US 5,664,660 AGranted

Sorter conveyor

AssigneeKosan Crisplant A/S

InventorsOle Prydtz, Ralph Kofoed

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Abstract

A sorter conveyor having laterally tiltable transport trays, instead of comprising a conventional transport chain driven by a driving station, in which a driving wheel or worm cooperates with the chain links, these being advanced arranged with guiding rails along a small mutual spacing and carrying both the transport trays and the tilt mechanisms associated therewith, which conventional arrangement causes considerable problems with respect to tolerances for both the longitudinal pitch of the chain links and the mounting of the guiding rails, comprises carts that are advanced along mutually widely spaced guiding rails (2), whereby the tolerance demands on the latter are reduced considerably; the carts are advanced by way of stationary linear motors (26), which renders any tolerance demands on the longitudinal pitch of the tray units entirely superfluous. Also the tilting mechanisms may be given a very simple design.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A sorter conveyor comprising a conveyor chassis, a row of supports supporting laterally tiltable carrier trays, movable along said conveyor chassis past a loading station to receive articles to be sorted and past a row of unloading or receiving stations at which the trays are selectively actuated so as to tilt and unload the articles, wherein said supports are fashioned as cart units having guiding members engaging with the conveyor chassis with a substantial mutual spacing, and wherein a plurality of discrete driving parts are provided on respective ones of said cart units said driving parts being elongated in an advancing direction of the cart units and a plurality of linear motors mounted in fixed positions relative to said conveyor chassis, said driving parts of said cart units being adapted for operative cooperation with said linear motors for moving said cart units with tiltable trays along said conveyor chassis, and wherein tray actuator arms are mounted on both sides of each cart unit for effecting tilting of the carrier trays to one side and the other, respectively, said tray actuator arms each having a track follower roller thereon by which said arms can be actuated against cam rails mounted on said chassis for tilting said trays.

A sorter conveyor comprising a conveyor chassis, a row of supports supporting laterally tiltable carrier trays and movable along said conveyor chassis past a loading station wherein said trays receive articles to be sorted and past a row of unloading or receiving stations at which the trays are selectively actuated so as to tilt and unload the articles, said carrier trays being operatively connected with cam follower means selectively engageable with cam rail portions at the respective unloading stations to the effect that the cam follower means are caused to be displaced transversely of their moving direction and thereby serve to control and effect the operational tilting of the associated carrier tray, said cam rail portions of each unloading station comprising at their inlet end a rail switch element which is pivotable between an inoperative position, in which it is located spaced from the path of movement of said cam follower means, and an active position, in which a front end thereof is located in said movement path, such that when actuated the rail switch element will cause the cam follower means to be caught and transversely displaced into engagement with said cam rail portion to thereby effect the unloading tilting of the associated carrier tray, returning means being provided for returning the rail switch element into its inoperative position in response to the passage of said cam follower means, said returning means including that the rail switch element is arranged in such a pivotal manner that in being actuated its front end will be swung out into a position corresponding with the path of movement of the cam follower means, while its rear end portion, at the opposite side of the pivot axis thereof, will swing into the deviated path of movement of the cam follower means, such that at the end of the movement of the cam follower means along the rail switch element the downstream end thereof will be hit by the cam follower means so as to thereby be return pivoted into its inoperative position.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.