Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65G—TRANSPORT OR STORAGE DEVICES, e.g. CONVEYORS FOR LOADING OR TIPPING, SHOP CONVEYOR SYSTEMS OR PNEUMATIC TUBE CONVEYORS
  • B65G37/00—Combinations of mechanical conveyors of the same kind, or of different kinds, of interest apart from their application in particular machines or use in particular manufacturing processes

Definitions

• the present invention relates to an internal goods transportation system primarily for freight and luggage transport in large airports.
• large airports it is usual to make use of so-called 'fingers 7 that extend along or out to stands for several airplanes and radiate from a central terminal area for passengers and their luggage.
• the terminal area at least in principle, is divided into three main areas, viz. a departure, an arrival and a transit area.
• a transport system In the departure area a transport system is arranged for reception of luggage at the check-in positions and for feeding the luggage to a sorter system, in which the luggage is sorted out to the various stands and then moved to the latter in con ⁇ tainers.
• the arrival area In the arrival area is arranged one or more presentation belts, on which arriving luggage is pre ⁇ sented to the passengers, and to which the luggage is moved in containers from the single arrived airplanes.
• the transit area normally has no corresponding or associated conveying system, as containers with arrived luggage can just be moved to the said sorter system, in which the luggage may then be sorted out to the respective new destinations together with luggage from the area of departure.
• an extended use is made of the said sorting conveyor, inasfar as this conveyor is brought to represent the said transit area; it co ⁇ operates with conveying means, which in closed loops serves each single of the 'fingers', and with other conveying means that are conveying from the departure area and to the area of arrival, respectively.
• conveying means which in closed loops serves each single of the 'fingers', and with other conveying means that are conveying from the departure area and to the area of arrival, respectively.
• a round-going sorting conveyor may be used, which at one or more places receives luggage from the departure area and moves the luggage around, past transfer joints for the conveying means serving the single fingers, where the luggage may then, based on s very simple destination coding, be guided out to the respective correct fingers.
• Transit luggage will be received from the various fingers and will be moved around in the 'transit sorter' until it arrives at the transfer joint belonging to the relevant new finger, i.e. the entire transit transport will take place in a simple and systematic manner along rather few different, one-way directed conveying paths, which will be adaptable to desired capacities. Luggage to the arrival area is also fed to the transit sorter, on which the luggage from all the transfer joints of the 'finger conveyors' may be moved and transferred to the conveyor means leading to the area of arrival.
• the transit sorter may simultaneously handle both departing luggage, transit luggage, and arriving luggage.
• luggage to be transferred from the 'finger conveyor' to the area of arrival be transferred directly from the single finger conveyors to the con ⁇ veyor means leading to the area of arrival, whereby - also from a control point of view - it is easier to bring the luggage from the single fingers to separate sub areas in the area of arrival, e.g. corresponding to single airplane arrivals.
• the said transit sorter in practice in a really large airport, should Be constructed with more parallel conveyor tracks, which may each be more or less permanently assigned to the respective single finger conveyors, while on the other hand the conveyors should be able to deliver luggage to any of the parallel conveyor tracks of the transit conveyor.
• the said carrier platforms in the train carts are laterally tiltable in an individually controllable manner, such that all according to the associated destination code they can be tilted for un ⁇ loading the luggage to just that one of the transit sorter tracks, which will bring the luggage to delivery to the outgoing conveying means of the at the relevant new finger in the system.
• the finger con ⁇ veyors should be laid out as sorter conveyors.
• Fig. 1 is a schematic general view of a conveyor system according to the invention
• Fig. 2 is a corresponding view of a 'finger con ⁇ veyor system'
• Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a cart for use in this system.
• the system shown in Fig. 1 comprises, as main parts, a round-going conveyor system 2 shown as laid out with four strings, a number of finger conveyor systems 4 radiating radially therefrom, one or more feeding con ⁇ veyors or conveyer groups 6 for ingoing feeding of goods to the round system 2, and a number of conveyors 8 arranged for bringing goods from the round system 2 or from the finger conveyors inwardly to a central delivery area 10.
