Speed control system for peripheral conveyors of sorter systems

Abstract

A speed control system for sorters (e.g. sliding shoe sorters) comprises a sensor for measuring a sorter current speed of a sorter and a speed controller for setting peripheral conveyor commanded speeds for peripheral conveyors in communication with the sorter. During acceleration or deceleration of the sorter (e.g., in response to start or stop events of the sorter, or from one operating speed to another operating speed), the speed controller sets the peripheral conveyor commanded speeds to match or track the sorter current speed in order to ramp up or ramp down speeds of the peripheral conveyors with that of the sorter, which accelerates or decelerates more slowly than the peripheral conveyors. The speed controller may control the speed of different types of peripheral conveyors (e.g., upstream, intermediate, downstream) in various ways based on the type of the peripheral conveyors and/or based on user-configurable exception settings.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.