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US 8,931,616 B2Granted
Sorting device
AssigneeBSAutomatisierung GmbH
InventorsThomas Maier, Julia-Kathrin Vollmer, Carsten Vogt, Bernd Stoll
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sorting device having at least one control unit for sorting mixtures of individual elements in sorting units according to at least one characterizing feature of the individual elements and having at least one conveyor belt. The sorting device comprises at least one buffer unit having at least two displaceable storage elements for intermediate storage of individual elements.
Claims18
A sorting apparatus for sorting mixtures of individual elements, comprising:
- at least one control unit;
- sorting units in which the individual elements can be sorted in accordance with at least one characterizing feature of the individual elements;
- at least one conveyor belt;
- at least one buffer-storage unit, which has at least two movable storage elements and which is intended for the interim storage of individual elements, and
- at least one handling unit, which comprises at least two handling elements for handling the individual elements,
- wherein the at least one control unit controls, for sorting purposes, exchanging an individual element of a sorting unit for an individual element, with a different characterizing feature which complies with selection criteria stored in the at least one control unit, from the at least one buffer-storage unit, and
- wherein the at least two handling elements of the at least one handling unit are coupled to one another mechanically.
4 more elements
A method of operating a sorting apparatus for sorting mixtures of individual elements, the apparatus comprising:
- at least one control unit;
- sorting units in which the individual elements can be sorted in accordance with at least one characteristic feature of the individual elements;
- at least one conveyor belt;
- and
- at least two buffer-storage units, each buffer-storage unit having at least two movable storage elements, each movable storage element being intended for the interim storage of an individual element, the two buffer-storage units being arranged opposite one another on either side of the conveyor belt, the method comprising:
- at least one step for startup of the sorting apparatus in which the first individual elements from the sorting units are distributed alternatively, by means of the handling unit, between the storage elements of the buffer-storage units, and
- at least one step in which for sorting purposes, an individual element of a sorting unit is exchanged for an individual element, with a different characterizing feature which complies with selection criteria stored in the at least one control unit, from a buffer-storage unit.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.