Mail accumulating device
AssigneeFinmeccanica S.p.A.
InventorsMauro Levaro, Vincenzo Priolo
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An accumulating device having ten accumulating units connected at the input to a conveyor belt system and designed to house a number of mail items. Each accumulating unit comprises a conveyor system composed of two belts contacting each other along a substantially straight portion and having a sensor for generating an enabling signal upon a mail item being fed into the accumulating unit. As a consequence of the enabling signal, the belts are shifted one discrete step so that the mail items fed into the accumulating unit are inserted between the two belts and overlap one another.
Claims14
A mail accumulating device comprising:
- a) at least two accumulating units aligned in a vertical plane, each of said units having an input to receive mail items within said unit and an output to discharge mail items therefrom;
- b) first conveyor system adapted to selectively deposit mail items within said accumulating units;
- c) second conveyor system adapted to convey deposited mail items from said accumulating units;
- d) each of said accumulating units provided with conveyor means operatively associated with a drive means for laterally advancing mail items along a path within said unit from said input to said respective output;
- and
- e) first sensor means operatively associated with each of said accumulating units for detecting entry of mail items into said units and generating a first enabling signal in response thereto to actuate said drive means and cause advancement of said respective conveyor means for a discrete increment from said imput to said output whereby the mail items are deposited in said accumulating units so as to overlap in sequential order and on said respective conveyor means.
A mail accumulating device as in claim 17 and wherein:
- a) said first sensor means positioned adjacent said input of said accumulating units.
A postal machine comprising:
- a) at least one loading unit for storing a number of mail items to be sorted;
- b) a reading unit for reading a code on each of the mail items;
- c) an accumulating device for sorting mail items in accordance with the code thereon said accumulating device comprising at least two accumulating units aligned in a vertical plane, each of said units having an input to receive mail items within said unit and an output to discharge mail items therefrom, first conveyor system adapted to deposit mail items within said accumulating units, once the mail item code has been read, second conveyor system adapted to convey deposited mail items from said accumulating units;
- d) each of said accumulating units provided with conveyor means operatively associated with a drive means for laterally advancing mail items along a path within said unit from said input to said respective output and first sensor means operatively associated with each of said accumulating units for detecting entry of mail items into said unit and generating a first enabling signal in response thereto to actuate said drive means and cause advancement of said respective conveyor means for a discrete increment from said imput to said output whereby a group of mail items are deposited into said accumulating unit so as to overlap in sequential order on said respective conveyor means;
- and
- e) an end collecting unit for collecting sorted mail items removed from each of said accumulating units by said second conveyor system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.