US3028958A - Sorting machine - Google Patents

Sorting machine Download PDF

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US3028958A
US3028958A US805800A US80580059A US3028958A US 3028958 A US3028958 A US 3028958A US 805800 A US805800 A US 805800A US 80580059 A US80580059 A US 80580059A US 3028958 A US3028958 A US 3028958A
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Prior art keywords
stage
sorting
input
document
documents
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Pouliart Willy Hortens Prosper
Guillaume Van Mechelen
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International Standard Electric Corp
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International Standard Electric Corp
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    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F7/00—Methods or arrangements for processing data by operating upon the order or content of the data handled
    • G06F7/22—Arrangements for sorting or merging computer data on continuous record carriers, e.g. tape, drum, disc
    • G06F7/24—Sorting, i.e. extracting data from one or more carriers, rearranging the data in numerical or other ordered sequence, and rerecording the sorted data on the original carrier or on a different carrier or set of carriers sorting methods in general
    • 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
    • B07C3/003—Destination control; Electro-mechanical or electro- magnetic delay memories
    • B07C3/006—Electric or electronic control circuits, e.g. delay lines
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
    • G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
    • G06Q20/10—Payment architectures specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems

Definitions

  • the sorting machine disclosed in the above patent application is provided with a plurality of sorting stages which each have two inputs and two outputs, the two inputs ofv the iirst stage of the machine constituting the two inputs of the complete machine, while the two outputs of the last sorting stage constitute the two outputs of the complete sorting machine, the two outputs of any stage except the last feeding the corresponding inputs of the next stage except the iirst.
  • Input and output stores are provided for each stage to hold the documents, and they are constituted by continuously advancing conveyors carrying the documents 4stacked against one another.
  • a sorting mechanism is provided so that the first document at one input may be compared with the first document at the other input and one of these may then be made to advance towards one or the other output of the .stage concerned.
  • sorting by merging can be accomplished.
  • sorting by digits could also be achieved with such a machine and more precisely, sorting by binary digits since the machine and each of its stages have only two outputs.
  • sorting by merging consists in merging sequences of like rank with one another, the merged output sequences being alternately distributed to one and the other output.
  • sequence one should understand a succession of documents of which the characteristic numbers which determine the sorting, are already ordered in the desired manner. In this way, the sequences will gradually grow in size and the total number of sequences will gradually diminish until one is left with only two sequences which will then be merged into the single desired final sequence.
  • sorting by digits is performed also by a series of sorting passes but during the first, the documents are distributed to one or the other of the two outputs in accordance with the value of the binary digit of lowest rank part of the sorting number.
  • the documents so sorted will then go through a second sorting pass and this time they will be ⁇ distributed to one or the other output in accordance with the value of the binary digits having the next to last lowest rank, and so on.
  • the number of sorting passes required is at most equal to logz N, or rather the next higher integral value of this expression, where N represents the total number of documents.
  • the number of sorting passes required when sorting by digit and more particularly when sorting by binary digits is simply equal to the number of binary digits used to characterise each sorting number.
  • sorting by merging will prove to be advantageous.
  • the general object of the invention is to realize a sorting machine which is more llexible than the multi-stage sorting machine hitherto known, and which does not possess its disadvantages while offering many advantages, particularly for sorting by merging.
  • a sorting machine in which each sorting stage has two inputs from -any of which an article to be sorted may be directed to one out of two outputs, is characterised by the fact that said machine comprises two stages with the outputs of each stage feeding respectively the inputs ot' the other stage.
  • a machine of the type characterised above has many advantages over the earlier multi-.stage machine. Its outstanding advantage is the flexibility of the arrangement since the machine may be designed for a maximum load of documents to be sorted but then, smaller numbers of indeed, with batches of indeed, the number of sorting documents may be sorted at any time without the drawbacks of the multi-stage sorting machine. Moreover, in a multi-stage sorting machine the document stores beween the successive stages will need to be designed so that they can accommodate an ever increasing number of documents, whereby the stages are not all identical with one another. Such a problem does not occur in a twostage sorting machine as characterised above and the two stages may be entirely identical. Also, due to the limited number of stages, it is clear that faults will be much easier to cure.
  • Another object of the invention is to provide a sorting machine of small size.
  • a sorting machine of the type already defined is further characterised in that four parallel transverse conveyors are provided to pass the articles to be sorted between the outputs and the inputs of the two sorting stages of the machine, the actual sorting stages using edgewise conveyors to interlink the transverse conveyors and the edgewise conveyors of one stage being parallel to those of the other and perpendicular to said transverse conveyors linking the two stages.
