WO2002026599A1 - Insertion device comprising a buffer function for a unit-load facility - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to an insertion device comprising a buffer function for a unit-load facility. Said device comprises a supply conveyer belt (1), several phased belts (2) that can be controlled separately and act as buffers and an acceleration belt (3) for loading the passing unit load receptacles (4) of the unit-load facility with the supplied unit loads (5). The belts are arranged one behind the other. The first phased belt (2) downstream of the supply belt (1) and the acceleration belt (3) are divided longitudinally, whereby each partial belt (2.1, 3.1) can also be driven and controlled separately and is wider than the majority of the unit loads (5). A device (7) is provided for measuring the width, length and position of each supplied unit load (5). A device (6) for distributing the unit loads (5.1) between the partial belts (2.1, 3.1), said loads being no wider than the partial belts (2.1, 3.1), is positioned in front of the first phased belt (2).

Description

description

Infeed device with buffer function for a piece goods sorting system

The invention relates to an infeed device with a buffer function for a piece goods sorting system. The infeed facilities of the sorting system are dimensioned in length and width in accordance with the largest piece goods to be sorted. However, the size distribution of the piece goods to be sorted obeys the Gaussian normal distribution. Furthermore, with appropriate tilting tray and cross belt sorting systems, it is possible to position piece goods that are too large for individual tilting cups or cross belts as piece goods receptacles on two piece goods receptacles and to transport them to the destination. The general cargo receptions are designed so that the limit between general cargo for individual general cargo and general cargo for two general cargo is 5 to 20% of the total throughput depending on the type of general cargo. The geometry of the infeeds is therefore designed for this smaller proportion of large piece goods.

A high sorting throughput is achieved in the distribution centers of the postal and goods distribution industries through the parallel operation of several sorting systems. If there should be a connection to all exits (destinations) from all inputs of the sorting system, a pre-sorting must be carried out in which the general cargo is assigned to the sorting system in the area of which the desired destination is located. Here m pre-sorting systems are connected to n main sorting systems via m * n connecting lines.

In order to come very close to the goal of achieving the theoretical throughput determined by the speed and general cargo intake division of the sorting systems connected in series, the principle applies that this can only be achieved by intermediate sufficient, dynamic buffer capacity and infeed performance must be ensured. If, for example, a pre-sorting system supplies two other main sorting systems in addition to a main sorting system, these can no longer be operated without a buffer if the first main sorting system is not ready to accept. The situation is shown in Figure la.

This problem is solved by introducing a buffer in front of each main sorting system. The piece goods intended for the first main sorting system are pushed into the corresponding buffer and the next piece goods HS2 and HS3 can then reach their destinations (FIG. 1b).

Such a lock-in device consists in particular of a feed conveyor belt which transports the piece goods from the pre-sorting system to the buffer area, consisting of a plurality of cycle belts arranged one behind the other, and an acceleration belt adjoining the cycle belts. This has a belt conveyor and an adjoining trapezoidal belt, since the infeed device forms an angle to the transport direction of the piece goods receptacles. Depending on the position and length of the piece goods, the acceleration belt starts at a defined point in time in relation to the piece goods receptacles that are moved past and onto which the piece goods are pushed with an acceleration curve that ensures loading of the receptacles. Regardless of the size of the consignment (one consignment for one recording or for several recordings), only one consignment is inserted at a time.

For spatial and economic reasons, however, the dynamic buffers cannot be built to any size, so that if the material flow is distributed unevenly across the three sorting systems, backlogs can still occur on the pre-sorting systems, reducing the overall throughput. The object of the invention specified in claim 1 is to provide an infeed device with a buffer function for a piece goods sorting system, which has an increased buffer capacity without increasing the size of the buffer compared to the prior art.

The task is solved by dividing the first clock band (1st buffer stage) and the acceleration band lengthwise into several separately controlled and driven subbands. Furthermore, a device for distributing the piece goods, which are not wider than the sub-belts, is provided on the sub-belts in front of the pre-sorting system in front of the first cycle belt on the feed conveyor belt.

