or whilst in positions in which they overlap each other irregularly. At this place they collect to form a stack. The invention further concerns an arrangement from which the articles can be withdrawn either singly or in groups of overlapped pieces in order to be transferred to. a conveyor.

In the known arangements the articles are stacked on a suitable device, such as a stacking carriage, from which they must be taken by hand if they are to be treated by still another apparatus. This process, being manual is troublesome and not reliable since during the further transportation, the stack may be disturbed. Besides, the attendant must be particularly skilled in order to handle thestack carefully. Therefore, it is desirable to mechanize or automatize' the transfer of the stacks from the stacking arrangement to an apparatus for further treatrneut of the articles, and the invention is to indicate a way of how to achieve this. In postal service, for which the arrangement according' to the invention is intended particularly, the letters or other such mail are rearranged by automatic appliances and are then conveyed to a station at which they are further to be treated. By the appliance for rearranging the letters these are supplied to a stacking equipment'whence the entire stack shall be passed on, for example, to a device by which the letters, having to be sorted, shall be given the proper position for reading their destinations, or for ascertaining these in an electromechanical way. An instantaneous transition from the stacking equipment to this positioning device is' in many cases not desirable since the working capacities of these arrangements are different from one another. Thus, either several such'arrangements must be provided for parallel- 7 operation, orthe stacked articles must beheld back till the next following plant be able to deal with the further treatment.

According to the invention the articles are collected in stacks by a container which preferably is entirely open on one longitudinal side and into which there project during the stacking process the means (stacking belts) for supplying the articles to the container as well as the means (stacking carriage) for collecting the articles, and from which this container can be detached after the stacking process has been finished. Similarly, the means for removing the stacked articles and separating them from each other likewise project into the container, which, with the stack in it, can be conveyed from the stacking equipment to the removing and separating means by the aid of any suitable conveyor. In a face wall of the container a recess may be provided through which the supply means or stacking belts extend.

Stacking equipments operating vertically as well as stacking equipments working horizontally are known. The invention contemplates both of these two possibilities.

The container when being either loaded or cleared is in a position in which the said open longitudinal side thereof is in a plane transverse of the directions in which "ice the stacker and the removing device act. In most instances this plane is vertical so that for transportation the container must be tilted through in order that the articles may not fall out of it. The transportation is accomplished by means of belt conveyors. In order to automatically find the place at which the container is further to be handled the container has destination marks, either fixed or adjustable, which in well known manner serve to control or adjust the path of conveyance.

The rear wall of the stacking carriage is displaceable in order that it may be possible for the loaded container to be inserted over such a carriage in order to have the stacked articles separated from each other. The bottom of the stacking carriage engages with the container in such a manner that when the container with the stack in it is inserted over such a carriage, now employed as a clearing device, the bottom of the carriage comes to intervene between the stack and a side wall of the container. To facilitate this action, that sidewall is formed with antifriction ribs.

The invention will now be explained by way of example with the aid of the drawings, in which FIG. 1 shows the arrangement for stacking in a horizontal direction into a container provided at the outlet end of a conveyor;

FIG. 2 the same arrangement as viewed in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an arrangement similar to that in FIGS. 1 and 2 but in which the stacking is accomplished in a vertical direction;

FIG. 4 is a container suitable for use in connection with the invention; and

FIG. 5 illustrates this container as carried on a conveyor leading from the stacking equipment to a place for further treatment.

Refering now to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown a stacking system in which articles, such as letters 1, are conveyed edgewise by a vertical belt system indicated generally at 2, toward a stacking station 3. Edgewise conveyance of flat articles is well known from the prior art and, therefore, the system is not further described in that respect. The belt system 2 delivers letters to a stacking belt system 4 and which belt system 4 rotates about the pulleys 4a, 4b and 40, as shown in FIG. 1. These pulleys are mounted vertically on the top surface of the stacking station 3, as shown. The stacking station also includes a movable carriage 5, which carriage is adapted to move in a direction transverse to the direction of the belt system 4, which direction is opposite to the direction of the heavy arrow in FIG. 1. The carriage 5 has a vertical fixed retaining portion 8, shown clearly in FIG. 1, and has another vertical movable portion 7 situated transverse' to the portion 8.