  • the documents coming from the two stores which would act simultaneously as joint input and output stores would have to be returned from one end of the store to the other after having passed through the distributing mechanism deciding to which of the two stores the documents have to be sent and in what order.
  • very little mechanisms will be saved and little place will be gained in View of the necessity for the return journey without the documents undergoing an actual sorting operation.
  • the slight economy which might eventually be made would, in comparison with the two-stage sorting machine now proposed, be substantially offset by the loss of efficiency due to there being only one sorting stage working at the sante time, instead of two as in the sorting machine now proposed.
  • the two-stage sorting machine has the advantage of symmetry which facilitates its construction and maintenance.
  • FlG. l represents diagrammatically a two-stage sorting machine in accordance with the invention.
  • FIG. 2 ⁇ represents synchronising circuits used in the control of each stage of the sorting machine
  • FIG. 3 represents circuits adapted to the control of the rst sorting stage of the machine used as input stage
  • FIG. 4 represents circuits additional to those of FIG. 3 and used for the control of the other sorting stage of the machine.
  • each stage diagrammatically represents a two-stage sorting machine in which each stage is provided with two inputs and two outputs, the outputs of each stage respectively feeding the inputs of the other stage.
  • the two sorting stages are essentially identical and may be termed normal sorting stage NS and reverse sorting stage RS.
  • This terminology which will be used in the remaining part of the description, may be justilied by the fact that the documents or document carriers bearing magnetically ⁇ encoded signals and which may be read as the document goes through a sorting stage, are preferably only subjected to a translation movement.
  • the necessary relative displacement between the document or document carrier bearing the magnetic signals and the reading magnetic heads is obtained by using fixed magnetic heads reading while the document or document carrier is in motion, reading of the serially inscribed magnetic signals will necessarily take place in reverse sense for the two stages.
  • the physical arrangements of the two stages are quite identical, the differences may only occur in the controlling circuits.
  • each stage includes two input positions such as A4 and B3 for the normal sorting stage NS, the corresponding input positions for the reverse sorting stage RS being respectively labelled A4 and B3.
  • the documents or document carriers are supr ported in a vertical plane by resting on their bottom long edges and they will be displaced in parallel paths by means of edgwise conveyors until they reach the so-called merging positions A1, B1 and A1, B1.
  • the document inserted in input position B3, for example will pass through the reading position B2 which is provided with a reading magnetic head arrangement.
  • the document inserted in the input position A4 will pass through a similar reading position A2, but prior to this it will go through an intermediate position A3.
  • 'Ihe latter position is located behind the input position B3 as shown on FIG. l and is necessary in view of the input positions A4 and B3 being shifted with respect to one another in order to permit the documents to be fed to these two input positions from two transverse parallel conveyors A and B which are perpendicular to the two edgewise conveyors.
  • the reading positions A2 and B2 need not necessarily be provided as special positions having a length corresponding more or less to that of the document. They would only be required if the documents were read while they were at rest with the help of displaceable magnetic head arrangements. Hence, from the input positions such as B3, the documents might immediately reach the merging positions such as B1 although the additional intermediate position A3 would still be necessary to take care of the fact that the documents going through input position A4 must travel a longer distance through the edgewise conveyor than those admitted through input position B3.
  • the documents are afterwards made to follow a single path through a single channel edgewise conveyor which will successively dispatch a document to the output position C, the output position D and eventually the ejecting position E.
  • a document may be prevented from travelling farther into output position D and instead be displaced on the output transverse conveyor B' which corresponds to the input traverse conveyor B (which respect to the normal sorting stage NS) and which leads to the input position B3 of the reverse sorting stage RS.
  • a document having reached the output position D may be prevented from further travelling into the ejecting position E, and instead 4be placed on the output transverse conveyor A' which constitutes the input transverse conveyor for the input position A4 of the reverse sorting stage RS. It a document is not diverted either towards the transverse conveyor B or towards the transverse conveyor A', it will be dispatched to the ejecting position E. from which it will fall into a reiect bin.
  • the principle ot' sorting used in such a two-stage sorting machine is preferably to continuously merge sequences of documents of like ranks and to distribute them'alternately to one and the other output, eg. C or D.
  • sequence of documents it will be recalled that one should understand a series of successive documents which happen to be already ordered in the required order.
  • the sorting may be based on the account numbers, it being desired that at the end of the complete sorting operation, the cheques initially fed to the sorting machine in any arbitrary order for their account numbers, should finally be found with all the account numbers in numerical order and for instance with the lowest account number in front.
  • the twin continuously advancing transverse conveyors A and B constituting respectively the first and the second input of the normal sorting stage NS may be loaded with the documents to be sorted, approximately half the total number of documents being loaded on each of these two transverse conveyors.