• the finger conveyor systems 4 are designated A-H and stretch from the illustrated central are of an airport complex outwardly along radiating 'fingers' for passenger traffic to and from stands for airplanes along these fingers or at the outer ends thereof.
• a single one of these systems 4 is illustrated in Fig. 2, where different stands are indicated by dotted frame lines 12.
• the feeding conveyors 6 extend from check-in areas 14 to the respective strings, designated a-d, in the round system 2.
• a continually operating sorter conveyor as represented by the respective letters a-d, i.e a conveyor which can receive goods, primarily luggage, from the feeding con ⁇ veyors and bring the goods to individually coded unloading stations for transfer of the goods to selected finger conveyors 4.
• the transfer of the goods onto the round conveyors a-d takes place in areas 16, and the unloading from these conveyors to the outwardly directed stretches of the finger conveyors is effected via particular conveyor means described below.
• the sorters a-d are made with or as a row of single trays which can each receive one or a few articles and are each controllable to tilt off the goods when passing respective coded unloading locations, in casu just by the passage of inlet ends of transfer conveyors 18 operating to bring the goods further to the outwardly moving stretches of the finger conveyors 4, A-H.
• each of the ring sorters via the conveyors 18, are operatively connected with two diametrically opposite finger conveyors 4,20.
• the ring sorter 2c is connected only to the transfer conveyors 18 which lead to the finger conveyors 4F and 4B.
• the transfer conveyors 18 can be simple belt con ⁇ veyors that move the goods or luggage from the receiving areas 19 axially onto the respective outwardly moving finger conveyors 20, whereby the delivery to these con ⁇ veyors may take place in a safe and accurate manner.
• Each finger conveyor 4 is arranged with or as an endless conveyor loop having, as mentioned, an out- leading string 20 and an inwardly leading string 22. Luggage from arriving airplanes at the stands may thus be loaded onto the homeleading strings and at that occa ⁇ sion be coded in for delivery, in case of transit luggage, to the outleading of any of the other finger conveyors 4. Goods for the central delivery area 10 will need no such coding, as it will automatically be trans ⁇ ferred to the respective inner conveyors 8 if not already delivered to one of the ring sorters 2.
• each of the various finger conveyors 4 are operatively coupled to a specific ring sorter 2 as far as outward delivery is concerned it will be a requirement that goods can be transferred from the homeleading finger conveyor strings 22 to each single of the ring sorters 2, and since an immediate transfer at the very crossings will also here be difficult to arrange due to the relatively high speed of the ring sorters, there is provided at each of the crossings a particular sub transit conveyor 24 that can receive goods in a selective manner from the finger strings 22 and deliver the goods to the selected ring sorter 2 in an operatively safe manner, e.g., as indicated, by delivering the goods to the ring sorter at an oblique inlet angle.
• the finger con ⁇ veyors are laid out as sorters (sorting conveyors) , because they shall be able to unload the single units of goods to the various sub transit conveyors 24. In return, however, all the transit luggage can then be handled by the same conveying and sorting systems that are used for bringing luggage outwardly from the check-in areas and for bringing luggage inwardly from the stands to the central delivery area.
• the coding and the controlling of the transfer of the transit goods may be provided for in a very simple manner, as only two para ⁇ meters are relevant, viz. the number of the ring sorter 2, onto which the goods should be unloaded, and the number of the finger conveyor or the area of delivery to which the goods should thereafter be delivered.
• a further information may be added, viz. the number of the stand adjacent the selected finger, at which the luggage should be unloaded in order for this to take place as close as possible to the single airplanes.
• a suitably designed control central it will not be necessary to read in these specific data, but just the so-called flight number of the relevant departing air ⁇ plane.
• the spacing between the motors may well amount to several cart lengths, such that the number of motors can be kept relatively low, but the problem will arise that after a current supply failure it will be extremely difficult to get the system restarted, because it will be necessary to restart lots of carts manually.
• this problem has been solved by using, in stead of single carts, sorter carts each consisting of a single drivable unit laid out with a row of a reasonable number of carrier platforms, e.g. corresponding to 10-15 built together single carts.
