US 6,182,815 B2Granted

Inductor station for sortation conveying system

AssigneeDorner Mfg. Corp.

InventorsTodd R. Eggebrecht, Jason M. Knas

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Abstract

An inductor station for a sortation conveying system is able to accommodate an assortment of substantially rectangular items which in general each have unique dimensions. A worker loads the inductor station with a charge of items each standing upright on edge and side-by-side. The charges are loaded in sequence to a feeder tray, and a programmably controlled feeding assembly feeds the charges along the feeder tray to a loading mechanism. The loading mechanism loads the endmost item from a discharge end of the feeder tray onto a takeaway conveyor. The items are loaded on the takeaway standing upright and on edge. An indexing motion stripping conveyor is used to time the loading of the items onto the takeaway conveyor so that the items are conveyed to an appropriate pocket on the core conveyor for the sortation conveying system. The feeding assembly and the loading assembly are each programmably controlled to coordinate movement of items through the inductor station with each item substantially maintaining its upright orientation.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A feeder assembly that feeds an assortment of substantially rectangular items for loading onto a conveyor belt, the feeder assembly comprising:

a feeder tray that repeatably receives charges of assorted items, each item in the respective charge standing upright on edge and grouped in series side-by-side;
a main pushing mechanism comprising a pushing hand mounted for travel along the feeder tray between a primary home location on the feeder tray and a primary stop location on the feeder tray, the primary home location being located farther from a discharge end of the feeder tray than the primary stop location;
and
a secondary pushing mechanism comprising a pushing hand mounted for travel along the feeder tray between a secondary home location on the feeder tray and a secondary stop location on the feeder tray, the secondary home location being located between the primary home location and the primary stop location;
wherein the pushing hand for the secondary pushing mechanism is retractable such that it is able to travel towards the secondary stop position and a discharge end of the feeder tray with the pushing hand above a floor of the feeder tray and is able to travel away from the discharge end of the feeder tray with the pushing hand of the secondary pushing mechanism located below the floor of the feeder tray.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/316,014Filed 24 May 1999
Granted: 6 Feb 2001
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification11 codes

B65H 3/24
Separating articles from piles: by pushers engaging the edges of the articles
B07C 1/04
Forming articles into a stream; Arranging articles in a stream, e.g. spacing, orientating: forming a stream from a bulk; Controlling the stream,…
B65G 43/08
Control devices, e.g. for safety, warning or fault-correcting: control devices operated by article or material being fed, conveyed or discharged
B65G 47/52
Article or material-handling devices associated with conveyors; Methods employing such devices: devices for transferring articles or materials…