WO2011093730A1

WO2011093730A1 - Sorting machine and method of sorting items

Info

Publication number: WO2011093730A1
Application number: PCT/PL2010/000008
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ryszard Rusinowski; Jacek Wolosz; Jacek Krolski; Krzysztof Kowalski; Michat Rusinowski
Original assignee: Przedsiebiorstwo Poster Sp Z Oo
Current assignee: Przedsiebiorstwo Poster Sp Z Oo
Priority date: 2010-01-26
Filing date: 2010-01-26
Publication date: 2011-08-04
Anticipated expiration: 2012-07-26

Abstract

The subject of this invention is the sorting machine and the method of sorting of the items. In greater detail this invention relates to the sorting machine as an element of a sorting system, consisting of induction lines, collection lines made of chutes or conveyors and the machine itself with its control system, used in postal packages sorting systems and the machines used for assembling deliveries in mail-order warehouses.

Description

SORTING MACHINE AND METHOD OF SORTING ITEMS

The subject of the invention are the sorting machine and the method of sorting of items. In greater detail this invention relates to the sorting machine as an element of a sorting system consisting of induction lines, collection lines made of chutes or conveyors and the machine itself with its control system, that is used in postal packages sorting systems and machines used for assembling deliveries in mail-order warehouses.

The aim of mail sorting machines is to sort the mail items during sorting process, according to specified criteria such as destination (e.g.: delivery area, recipient type), mail item type (e.g: letters, packages), mail item category (e.g.: priority mail, bulk mail etc.) or the size of mail (e.g.: standard letter, large letter„flat", etc.). In many cases the sorting process is still carried out by hand, which has a negative impact on effectiveness of the sortingprocess. Thus, there is a need for building and implementation of automated systems aiding in sorting processes. Most of the systems use never-ending track consisting of looped conveyor belt or line of elements, like crosswise conveyors„cross-belts" or carriages with trays, from which mail items are slid off. Additionally in traditional sorting systems mail items are moved along the same track. There is a possibility to use additional induction/output paths that allow the machine to attain maximum technical efficiency, limited only by the speed of sorting line, but such a solution causes an increase of the system's operation area, which carries with it increase in work time and in costs.

Known from the description of the invention No. JP2006124126 (published 18.05.2006) is a sorting system for sorting items, that can be used in small and limited areas. The aforementioned system consists of three overlapping sorting levels, placed on different height. The arrangement of collection lines (collection chutes for mail items), branching paths and parts allowing to cross from one level to adjacent level are optimised in such a way as to ensure the operation of all three traditional sorting machines placed one over the other.

Known from the description of the invention No. EP1637236 (published 22.03.2006) is the pre-sorting device using conveyors consisting of sets of crosswise conveyors and lengthwise conveyors placed at right angles to them, of which each of them can be connected to collection lines of the device. Each one of the crosswise conveyors can be loaded with mail items, according to specified sorting criteria. Additionally the possibility to use the slide off mechanism is ensured to allow to move mail items between levels. This solution is similar to the one described above, but the traditional sorting machines are placed in parallel on the same level.

There is still a need to find a solution combining compact size of the system with large number of sorting destinations for items, which at the same time would ensure the creation of a modular system allowing unlimited scalability or configuration changes without the necessity of disassembly of the previous machine. Simultaneously there is a need to find solutions that could be installed inside the existing facilities, without the necessity of searching for new areas or would allow to economize on sorting area size during the design of new sorting centers.

The aim of this invention was to create a solution that allows to considerably decrease the machine's footprint, and in which the extension of the machine, by not less than one induction line, would allow to increase the machine's capacity by the capacity of already existing induction line, whereas increase in the number of the modules, meaning the increase of the raster net, would allow to increase the number of sorting destinations, which in turn offers more possibilities of the sorting programs' configuration.

