Accumulation control
AssigneeIntelligrated Headquarters, LLC
InventorsRaymond R. Neiser, Jason A. Johnson, Brian J. Resnick, Christopher S. Anderson, Kevin L. Klueber, Jeffrey S. Turner, Matthew S. Wicks
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Zones of an accumulation conveyor are controlled using a look ahead approach. The speed and article presence conditions of downstream and upstream zones are used to assess the condition of article flow in the neighborhood of a particular zone. The respective speeds of individual zones are then selected and implemented based on the assessment.
Claims34
A method for controlling an accumulation conveyor, the accumulation conveyor comprising a plurality of zones, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a controller, data indicating conditions for each zone of the plurality of zones;
- and
- setting, at the controller, an operating speed for a first zone of the plurality of zones based on at least one of said conditions selected from the group consisting of
- a condition of an upstream zone of the plurality of zones, and
- a condition of a downstream zone of the plurality of zones, the condition of the downstream zone being a speed of the downstream zone.
A material handling system, comprising:
- an accumulation conveyor comprising a plurality of zones;
- and
- a controller in communication with the accumulation conveyor to perform operations to:
- receive data indicating conditions for each zone of the plurality of zones, and
- set an operating speed for a first zone of the plurality of zones based on at least one of said conditions selected from the group consisting of
- a condition of an upstream zone of the plurality of zones, and
- a condition of a downstream zone of the plurality of zones, the condition of the downstream zone being a speed of the downstream zone.
A controller comprising:
- an interface to an accumulation conveyor;
- at least one processor;
- and
- a memory,
- wherein the at least one processor is coupled to the memory and the interface and configured with processor-executable instructions to perform operations to:
- receive data indicating conditions for each zone of the plurality of zones, and
- set an operating speed for a first zone of the plurality of zones based on at least one of said conditions selected from the group consisting of
- a condition of an upstream zone of the plurality of zones, and
- a condition of a downstream zone of the plurality of zones, the condition of the downstream zone being a speed of the downstream zone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.