  • the documents will be made to advance continuously along both paths so that the lirst of each half lot reaches the correspond-l ing reading position, i.e. A2 and B2.
  • the account numbers of the two lirst cheques in each path may be compared and the cheque with the lowest account number will be allowed to travel to the merging position, its place in the reading position being immediately taken by the next following cheque which is in turn icompared lwith the cheque still located in the other reading position.
  • the cheque having an account number higher than that of the one which has already left and which account nurnber is moreover lower than that of the other cheque in the other reading position will be allowed to reach the corresponding merging position to travel behind the tirst cheque having already left. Both cheques will be transferred to the same transverse conveyor, eg.
  • the two cheques will be successively admitted through output position C and successively dispatched on the transverse conveyor B.
  • the operations will continue in this manner, a significant feature being that as each cheque leaves a reading position, it is automatically followed by the next cheque having come through the same input path.
  • neither of the two cheques in the two reading positions has an account number which is higher than that of the cheque which left immediately before, that cheque with the lowest account number will be sent forward, but it will be made to follow a different output path than the previous cheque.
  • the next cheque will be sent on the transverse conveyor A.
  • the first sequence to be found in each input lot will be merged into one sequence which will be dispatched to one output.
  • the next sequence in each respective half lot will be similarly merged into a single sequence which will be sent to the other output.
  • the following sequences of like ranks will be similarly merged and dispatched to alternate outputs.
  • Suitable mechanisms may be used to advance the documents or document carriers in the required manner, and suitable control circuits may be used to control these mechanisms.
  • FIG. 1 shows it is not essential to provide a points position which will direct a document carrier entering said points position to one out of at least two output positions.
  • a points position may be deemed undesirable in that it tends to slow down the operation of the machine.
  • the merging of the two edgewise vconveyors into one offers the advantage that the same pair of output positions can be used for the two input paths. Otherwise, the two input paths need not be merged, but then the output positions such as C and D would have to be duplicated and serious difficulties might be encountered in associating these two pairs of output positions per sorting stage to their respective transverse conveyors.
  • FIG. 2 represents the equipment necessary for the cyclic operation of one stage, e.g. sorting stage RS.
  • the synchronizing circuit SY comprises a series of electro-magnets which are used to directly control the mechanisms permitting the edgewise conveyors to advance the document carriers to the positions extending between AC1 or B3 and E. It also comprises a series of relays.
  • a master ground is provided at the armature of changeover contact e1 of error detecting relay Er, and this master ground is used for the selective operation of the desired electromagnets and relays. This master ground will only be interrupted upon relay Er being operated due to the closure of one of the fourteen parallel contacts such as kx and upon the interrupter contact IN1 moving from the position shown. Then the changeover contact e1 moves over to the operated position while relay Er remains operated and thereafter locked until the closed contact(s) kx is again open.
  • a pair of such contacts kx is provided in each of the seven positions A1, A'2, A'g, B'1, B2, C and D', thus in all positions of a stage except the input positions A'4 and B'3 and also the ejecting position E.
  • In each of the positions where they are provided there is one contact near the entrance of the position and one near the exit so that they may be used to control the correct centering of a document carrier in the corresponding position. If it is insufficiently advanced or if there is a partial overshoot of the position when the interrupter contact IN1 moves from the position shown, then relay Er will be operated to suppress the master ground. In case of such a faulty condition, the stage concerned is therefore effectively stopped until the document carrier is properly positioned.
  • Interrupter contact IN1 is part of a series of cyclically operated contacts which are provided by cams operating in synchronism with the mechanical means provided for the advancement of the document carriers.
  • the three make contacts PU1-PU3 will be closed to produce the ground pulses PU at terminals 5, 4 and 3 respectively, which terminals are connected to the control circuit (not shown).
  • the ground pulses DR will be produced by the closure of the make contacts DR1 and DRZ which are used to control the dropping of a document carrier from the transverse conveyors into the input positions B3 and A21 respectively.
  • An example of mechanism suitable for dropping the document from the transverse conveyor into the input position is shown in the previously mentioned U.S. application Serial No. 806,286.
  • a longer ground pulse SH is produced by each of the four make contacts SH1-SH.1, which pulses will be used to shift the document'carriers from the position in which they stand to the next position.
  • a so-called positioning pulse PT is produced by the closure of the malte contacts PT1-PT4 which will cause the application of the master ground in such a way as to authorize the departure of a document carrier from a position by opening a mechanical gate, normally closed and locked, at the end of various positions.
  • a shift electromagnet such as SA.1 for the input position AC1 and which shift electromagnets may be operated by the shift pulse SH, i.e. by the closure of the corresponding contacts such as SH3.