In case of traditional sorting machines, the expansion of the machine and the increase of the number of collection chutes doesn't allow to increase the machine's capacity, it only offers more possibilities of the sorting programs' configuration, because it is the sorting line's speed and also, in case of tray or cross-belt usage, granularity that decides the capacity of the machine.

In this invention the solution was found, that allows to considerably increase the capacity while simultaneously reduce the necessary area for installation of the sorting system, which is possible thanks to the use of modular compact structure, in which sorting and transport of mail items is conducted simultaneously on several levels, while on every level mail items are transported along the track consisting of the stages which reflect the movement of the conveyors assigned by the system's algorithm, and the path of the item directed from the same entry point (start) doesn't have to be the same every time. The gain from such a solution is the dynamic routing in order to achieve maximum throughput and, in case of failure, the ability to bypass the faulty module, which in turn allows to conduct the repairs during planned service and maintenance break, without the necessity of stopping the work. At the same time this solution allows to freely shape the machine, thanks to the open architecture of the machine, by: having no limits for number of inputs and outputs, shape (square, rectangular, number of levels) at the design stage of the new system as well as potential modifications, with limited demand for resources and short time necessary for its realization.

The subject of this invention is the sorting machine being an element of the sorting system consisting of induction lines for the sorting machine, collection lines made of chutes or conveyors and the sorting machine itself along with its control system, characterised in that every level includes reversible belt conveyors, located in the theoretic raster net, and that the number of levels and the size of the raster net is not limited in theory and the amount of the area limited by the outline of the machine not used by the active sorting modules is close to zero, and also that more than half of the direction chutes can be reached by at least two transport paths.

Preferably, the reversible belt conveyors located in the raster net are able to rotate around vertical axis going through the center of the conveyor or around the horizontal axis parallell to the axes of its reels.

Preferably, the machine has an open architecture using the machine's modular, repetitive structure equivalent to its raster net, which provides for its compact and dense construction, while modular design allows to extend the machine in every spatial direction independently.

The next subject of the invention is the method of sorting of the items, characterized in that the items provided by the induction lines to the sorting system are moved along the axes of three-dimensional spatial system of coordinates in both senses of every direction and also rotate around horizontal or vertical axis, while moving to the conveyor placed on the adjacent raster of the same or adjacent level, until they reach the collection line made of chute or conveyor, while their sorting occurs on the finite path leading from induction lines to collection lines along the spatial track consisting of stages reflecting the movement of the conveyors designated by the control system's algorithm for given item's sorting.

For better understanding of this invention, the drawing presents a sample solution, where:

Fig. 1 shows the diagram of the multi level sorting machine equipped with rotary modular conveyors having vertical rotation axes.

Fig. 2 shows the diagram of the multi level sorting machine equipped with rotary modular conveyors having horizontal rotation axes.

The sample implementation of the system is described below.

Example 1

Model designed with the use of short conveyors rotating around horizontal axes coinciding with the axes of their end reels. This solution was named PKUMR.

This example conforms to the fig. 2, where the relevant numbers indicate: 1- reversible conveyors, 2 - raster net, 3 - levels, 4 - the area of the outline of machine's vertical projection, 5 - direction chutes, 6 - transport paths, 7 - induction lines, 8 - collection lines, I B - horizontal axis around which the reversible conveyors rotate.

The movement of the items is conducted on three levels 3 (for clarity the geographical description of the directions were adopted): upper, middle and lower, as shown on fig.l and 2. Levels 3 are built with short reversible crosswise conveyors I equipped on both ends with reels on which belt is running, placed in the raster - in the considered model the adopted size of the raster is about 1200 mm by 1200 mm, with the height difference between levels of 1200 mm. The conveyors 1 are reversible, which means their belts can run forward as well as backward, and they are also capable of pivoting movement - in this sample model about 45 degrees around axes lb of both reels. Every of the conveyors 1 is equipped with sensors indicating its position and whether it is occupied. To simplify the description the layout was adopted with raster net 2 of the level three 3 of the sorting machine 5 by 5, oriented in such a way, that the direction of the movement of the reversible conveyor belts I coincides with west-east axis WE. The items are provided by the conveyors 7 from the W direction to every of the five conveyors i adjacent to the W edge. The items were already scanned or their code was read by radio or their data was manually entered by the operators. The induction conveyors 1 were designed in appropriate manner by providing multi section construction of the conveyor (which facilitates single queuing of the items for induction) and high acceleration of the final sections allowing to„inject" the items. The computer control system makes preliminary decision about the choice of the transport path 6 of the item inside the machine, based on the sorting algorithm (exchangeable by the operator) and optionally the state of the sensors. This decision may be corrected during the sorting of the items to allow to optimize and determine one of many mapped paths 6, and also depending on the state of the sensors.