• sorter carts each consisting of a single drivable unit laid out with a row of a reasonable number of carrier platforms, e.g. corresponding to 10-15 built together single carts.
• These semilong carts will constitute a compromise between single carts, which for a good operational economy and a good restartability would require a high number of linear motors, and a continuous conveyor, which due to its considerable length would require an unnecessary high number of single platforms that could not even me moved with a desirable high velocity along the free conveying stretches.
• the single platforms on the carts are designed such that they can be selectively actuated to effect unloading or tilting off of the luggage, for instance such that two consecutive platforms can deliver the luggage at two different places, namely by their passage of the respective crossing ring sorters 2a-d or the respective feeding conveyors 24 for these sorters.
• This is no particular problem, inasfar as each single cart unit can be compared with a partial length of a sorter conveyor having a row of individual platforms, from which the conveyed goods may be unloaded by tilting or otherwise.
• sorter con ⁇ veyor is sub divided in a row of individually movable 'multi units', which can be moved with a high speed and with large mutual spacing along the long and in principle straight conveyor stretches, while at the relevant loading and unloading areas they can be moved with a required low speed.
• FIG. 2 A number of such multisorter carts is shown in Fig. 2 and designated 26, while a single such cart is shown in Fig. 3, which also illustrates the application of driving linear motors 28 mounted locally along the middle of the respective conveyor string 20 or 22, one of these strings in Fig. 3 being represented by driving rails for the wheel mounted carts.
• the motors 28 cooperate with traction rails 30 mounted in the longi ⁇ tudinal direction below the middle of the carts, optionally slightly protruding therefrom as shown, and the mutual distance between the motors 28 should just be slightly less than the length of these rails, such that each cart is always in driving connection with at least one motor.
• all the carts can start automatically after a possible current failure.
• the carts may be arranged as shown in Fig. 3, viz. with a row of carrier platforms 32 mounted between rigid partitions 34 and each being tiltable to at least one side for unloading of luggage therefrom, namely to the sub transit conveyors 24. Nowhere in the entire conveyor loop there will be any need of an un ⁇ loading towards the inside of the loop, such that the carts and the associated actuator means for the tilting off of the luggage at the conveyors 24 should be adapted for monolateral operation only.
• each platform 32 can have a pin 36 projecting therefrom at the inner side of the loop, such pins being operable to be forced upwardly when passing the single sub transit conveyors, viz, by passing along a guiding cam 38 of an actuator plate 40 that has been displaced laterally by means of a working cylinder 42 into the moving path of the pins 36 from an inoperative position retracted therefrom.
• the platforms thus tilted may be tilted back to the horizontal by themselves or preferably by their passage of a rigid return tilting cam mounted after the last of the transit conveyors 24 or rather just after the branching off position of the conveyor 8 leading to the central area 10, since at that position there may be arranged a fixed tilt-up cam that will cause all remaining horizontal platforms 32 to tilt up for un ⁇ loading of all luggage which has not already been un ⁇ loaded to the transit conveyors. Thereafter care should just be taken that all the platforms are tilted back to horizontal before they reenter the respective areas, in which they receive outbound goods from the conveyors 18.
• the same tilting function can be utilized for the unloading of the outwardly conveyed luggage, whether the unloading is effected in a consequent manner at an outer unloading position or in a selective manner at various places of the finger, e.g. both at a side area 44 and at an outer common area 46.
• an unloading may even be effected to a crosswise arranged conveyor 48 that can take the luggage to a position at some distance from the finger and of course also take luggage from that position to the inwardly directed conveyor string 22.
• Fig. 2 it is clearly shown that on the long stretches the carts 26 may be conveyed with a rather large mutual spacing, and they can be driven at high speed, while in the inner and outer loading and un ⁇ loading stations they can be conveyed with low speed and even be stopped for a short while, whereby the carts will be stowed together.
• the system is easy to control such that carts passing loading or unloading stations 44,48 located at the long stretches are decelerated to a reasonably low speed during such passages.