  • All the positions except the ejecting position E' and the two input positions AC1 and B'3 are further provided with an individual positioning electromagnet such as PA3 for the intermediate position A'3, and which positioning electromagnets may be operated by a positioning pulse PT, i.e. by the closure of the Contact such at PT.1.
  • the two input positions AC1 and B3 in addition to their shift electromagnets, are provided with dropping electromagnets such as DA for the input position A4, and which dropping electromagnets may be actuated by a drop pulse DR, i.e. by the closure of the contacts such as 13H2.
  • the two output positions C and D' are each provided with a lifting electromagnet such as LC for position C and these lifting electromagnets may be operated by a so-called lifting pulse LI, occurring in the latter part of each cycle, i.e. by the closure of malte contact LI1 transmitting the master ground at break contact e1 to LC or LD.
  • signals may respectively appear to Cause the energisation of either relay Ar or Br depending on whether the A or the B input is to be advanced.
  • signals will be provided from an electronic and electromechanical comparator arrangement which may be of the general type disclosed in the U.S. application Serial No. 635,884 and which may readily be adapted to the control of a synchronized two-stage sorting machine of the type envisaged here.
  • electromechanical and electronic control circuits particularly advantageous in the case of a two-stage sorting machine envisaged here and operating in a step-by-step fashion are detailed in the commonly assigned U.S. patent applications of W. Pouliart et al. tiled April 13, 1959, Serial Nos. 806.025 and 805,841.
  • relay Ar Upon the control circuits having applied a signal, preferably by gating a PU pulse for instance at terminal 9, relay Ar will be operated. This will lead to an advancement of all the document carriers present in the positions A2, A3 and A3 together with the advancement of the first of the documents which may occupy the transverse conveyor leading to input position A'4, while the documents in the positions B2 and B3 and in the transverse conveyor leading to this last input position will stay put.
  • relay Ar Assuming that relay Ar operates, it locks to the master ground at break contact e1 through its make contact a1 in series with the interrupter contact IN1, in the break position. As shown on the pulse diagram, this interrupter contact IN1 will only move to the make position, and thus interrupt the holding circuit, at the end of each cycle. Relay Ar being operated and locked, the make contacts A1-A7 are also closed. The contacts ka and kb are closed whenever a document is being pressed by the continuously advancing transverse conveyor at the entrance of the corresponding input position such as AC1 for contact ka.
  • the drop electromagnets DA will be energised to deliver a document in the input position AC1.
  • the corresponding shift pulse i.e. the closure of make contact SH3
  • the document which might have been located in that position is moved out of it due to the operation of shift electromagnets SA3 and the simultaneous operation of the positioning electromagnet PA3 during the positioning pulse PT, i.e. the closure of 'make contact P'l ⁇ 4.
  • Similar operations take place in the reading position A'z and the document eventually located in that position is sent forward to the merging position A'l, its place being taken by the document eventually coming from the intermediate position A3.
  • the latter provide a signal (a gated PU pulse) either at terminal '7 or at terminal 8 to cause the energisation of an electromagnet CC or DC respectively, upon these control circuits having ascertained that the docuent contained in one of the two reading positions A'2 or B'2 must advance and must eventually be diverted from output position C or output position D' respectively.
  • This discrimination by the control circuits will thus take place two or three cycles before the document actually reaches the output position C or D' respectively, and from which it must be diverted to the associated conveyor.
  • a memory arrangement is required and although this can be done by a relay arrangement, an attractive simple mechanical memory exists, and the detailed realization of which in conjunction with the present application is fully disclosed in Belgian Patent No. 577,759, issued Oct. i6, 1959, in the name of G. X. Lens et al.
  • the operation of the electromagnet CC or DC will trigger a constantly rotating mechanism which will memorize the operation of the electromagnet which caused the triggering action.
  • the rotating mechanical memory is provided with the required number of such mechanisms, i.e. two sets of three, and the rotation is synchronized with the various mechanisms and in particular the cams providing the pulses of which the waveforms are shown in FIG. 2.
  • an electromagnet such as CC is energised, it is locked to the master ground at break contact e1 through the special interrupter contact Sil.
  • SI1 opens to release the operated electromagnet, the next mechanism to pass the armature arrangement of this operated electro-magnet will have been triggered as required.
  • relay Dr may also be energised so that a document already located in the output position D will be simultaneously lifted on the corresponding transverse conveyor by the same ground pulse Ll. if due to some fault, for instance if the required output has not been registered by the operation of one of the electromagnets CC or DC, the document will then be allowed to go through the output positions C' and D' to finally reach the ejecting position E. In such a case it is therefore taken out of the closed loop circuit to be placed in a reject bin.
