Induction conveyor
AssigneeLaitram, L.L.C.
InventorStephen G. Wargo
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An article induction system for preparing a stream of articles, such as mail parcels, for processing employs a series of conveyors operating under control of a controller for feeding articles to an operator at a cull belt at an optimal paced rate. The article induction system includes a destacking section, a separation and alignment section, a buffer section and a culling section manned by an operator. A controller controls the speed of each component based on measurements provided by sensors so as to feed articles to the operator at a desired paced rate.
Claims4
A method of preparing a stream of articles for processing, comprising the steps of:
- singulating the articles using a singulating conveyor to form a series of singulated articles;
- aligning the series of singulated articles using an aligning conveyor comprising a narrow belt on a first side and an article pushing belt opposing the narrow belt for pushing articles towards the narrow belt;
- buffering the series of singulated articles using a buffer to form a series of buffered articles;
- and
- passing the series of buffered articles from the buffer to an operator at a selected paced rate.
A method of preparing a stream of articles for processing, comprising the steps of:
- singulating the articles using a singulating conveyor to form a series of singulated articles;
- buffering the series of singulated articles using a buffer to form a series of buffered articles;
- and
- passing the series of buffered articles from the buffer to a cull belt manned by an operator at a selected paced rate based on a measurement from an array of sensors at an interface between the buffer and the cull belt.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.