The subbands of the first clock conveyor transport the

General cargo for the second conveyor belt only when there is a general cargo on all conveyor belts. The piece goods located simultaneously on the individual acceleration sub-belts are then loaded onto one or more piece goods receptacles, depending on their length and the empty piece goods receptacles transported past.

Through these measures according to the invention, the absorption capacity of the buffer could be increased considerably with the same area requirement.

Advantageous embodiments of the invention are presented in the subclaims.

It is therefore advantageous to split the first cycle band and the acceleration band longitudinally into two band halves of the same width.

In this context, it is also advantageous to provide rotary arm deflectors as devices for distributing the piece goods on the belt halves of the first cycle belt, which are controlled in such a way that the respective General cargo, if it is already aligned accordingly on the feed conveyor belt, is transported unaffected and if it is to be pushed onto a specific half of the belt, according to its measured position on the feed conveyor belt and the belt speed through the side of the feed conveyor path opposite to the belt half rotating arm is moved.

For the infeed process - uniform distribution of the infeed motion components with regard to the transport movement - the transport direction of the piece goods advantageously forms an angle of 45 ° to the transport direction of the piece goods receptacles.

According to the free piece goods receptacles transported past and the piece goods dimensions, the piece goods located separately on the acceleration sub-belts in an advantageous embodiment can each be loaded one after the other onto successive, free piece goods receptacles corresponding to the length of the piece goods.

It is also advantageous that the piece goods located separately on the acceleration sub-belts, each of which are suitable for loading onto a piece goods holder due to their length, can be loaded in parallel onto several free piece goods holders located one behind the other. This increases the throughput.

If the piece goods are wider than a sub-band, it is advantageous to control the sub-bands of the first cycle band and the acceleration band, which lie next to one another, and which take up the piece goods in a uniform manner.

The invention is then explained in more detail in an exemplary embodiment with reference to the drawing. Show FIG. 1 a shows a block diagram of the connection between the pre-sorter and main sorter according to the prior art without a buffer

FIG lb is a block diagram of the connection between

Prior and main sorters according to the state of the art with buffers,

2 shows a schematic illustration of a single-lock device as a top view,

3 shows a schematic representation of the entrance area of an infeed device with two rotating arm deflectors as a top view,

4 shows a schematic representation of a sluice area according to the prior art and a sluice area of approximately the same capacity with parallel buffers and acceleration bands.

The invention is described in the exemplary embodiment with reference to a tilting tray sorting system, the first cycle band and acceleration band of which are each divided into two equal sub-bands. The piece goods are suitable for either one or two tilting trays. This is not a restriction with regard to further designs (cross belt sorter, other subdivision).

The piece goods 5.1, 5.2 come in accordance with FIG. 2 on a feed conveyor belt 1, one after the other, from a presorting system and arrive at a buffer consisting of three successive conveyor belts 2, on which they are transported in cycles. The first cycle band is longitudinally divided into two sub-cycle bands 2.1 of the same size, which are separately controlled and driven. Accordingly, the acceleration band 3 following the clock bands 2 is also in divided two acceleration sub-bands 3.1 with corresponding trapezoidal bands. A device 6 for distributing the piece goods 5.1, which are not wider than the part tact belts 2.1, is arranged to distribute the piece goods 5 to the partial tact belts 2.1 of the first stage. This device is designed as a swivel arm deflector. Since the piece goods 5 are fed in an aligned manner at the upper edge of the feed transport path 1, only a rotary arm deflector is required, which is arranged at the upper edge. The swivel arm deflector has two deflectors offset by 180 °. If it is not ensured that all piece goods 5 are located on one side of the feed conveyor belt 1, a second rotary arm deflector 6.2 must be used in addition to the first rotary arm deflector 6.1 on the other side of the feed conveyor belt 1 (FIG. 3).

In front of the rotating arm deflector there is a sensor 7 for determining the length and width and the position of each piece goods 5 on the feed conveyor belt 1 above or below the feed conveyor belt 1, which is advantageously implemented as an optical line sensor, since piece goods are transported past it. The measurement data are sent to a control system which, depending on whether the general cargo 5 fits on a sub-belt, whether it fits on one or two tilting trays 4, or controls the infeed process depending on its position on the feed conveyor belt 1.