  • Terminals 1 and 2 are shown connected to the armature leads of contacts kb and ka respectively for the purpose of issuing a drop pulse at these terminals when the corresponding tranverse conveyor is lled by at least one document next to the corresponding input position. Such signals may be used by the control circuits (not shown). Finally, a further pulse coinciding with a ground shift pulse (Sill) may be provided at terminal 6 to the control circuits, whenever make contact a8 or bg is closed.
  • Sill ground shift pulse
  • stage for which this splitting feature is not adopted may eventually remain inactive during short periods due to one of its two inputs being empty, since the other stage will always provide sequences at its two outputs, irrespective of whether the two inputs of that other stage are both filled by documents o-r only one input is iilled by documents, the one stage which cannot work in the absence of documents at its two inputs will neve-r be in such a state for a long period.
  • the sorting stage NS which is the first sorting stage, or input stage, through which the documents are passed at the beginning of a sort.
  • the unbalance will eventually disappear as sequences are continuously merged but the original surplus sequences may only be merged with other sequences after the sorting operation has been in progress for some time.
  • a stage delivers an output sequence and is then left with an empty input and with the surplus sequences at its other input. If there are empty inputs for the other stage, but if that stage is allowed to pass a sequence at one input while the other input is empty, the sequence delivered by the first stage will be able to go round and eventually be merged with the first residual sequence. Then, the newly merged sequence will again go round before it can be merged with the next residual sequence.
  • This initial load splitting eature may readily be secured for instance by providing stop members behind the two ha'f loads of documents initially feeding the input stage NS so that the documents coming out of RS will be arrested by these stops until the whole of the documents has gone through the input stage NS, at which time these stops may then be removed once and for all.
  • the detection of an empty input at the normal input sorting stage NS should therefore cause the remaining documents at the other input to be dispatched through the sorting stage NS with the output sequences being distributed alternately between the two outputs of that stage.
  • the comparator part of the control circuits disclosed in the U.S. application Serial No. 635,884 includes three bistable devices one of which memorizes the comparison between the value of a document on the one side and that of the document on t.e other side, while the other two bistable devices respectively memorize the relation between the value of the document on one side and that of the document on the same side which went through the stage immediately before it.
  • the three bistable devices respectively indicate whether A is greater or smaller than B, whether A is greater or smaller than C and whether B is greater or smaller than C.
  • the smaller of A or B goes forward through the stage unless this smaller number is also smaller than C while the higher number is greater than C. In such a case it is that higher number which is sent through.
  • both A and B are smaller than C, there is a reversal of output since this indicates that the two input sequences have just been merged and the following two sequences of like rank must now be merged.
  • the comparator is adapted to exploit this particular condition (or C A B) to produce the required reversal of output, but immediately thereafter the bistables respectively recording C A and C B, i.e. end of sequences on both sides, will be automatically restored to the opposite conditions, i.e. A C and B C respectively, and the document which must be sent through the stage as the first document of the new merged sequence will be determined merely by the relation between A and B i.e. the smaller goes through.
  • the corresponding bistable comparator might now record A B which is in contradiction with B C coupled with C A.
  • the comparator is designed so that the bistable recording the relation between A and B is ineffective in case there is an end of sequence on one side and no such condition on the other side.
  • the probe pulse examining the state of the comparator will act on the indication B C A and will therefore continue to advance the documents on the B side as required, and this as long as the A side remains empty.
  • the signal forcing the end of sequence condition on the side which has become empty should be produced with a certain delay to take care of normal discontinuity in the flow of the documents through the transverse conveyors, but as soon as an input contact for instance, has detected that one input side has become empty for ⁇ a certain time interval, splitting the sequences on the other side wil-l be started.
  • the input side which became empty may again be filled by documents and it is then desirable that the input sorting stage NS should resume its normal operation by merging corresponding sequences appearing at its two inputs. Provided the appearance of a document on the previously empty input side cannot only be detected, but also that this document can be read, normal sorting will be automatically resumed.
  • FIG. 3 shows an adaptation of the circuits disclosed in the U.S. application Serial No. 635,884 mentioned above and will permit the operation of the normal input sorting stage Ns in the desired manner according to which splitting of one input is produced when the other is empty.
  • the relays Adr and Bdr are those used for the A and the B side respectively to produce a forced end of sequence for that side. This may occur in the manner previously disclosed in U.S. application Serial No. 635,- 884.
  • the contacts such as kal for the A side are normally operated as long as there are documents ready to be 4taken from the corresponding input through the stage NS. Whenever there is absence of documents on the A side for a certain time covering short absences, contact kal will assume the break position shown in FIG.
  • Relay Adr operates and locks through a circuit which includes its make contact adl in series with the paralleled break contacts acm and aeg of time.