Special containers are provided for the actual receipt of conveyed items, indicated generally at 6. The container 6 is shown in detail in FIG. 4 and will be seen to consist of a rectangular shaped box having five sides. There are two small dimension sides 62 and 6r opposite each other. The side 6r is provided with a slot 12 extending down the middle of it. The upper portion of the side is cut away, as shown. The bottom of the box is indicated at 6b and has a recess cut therein indicated at 6br, and which recess is a continuation of the slot 12 but normal thereto. The bottom of the box 6b is provided with a sub-base 6sb attached to it by suitable spacers 6s. The space defined between the sub-base 6sb and the bottom 6b is adapted to receive the turned over lips of the element 8, which is afiixed to the station 3, as shown in FIG. 1. The side 6w is provided with a plurality of spaced parallel ribs 14 whose function will be later described. The side 61; of the box is provided with end, namely, on its end 6e.

ings may be magnetic or mechanical elements useful in automatically routing a container 6, after it is filled and is transported by a conveyorsystem. In FIG. 5 there is shown a scanning device 17, which is adapted to scan the destination elements 15. Switching elements, not shown, are controlled by the scanning device 17 to control the destination of the container 6. Such switching elements are well known and constitute no part of this invention.-

In operation the container 6'is caused to lie on its side 6w as shown in FIG. 1. The width of the aperture 12 is such that the belt system 4 may extend therethrough and thereby communicate with the interior of the container. In order to place the container '6 on the carriage, the continer is rnoved on to the carriagein' the direction of the heavy arrow so that the edges of the element 8 grip the sub-base 6sb, as shown. Thereafter, the movable element I 7 is moved within the container 6. FIG. 1 shows the element 7'fu1ly engaged within the container 6. Letters 1 are carried in a vertical position by the belt system 4 into the container 6. During the time that the container 6 is being loaded with letters 1, the carriage 5 is urged away from the belt system 4 by the growing stack of envelopes. After having been completely loaded, the carriage is in the final position of its motion away from belts 4. FIG.' 1 discloses the carriage in such final position. The element 7 acts as a movable stop to the increasing stack of letters growing within the container 6. Elementfl7 maintains the letters in the vertical position.

In the showing of FIGS. 1 and 2, the letters are stacked in a horizontal position. In the arrangement shown in FIG. 3 they are shown being stacked in a vertical direction; In FIG. 3, the container 6 is shown standing on The container is positioned on a stacking device 9 and which device may include a stacking element 11 which'operates in the nature of a downwardly descending elevator. Theelement 11 is retained in its uppermost position, as shown in FIG. 3, by spring tension means (not shown) and the increasing weight of letters delivered to the elevator section 11 by the conveyor system 10, will cause the elevator section 11 to move downwardly until it ultimately reaches the inside surface of the, end 62 of the container. Since the elevator element '11 is tapered, the container 6e can be readily removed and all the letters therein will be uniformly stacked. The elevator element 11 moves down repair of tracks (not shown)'on opposite sides'of the stacking device 9. 7 V

Returning to FIG. 1, when the container 6 is filled arrow to be disengaged from the turned-over edges of the element 8. Thereupon the filled container 6 may be placed on a conveyor system, such as 16, shown on FIG. 5, to be transferred to further processing equipment, not shown. It may be arranged that while thecontainer 6 is being removed from the carriage 5, that arriving letters 1 may be automatically led to another stacker (not shown) for parallel operation.

V The process for unloading a-filled container 6 is, in a sense, the reverse of a loading process. The container is again placed on a carriage so as to engage the turned over edges of the element 8 and the movable element 7 is placed within the container and lies between the side 6e and the last stacked letter 1. V

The ribs 14 facilitate the movementof the envelopes 1 into the container since they present a small friction surface to the edges of the envelopes.

While I have described'above the principles of my invention in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of my invention, as set forth in the objects thereof and in the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is: v I

1. "An arrangement tostack flat articles, comprising in combination, a stacking station, a movable 'belt for successively delivering said articles to said stacking station, a rnovable'carriage and means for slidably supporting it on said station for movement in a direction normal to the direction of movement of said belt, a removable stacking container having a base and a side out complementary to said belt, means for mounting said container on said stacking station with the side parallel to the plane of the face of said belt and encompassing said belt whereby said belt communicates'with the interior of said container, and said carriage including a portion extending within said container and movable with said carriage to provide'a backstop for articles delivered within said container bysaid movable belt. 2. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein. said container has a sub'base spaced from its base, the container mounting means comprising a retaining element fixed to said stacking station and adapted to fit within the space between said base and said sub-base.

Y 3. An arrangement as claimed in claim 1, wherein. said container is provided with destination characteristic markt ings onone side thereof.

with the envelopes 1, the sliding element 7 is retracted from the interior of the container 6 and the container 7 References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS