US 6,471,039 B1Granted

Conveyor system and a method for operating same

AssigneeCrisplant A/S

InventorsBrian Bruun, Steen Kibsgaard

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Abstract

The present invention relates to a conveyor system, for use, e.g., at airports for conveying luggage, which has a plurality of conveyor sections with variable conveying speed arranged in series and a method for operating same. The conveyed articles may be accelerated on the system and adjacent sections have substantially the same speed and optionally the same acceleration when the articles are passed between them. A downstream speed and optionally also a downstream acceleration is determined for each article being passed to an upstream end of a section. In particular, the invention relates to a conveyor system in which the conveyor sections each has a control unit for controlling the operation of the particular section and which control unit is able to communicate with the control units of the immediately adjacent sections, and the invention relates as well to a method for operating such a system and to the individual section.

Claims53

Dependent claims

A method of operating a conveyor system comprising a plurality of conveyor sections arranged in series, said method comprising:

successively loading articles on the conveyor system by at least one loading station arranged along the conveyor sections,
selectively driving the respective conveyor sections at varying speed so as to move the articles thereon in a direction of transportation along the conveyor system,
detecting the position of an article on the conveyor system by means of detecting means arranged at one or more locations along the length of said system,
generating a detecting signal when an article has been detected by the detecting means,
determining for each of the plurality of conveyor sections a desired downstream speed of an article at the downstream end of said conveyor section from the speed the article will have when passing to said conveyor section,
controlling the varying speed of said conveyor section when said article is conveyed thereby, in response to the detection signal, so as to obtain the previously determined downstream speed of said article when approaching a downstream end of said conveyor section,
controlling the varying speed of the conveyor section being adjacent to and subsequent to said conveyor section, so as to obtain substantially the same speed as the article when the article is passing from said conveyor section to said subsequent conveyor section, and
successively unloading articles from the conveyor system to a plurality of discharge stations arranged along the conveyor sections.

5 more elements

A conveyor for transporting articles and comprising:

a plurality of conveyor sections,
driving means for selectively driving each individual conveyor section at a variable speed,
at least one loading station arranged along the conveyor sections for loading articles onto the conveyor sections,
a plurality of discharge stations arranged along the conveyor sections for receiving articles being unloaded from the conveyor sections,
detecting means for detecting the presence of an article at one or more predetermined positions along the length of the conveyor and for generating a detection signal when an article has been detected, and
control means for controlling the driving means of each of said conveyor sections in response to a detection signal received from the detecting means and a speed associated with the detected article, so as to determine and obtain a desired downstream speed of said article at the downstream end of each conveyor section, the control means further controlling the driving means of said conveyor sections such that a conveyor section being adjacent to and subsequent to a previous conveyor section obtain substantially the same speed as the article when the article is passing from the previous to the present conveyor section.

3 more elements

A conveyor section for being arranged between an identical preceding conveyor section and an identical following conveyor section, the given conveyor section comprising:

a control unit,
driving means for driving the given conveyor section at a variable speed,
detecting means for detecting the presence of an article at one or more predetermined positions along the length of the given conveyor section, generating a detection signal when an article has been detected and transmitting said signal to the control unit of the given conveyor section,
data communication means being adapted to communicate data to the control unit of the given conveyor section, regarding the speed with which an approaching article will pass from the preceding conveyor section to the given conveyor section,
data communication means being adapted to communicate data from the control unit of the given conveyor section, regarding the speed with which an article will pass from the given conveyor section to the following conveyor section,
wherein the control unit can control the varying speed of the driving means so as to obtain substantially the same speed as the article when the article is passing from the preceding conveyor section to the given conveyor section, the control unit further being able to control the varying speed of the driving means in response to a detection signal received from the detecting means and the speed with which the detected article pass from a preceding conveyor section to the given conveyor section, so as to determine and obtain a desired downstream speed of said article at the downstream end of the given conveyor section.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 09/209,748Filed 11 Dec 1998
Priority: DK 1997 0144812 Dec 1997
Granted: 29 Oct 2002
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

B65G 47/52
Article or material-handling devices associated with conveyors; Methods employing such devices: devices for transferring articles or materials…
B65G 37/02
Combinations of mechanical conveyors of the same kind, or of different kinds, of interest apart from their application in particular machines or…:…
B65G 43/10
Control devices, e.g. for safety, warning or fault-correcting: sequence control of conveyors operating in combination
B65G 47/82
Feeding, transfer, or discharging devices of particular kinds or types: rotary or reciprocating members for direct action on articles or…