  • Relay Acr is a relay which is used to dispatch a document on the A side through the corresponding read- Y therefore, as long as it is operated, force the end of sequence condition on the A side and accordingly the splitting of the documents on the B side.
  • Relay Har operates first followed by the subsequent operation of either relay Hcr or Hdr according to the direction taken by the document going out of the stage.
  • the circuit permits the reappearance of documents on the A side to be rendered effective at a suitable time without hindering the operations which are taking place in connection with the splitting of the documents on the B side.
  • relay Aer will thus receive a ground pulse during the time Contact ham remains closed before the opening of either break contact 11cm or hdm, and through make contact adm.
  • Relay Aer locks to ground through its make contact nel, in series with make contact adm, the connection of the winding of relay Aer extending to battery through break contact bea of relay Ber.
  • this additional relay Aer The function of this additional relay Aer is to ensure that the iirst document arriving on the A side can now be read.
  • a rst result of the operation of relay Aer is to open break contact neg thereby preventing the operation of relays Am' and Bar which serve to advance documents on the A and B sides respectively through the sorting stage. Their respectively helping relays Abr and Acr are also prevented from operating.
  • the B document is sent out t-hrough the stage subsequent to the operation of relay Har causing among other things the closure of make contact halo, the normal circuits are prevented from further advancing documents.
  • a second result of the operation of relay Aer is to force the master bistable circuit B87 exploiting the results of the comparator CMP, containing in particular the three bistable devices previously mentioned in order to finally determine whether the document on the A or on the B side should be advanced.
  • a suitable fixed potential at terminal P1 is interconnected to the A and the B inputsof BSq through relay contacts.
  • the arrangement is obviously symmetrical, together with the rest of the circuits of FiG. 3, and for the A input the connection involves 'break contact aeg in parallel with make contact acm. Normally, the connection is therefore present, but it is interrupted as soon as relay Aer opens its break contact aar. This opening of the connection to terminal P1 will have the result of placingV B87 in the A condition, whereas it was previously in the Hence,
  • This may for example take place in practice by causing the grid of one of the tubes forming the ip-fiop BS, to have its potential increased due to the opening of the connection to the fixed potential at terminal P1. This might cause an increase of the resistance between this grid and the negative HT supply, this grid being on the other hand connected to the positive HT supply for the tube through a resistance leading to the anode of the other tube forming the flip-flop, and thus in conventional manner.
  • the plate-cathode space of the tube whose grid potential has been modified in this manner will now be ionized while the other tube will become nonconductive.
  • make contact nel is located in parallel across make contact abz of the helping relay Abr in a circuit normally provided for the operation of relay Aer upon relay Abr being operated and relay Aar having released as a consequence.
  • both these two relays, and particularly relay Aar are released due to break contact ae3 opening the battery supply; and by the closure of make contact ae will permit the operation of relay Acr which, as stated previously, is the relay causing the dispatch of the first document on the A side through the reading position.
  • the first of the new A documents will be read not only due to it being advanced through the corresponding reading position but also due to the electronic comparator circuit allowing the information to be read in view of the master bistable BS, being in the A condition.
  • relay Acr operates to cause the dispatch of the first A document through the reading position, make contact acm closes and rc-establishes the connection between terminal P1 and the A input of B57.
  • the latter bistable circuit remains in the A condition, but from now on it is no longer forced in that condition and if the comparator probe pulse should now detect that a document on the B side should be advanced, the comparator CMP will be able to trigger BSI; in the B condition.
  • relay Adr Due to the release of relay Adr, make contact adm opens the locking circuit for relay Aer which also releases. Through break contact ac3 battery is again applied to the normal circuits involving the relays such as Aar and Bar.
  • relay Aer Due to the opening of make contact ae5, relay Aer will also release and upon the comparator probemeasuree having determined which document should be advanced through the stage, either relay Ar or relay Br will be operated and correspondingly either make contact al or make contact b1 will be closed depending on whether BS, is in its A or in its B condition respectively.
  • the bistable device which records the comparison between A and B will determine whether the first document on the A side or the first document of the next sequence on the B side should be sent forward, and sorting will again proceed in the normal manner.
  • stage NS delivers the last two sequences one at each output, as the second and last sequence reaches the second input of RS, that stage will start to merge it with the other sequence already at its input.
  • sorting stage RS produces the final sequence, there will come a time when there are no longer any documents at one of the inputs of RS while there remains at least one document at the other input. If the sorting stage RS does not possess the splitting feature used for NS, the RS stage will therefore be blocked.
  • the final sequence produced by RS will travel to one of the inputs of NS and will also pass through that stage which can work with one input empty, but there is no insurance that the final sequence passed through NS will be directed to the empty input of RS.
