Conveying systems and methods of associating data with an item transported by a conveying system
AssigneeMatthews International Corporation
InventorDarin Danelski
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Abstract
Systems and methods of associating data to an item being transported by a conveying system are disclosed. The item and data associated with the item are received at a first zone of the conveying system. The data is stored in a first computer-readable storage medium associated with the first zone. The item is transported to a second zone of the conveying system, and the data stored in the first computer-readable storage medium is transferred to a second computer-readable storage medium associated with the second zone.
Claims20
A method of associating data with an item being transported by a conveying system, the method comprising:
- receiving an item at a first zone of a conveying system;
- receiving data associated with the item;
- storing the data in a first non-transitory computer-readable storage medium associated with the first zone;
- transporting the item to a second zone of the conveying system;
- and
- transferring the data stored in the first computer-readable storage medium to a second non-transitory computer-readable storage medium associated with the second zone,
- wherein receiving data associated with the item comprises reading data from a data tag associated with the item using a data tag reader associated with the first zone, and
- wherein a data tag associated with the item is not read by a data tag reader associated with the second zone.
A method of associating data with an item being transported by a conveying system, the method comprising:
- receiving an item from a first zone of a conveying system at a second zone of the conveying system;
- receiving, by a local controller of the second zone, data associated with the item from a local controller of the first zone of the conveying system, wherein the data comprises an expected value for a property of the item;
- comparing, by the local controller of the second zone, the expected value for the property with an actual value for the property;
- in response to the comparing satisfying a threshold condition:
- transporting the item to a third zone of the conveying system, and
- transferring the data to a local controller of the third zone by the local controller of the second zone;
- and
- in response to the comparing not satisfying the threshold condition, transporting the item to a fourth zone of the conveying system,
- wherein a data tag associated with the item is not read by a data tag reader associated with the second zone.
A conveying system comprising:
- a plurality of zones, each comprising:
- a conveyor section configured to transport an item;
- a driver configured to drive the conveyor section;
- a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured to store data associated with the item;
- and
- a controller configured to communicate with a controller of an adjacent zone, control the driver to transport the item into the adjacent zone, and control the computer-readable storage medium to transfer the stored data into the computer-readable storage medium of the adjacent zone,
- wherein the plurality of zones includes first and second zones and the first zone includes a data reader, and in operation, the second zone does not read a data tag associated with the item.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.