Overhead mattress storage and sorting conveyor
OwnerJames R. Roweinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A mattress storage and sorting conveyor, which discharges to one or more extendable conveyors, has a feed section that collects the mattress from one or more wrappers and inserts the mattress onto a circulating system which stores the mattresses until ready to be transferred. A short length of the circulating system may be repositioned to discharge a particular mattress to one or more conveyors that transport the mattress to a respective extendable conveyor. An operator at a control station selects which mattress to discharge from the circulating system. The conveyor system is controlled by a series of sensors, relays, and motor controllers to prevent or minimize the collisions between mattresses on the circulating system of the conveyor.
Claims11
A circulating conveyor system comprising:
- (a) a plurality of conveyor sections arranged in a closed path, each conveyor section having a first end and a discharge end and being configured to convey objects in a respective downstream direction toward said discharge end, adjacent conveyor sections comprising respective pairs of conveyor sections, each pair of adjacent conveyor sections comprising an upstream conveyor section and a downstream conveyor section, the downstream conveyor being disposed adjacent the discharge end of the upstream conveyor so as to receive the objects from said upstream conveyor, each respective conveyor section including a respective driven belt movably supported by said respective conveyor, said driven belt configured to contact the object when the respective objects are on said respective conveyor section, thereby conveying the objects toward the respective discharge end;
- (b) at least one of said pairs comprising a direction changing pair, each direction changing pair having the direction of travel of its upstream conveyor disposed at an angle to the direction of travel of its downstream conveyor such that the objects being conveyed change directions upon being transferred to said downstream conveyor;
- and
- (c) the discharge end of the respective upstream conveyor of said at least one direction changing pair being elevated a predetermined height above the respective downstream conveyor, the respective driven belt of said respective downstream conveyor being position on said downstream conveyor such that said object does not contact said driven belt sufficiently enough to convey said object until substantially all of said respective object is on said downstream conveyor, whereby the object's direction of travel is changed without changing the object's orientation.
A control system for a closed path conveyor system, said conveyor system having a plurality of conveyor zones, adjacent conveyor zones comprising respective pairs of conveyor zones, each pair of adjacent conveyor zones comprising an upstream conveyor zone and a downstream conveyor zone, each conveyor zone having a respective first end and a respective discharge end, a plurality of said conveyor zones having respective conveyor drive motors, said control system comprising:
- each of said plurality of conveyor zones having a respective switch disposed adjacent the respective discharge end, each respective switch being configured to detect the presence of an object,
- each of said respective conveyor zones having a respective sealing contact configured to detect whether the respective conveyor drive motor of said respective conveyor zone is running, and
- the respective conveyor drive motor of a plurality of respective conveyor zones being driven if the respective switch of said respective conveyor zone does not detect the presence of an object or if the respective sealing contact of the respective downstream conveyor zone detects that the respective conveyor drive motor of the respective downstream conveyor zone is being driven.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.