  • the reverse sorting stage RS should also be provided with'means to detect an empty input in order to advance the residue of the longer sequence at the other input. But, one cannot adopt exactly the same circuits as those for the normal sorting stage NS, since if an empty input condition arises at RS in any other circumstances than those envisaged above, RS would split the sequences on the other side exactly in the same way as NS. and as stated before, this is undesirable.
  • the sorting stage RS will therefore be stopped as required until documents again appear at the empty input and can be merged in the normal manner. if on the other hand, no documents come to fill the empty input, this means the end of the sort and the nal sequence will remain at one input of RS.
  • the residue of the last sequence on the B side will therefore be advanced through RS, and on the other hand the final sequence will be passed by the normal sorting stage NS to reappear at one of the two inputs of RS.
  • the A input of the reverse sorting stage RS may become empty as the final sequence has already appeared at the B input of the reverse sorting stage RSV, thereby causing an end of sequence for the B side.
  • the two end of sequence conditions will cause a reversal of output andin accordance with the rules for sorting stage RS, the switching of output Hence, the
  • relay Adr ⁇ (FIG. 3) operates and locks, and by opening its break contact ada (FIG. 4) it interrupts the connection between terminal PAC and an input of bistable device B85 which is part of the comparator CMP and used to register an end of sequence In a manner previously explained above, this interruption may be used to trigger the bistable to the end of sequence condition C A.
  • relay Car (FIG. 4) will be operated v or alternatively relay Dar depending on the direction taken by this last document coming from the A input.
  • the bistable device BS5 indicating thatY it should be directed to the C or to the D output will permit the operation of either relay Cr or relay Dr respectively through break contact d or C10.
  • relay Cr is operated and temporarily locked ⁇ through its make contact c1 through undisclosed circuits already detailed in the U.S. application Serial No. 635,884
  • make contact Cn will therefore be closed and upon the Voperation of relay Adr, make contact adn also closes thereby establishing an operating circuit for relay- Car through break contact daz.
  • Relay Car operates and locks to ground through a circuit including its make contact cal in series with break contacts ae., and beq.
  • Make contact ca5 is also closed but this is yet ineffective since .BS5l is still in its C condition. l
  • relay Adr closure of make contact ada
  • the operation of relay Adr produces an artificial probe pulse to investigate the state of the comparator and replacing the probe pulse normally initiated by the document itself after it has been read. If there is no end of sequence on the B side when the A side becomes empty, the forced end of sequence .on the A side thereby compels the documents on the B side to continue to pass through RS until the It may also happen that the A side becomes empty as the first document of a new sequence on the B side was standing ready to be passed through the stage. Then there isr already an end of sequence on the B side when the forced end of sequence appears on the A side and consequently it leads to a ⁇ switching of output.
  • this relay Swr plays an essential part in the circuits since otherwise, break contact udg being still open, the comparator probe pulse would be unable to perform the electronic reset of BS5 to the condition A C and only B84 would be normally reset to the condition B C. This would indicate the advancement of the next sequence on the B side which-is undesirable for the reverse sorting stage RS which should not possess the splitting feature afforded to the normal stage NS.
  • relay Swr will however remedy this situation since although when it operates its change over contact SW1, it tends to force BS5 into the condition A C, but without success since break contact adz is still open, as soon as sw, has moved to the make condition, it by-passes the open break contact adz and accordingly BS5 iscorrectly triggered to the condition A C.
  • this circuit arrangement is symmetrical for the two sides with the result that B84 will also be forced to the condition B C due to changeover contact swg having moved to the make condition thereby interrupting the connection between terminal PBC and the corresponding input of B84. This merely duplicates the previous electronic reset but it has the advantage of preventing undesired operations at a later stage.
  • the comparator' probe pulse will be abie to set B57 in the condition corresponding to the advancement of the first document at the A or at the B side which has the lowest number. This will be the case since the bistable device determining whether A is greater than B or not will also determine the signal to be sent to BS7 in view of B55 and B34 recording respectively A C and B C.
  • relay Adr (FIG. 3) being assumed to be energised to indicate that the A input side has become empty while the longer penultimate sequence on the B side was still passing through the stage RS, relay Car for example is also energised and locked.
  • the switching relay Swr operating as a result of a change of output, will be energised with the results already explained above and consequently the final sequence will be stopped at the B input and will not be able to go through the reverse sorting stage RS, as required. If the A input becomes empty as the first document of the final sequence has already been read to indicate an end of sequence for that side, the operations will be similar.
  • control circuits for the closed loop machine described above may be readily designed to ensure a satisfactory and ethcient automatic operation, and are no more complicated than the control circuits which must be associated with a multi-stage machine of the type disrclosed in the U.S. application Serial No. 636,309.