The infiltration process takes place as follows:

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Sluice performance by doubling the sluice channels per sluice.

In addition to increasing the buffer capacity of connecting lines between sorters in existing systems, which contributes to better dynamic behavior of the overall system, especially in the case of unbalanced loads, there are other advantages to mention:

- With the parallel infeed, the booking and allocation algorithm for the assignment of the tilting trays 4 is simplified, since basically two free tilting trays 4, one behind the other, can be booked for all inlets, which are either made up of two small items 5.1 for one tilting tray or one item 5.2 can be used for two tilting bowls. This improves the dynamic behavior for the last inlets of an infeed group, which always have to work on a sorter that is already heavily occupied. Large piece goods 5.2 no longer block the infeed stream by waiting for two randomly lying free shells coming one behind the other.

- The performance, ie the throughput of an injection, increases to the same extent as for the gain in buffer space, ie by the statistical average of 70%. It leads to a reduction in investment costs for a feed-in group, which ensures that a sorter is fully loaded. FIG. 4 shows a comparison between the previous solution and the solution with parallel injectors.

Claims

claims 1.Infeed device with buffer function for a piece goods sorting system, in which a feed conveyor belt (1), several separately controllable conveyor belts (2) as buffers and an acceleration belt (3) for loading the piece goods sorting system (4) of the piece goods sorting system with the supplied piece goods (5) are arranged in which the piece goods (5) are accelerated on the acceleration belt (3) in such a way that the piece goods (5) are each loaded onto several empty piece goods receptacles to one or if their measured length exceeds that of a receptacle (4) , characterized in that after the feed belt (1) first cycle belt (2) and the acceleration belt (3) are longitudinally divided, each sub-belt (2.1,3.1) can also be driven and controlled separately and is wider than the majority of the piece goods (5) that a device (7) for measuring the width, length and position of each piece good (5) fed in can be seen and that in front of the first conveyor belt (2) a device (6) for distributing the piece goods (5.1), which are not wider than the sub-belts (2.1,3.1), is arranged on the sub-belts (2.1,3.1), the Sub-belts (2.1) of the first cycle belt (2) only transport the piece goods (5.1) together and that each of the acceleration sub-belts (3.1) loaded with individual piece goods (5.1) has one or more consecutive, empty piece goods receptacles (4) corresponding to the measured length of the piece goods (5.1). 2. Infeed device according to claim 1, characterized in that the first cycle belt (2) and the acceleration belt (3) are each divided longitudinally into two belt halves of the same width. 3. Infeed device according to claim 2, characterized in that as a device (6) for distributing the piece goods on the belt halves (2.1) of the first cycle belt to the side of the feed conveyor belt (1) are provided rotating arm deflectors which are controlled so that the respective piece goods (5.1) , if it is already aligned accordingly on the infeed conveyor belt (1), is transported on unaffectedly and if it has to be pushed onto a certain half of the conveyor belt, according to the eaten position of the piece goods (5.1) on the infeed conveyor belt (1) and the belt speed is shifted by the rotating arm on the opposite side of the band. 4. Infeed device according to claim 1, so that the transport direction of the piece goods (5) forms an angle of 45 ° to the transport direction of the piece goods receptacles (4). 5. Infeed device according to claim 1, so that the piece goods (5.1) located separately on the acceleration sub-belts (3.1) can each be loaded one after the other onto free, successive piece goods receptacles 84) according to the length of the respective piece goods (5.1). 6. Infeed device according to claim 1, characterized in that the piece goods (5.1) which are located separately on the acceleration sub-belts (3.1) and are each suitable for loading onto a piece goods receptacle (4) due to their length, on several consecutive, free piece goods receptacles ( 4) can be loaded in parallel. 7. Infeed device according to claim 1, characterized in that in the case of piece goods (5.2) that are wider than a sub-belt (2.1,3.1), the Partial belts (5.2) receiving adjacent sub-belts (2.1,3.1) of the first cycle belt and the acceleration belt can each be controlled uniformly.