• Fig. 2 it is shown that such an accumulation string 50 can be arranged parallel with the strings 20 and 22 in the space therebetween and be connected with respective inlet and outlet tracks 52 and 54 for communication with the respective inwardly and outwardly conveying string of the finger conveyor 4, through suitable rail switches.
• the string 50 extend along a partial length of the strings 20,22, but for the operational security of the system it is advantageous that there is arranged, along the full length of these strings, a parallel string that may be used in case of a blocking of one of the main strings, e.g. by an occurring cart breakdown.
• inlet and outlet tracks 52,54 at both ends of of the intermediate string 50, such that the latter may act both as a reserve string and as an accu ⁇ mulation string.
• the operational safety should be given a very high priority, so even in the round sorter system 2 as well as at the transit conveyors 24 should be arranged one or more parallel conveyors that can be taken in use should a failure in one of the ordinary conveyors arise.
• the ring sorters 2a-d should not necessarily be constituted by continuous sorting conveyors, that is conveyors with individual platforms mounted immediately next to each other all the way round; it may even be directly non-desirable that the outermost ring sorter due to its larger diameter should have a capacity much larger than the innermost ring sorter, and the system may be arranged such that the number of sorter platforms in the different ring sorters is the same, whereby it is easier to calculate the capacity of the system.
• sorter platforms or trays in the inner ring sorter 2d are placed directly side by side, they may thus be arranged with increased mutual spacing in the outer ring sorters, or sorter tray trains may be used having the same length as in the innermost ring sorter, but with a spacing between a front and a rear end thereof.
• sorter tray trains may be used having the same length as in the innermost ring sorter, but with a spacing between a front and a rear end thereof.
• individual 'multi tray carts' 26 as indicated in Figs. 2 and 3 may be used in the ring sorters, whereby identical or any other numbers of carts may be placed right away in the single ring sorter strings 2.
• Fig. 1 is shown a strictly symmetrical layout of the conveyor system, but in practice, of course, the layout need not be that regular. What is important is that the finger conveyors do not correspond directly with each other, but only through the central ring sorter system 2, whereby the system can be laid out based on a simple logistics with respect to both the material system and the control system for the function of the system.
• the sorter conveyors included in the system according to the invention should not necessarily, themselves, be provided with with means for unloading the goods; it is perfectly possible to make use of permanently horizontal carrier platforms, from which the goods may be unloaded by pushing off by means of pusher members arranged stationarily at the respective unloading places. This is particularly relevant, because normally there will be no unloading places in which the goods should be unloadable to both sides, i.e. the pushing means may by be rigidly mounted and thus condition a very simple design of all the sorter conveyors and sorter carts in the system.
• the system may be widely modified with respect to the executed sorting functions.
• the number of round-going parallel conveyors in the system 2 could be expanded to eight, whereby each of the ring sorters could deliver goods to but a single of finger conveyor loops 4.
• the ring sorters could not be designated 'sorting conveyors', as they would only serve to bring all on-loaded goods units to the respective associated finger conveyor.
• the system will of course not be limited to the single finger conveyors 4 being restricted to receive goods from a single of the ring conveyors 2 through the respective conveyors 18; in principle it will be possible to selectively transfer goods units from any of the ring conveyors 2 to any of the outwardly directed strings 20 of the finger conveyors 4. Then it will not be a requirement that there is established a possibility of transfer (via 24) of goods from the single inwardly directed strings 22 to more than a single or a few of the ring sorters in the system 2,

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Branching, Merging, And Special Transfer Between Conveyors (AREA)
• Discharge Of Articles From Conveyors (AREA)

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• 1989
  • 1989-02-24 DK DK86189A patent/DK168040B1/da not_active IP Right Cessation
• 1990
  • 1990-02-20 AU AU51011/90A patent/AU5101190A/en not_active Abandoned
  • 1990-02-20 JP JP2503462A patent/JPH07110691B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1990-02-20 WO PCT/DK1990/000046 patent/WO1990009943A1/en active Application Filing
  • 1990-02-20 DE DE19904090309 patent/DE4090309T/de not_active Ceased

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