  • the machine is more flexible, and in particular, further documents may be added at the inputs of the ⁇ normal sorting stage while the sorting operation is al- (6)
  • the machine is readily adapted to the eliicient sort ing of lots of documents substantially smaller than the i maximum size allowed by the capacity of the document favourable conditions may be a smaller number of initial sequences than the average, which can be reckoned as equal to half the number of documents; the so-called accidental merging during the sorting operation, which also tends to reduce the number of sequences; and a subing stage, whereas in a multi-stage machine this is impossible to foresee, since the final sequence might be obtained at any stage of the machine.
  • the number of steps actually performed by any stage and the number of steps during which that stage was inactive should be reckoned from the beginning until the end of the sorting operation.
  • the number of steps during which the sorting stage is inactive corresponds for instance with the time during which the first sequence is delivered by the first stage; then, the second stage is yet inactive.
  • the various columns refer to the different initial possibilities which have been considered.
  • the number bcfore the brackets corresponds to the number of initial sequences which is initially fed at an input of the input stage While the number between the brackets indicates the size of the sequence which has been assumed.
  • the first column identities the case of 1024 documents of which 512 are initially fed at each input, and each set of 512 is ordered in exactly the reverse order than the desired one (since each sequence is assumed to contain only one document).
  • next ve columns also envisage an initial lot of 1024 documents, but with each sequence containing two documents and with gradual unbalance in the initial loading at the two sides.
  • the last column refers to an unbalanced case of sorting only 440 documents, again with initial sequences of two documents.
  • a sorting machine comprising two sorting stages, each stage having two inputs and two outputs, the outputs of each stage feeding the inputs of the other stage, the articles to be sorted being initially applied to the two inputs of one of said stages in lots of approximately equal size, the lots containing sequences of articles, each of said sorting stages merging from the two lots sequences of articles of equal rank according to their sorting characteristic and applying the resulting sequences alternately to one and then the other of the two outputs of said sorting stage.
  • a sorting machine as claimed in claim l further comprising two pairs of transverse conveyors, each pair passing articles to be sorted from the outputs of one stage to the inputs of the other stage of the sorting machine.
  • each of said sorting stages further includes two input edgewise conveyors -which merge into a single output edgewise conveyor, the input ends of said two input edgewise conveyors being adapted to be fed from the corresponding pair of said transverse conveyors, while said output edgewise conveyor is adapted to feed successively the other pair of transverse conveyors.
  • said input edgewise conveyors include at least an input position followed by a merging :position leading to the corresponding output edgewise conveyor, and an intermediate position located between said input and merging position in one of the two input edgewisc conveyors for each stage, thereby staggering the input positions of the two associated input edgewise ⁇ conveyors topermit feeding of said two input positions from the associated pair of transverse conveyors without interference from one another.
  • said output conveyors further include three positions following one another, the first two positions being output positions leading to the corresponding transverse Yconveyors, while the third position is a reject position for removing any article from the sorting machine, e.g., in case of a fault.
  • a sorting machine as claimed in claim l wherein a predetermined one of the two sorting stages is utilized as the input stage and is adapted to alternately distribute sequences of articles, appearing at one of the two inputs of the stage while the other input is empty, towards one and then the other output of said stage, the other sorting stage is adapted to prevent the low of articles whenever one of its two inputs becomes empty.

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US805800A 1958-04-16 1959-04-13 Sorting machine Expired - Lifetime US3028958A (en)

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Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3304080A (en) * 1964-12-24 1967-02-14 Ibm Document sorting apparatus
US4566595A (en) * 1982-04-15 1986-01-28 Guy Fustier Device for classifying handled objects

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3794974A (en) * 1972-10-13 1974-02-26 Raytheon Co Digital flow processor
US4088877A (en) * 1976-10-08 1978-05-09 Wilson William J Sequence checking device
US4722444A (en) * 1985-04-08 1988-02-02 Banctec Inc. Method and apparatus for document processors
US5111465A (en) * 1989-06-30 1992-05-05 Digital Equipment Corporation Data integrity features for a sort accelerator

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* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US2961643A (en) * 1954-07-01 1960-11-22 Rca Corp Information handling system
US2911622A (en) * 1954-07-01 1959-11-03 Rca Corp Serial memory

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Cited By (2)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3304080A (en) * 1964-12-24 1967-02-14 Ibm Document sorting apparatus
US4566595A (en) * 1982-04-15 1986-01-28 Guy Fustier Device for classifying handled objects

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GB861013A (en) 1961-02-15
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NL226872A (nl)
US3201758A (en) 1965-08-17
CH383049A (de) 1964-10-15
FR75609E (nl) 1961-11-27
NL226874A (nl)
FR75610E (nl) 1961-11-27

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