On the upper level 3 the items move along the WE axis and they reach the chutes 5 (outputs) of the upper level 3 by means of every of the five parallel lines, or they can be transferred from the upper level 3 to the middle level 3 using the ability of every of the reversible conveyors to pivot (downward movement of one of the ends) around both of its axes W and E.

The middle level 3 is extended by a single raster in comparison to the upper level 3 along the WE axis. This level is shifted by half a raster along the WE axis in comparison to the raster of the upper level 3. This allows to transfer the item to the same reversible conveyor 1 from two of the reversible conveyors 1 of the upper level 3, both from the preceding reversible conveyor 1 (the item is slid off with the WE conveyor belt movement) or from the following reversible conveyor 1 (the item is slid off with the EW conveyor belt movement). The belts of all the reversible conveyors 1 of the middle level 3 are moving along the NS axis (in the NS direction or in opposite SN direction). Thus the items are moved to the chutes 5 on the N edge and to the chutes 5 on the S edge.

The items can also be transferred to the lower level 3 using the pivoting ability of the conveyors (explained in the description of the upper level 3).

The lower level 3 is extended by a single raster in comparison to the middle level 3 along the NS axis and shifted by half a raster along that axis in comparison to the middle level 3. This level allows the items to be delivered to the chutes 5 on the W edge and to the chutes 5 on the E edge. Being the lowest level in the described example of implementation of the subject invention it doesn't have the pivoting movement of the conveyors. The implementation example of this invention described above contains 25 chutes (OUTPUTS) numbered from 1 to 25 and 5 induction lines (INPUTS) numbered from 1 to 5.

The estimated operational capacity of this model fluctuate in the range of 8 to 9 thousand items per hour. The described model requires approximately about 200 m of the sorting area while the traditional sorting machines occupy 2000 m .

The extension of the modular machine by one induction and sorting line, that in the described model would be the line number "m+1", in this case six, brings along with the increase of the number of destinations the increase of the capacity by a percentage of new lines to already existing. At the same time the extension by one line perpendicular to the induction line - in the described model it would be number "n+1", which increases the number of destinations, allows to increase the capacity by the way of increase of the number of possible choices of transport paths.

The described model has 5 induction lines, which, considering the estimated capacity of 1800 items/hour/line, gives the model's capacity of 9000 pcs./hour; 24 direction chutes + 5 collection chutes for the rejects (parcels with unreadable code) from a level 3.

Example 2

Model designed with the use of short conveyors as in the Example 1 and additionally rotating along vertical axes going through the center of the modules. This solution was named PKOMR.

This example conforms to the fig. 1, where the relevant numbers indicate: 1- reversible conveyors, 2 - raster net, 3— levels, 4 - the area of the outline of machine's vertical projection, 5 - direction chutes, 6 - transport paths, 7 - induction lines, 8 - collection lines, 1 A - vertical axis around which the reversible conveyors rotate.

The movement of the item provided for sorting is conducted on one level 3 with the situation of transfering of the unsorted item to the next level in case of cascading the sorting levels 3 taken into consideration.

The level 3 of the sorting machine is built with identical modules placed in the raster net 2 - in the described example the square raster of the size of 1200 mm was assumed. A rotary circular element of the diameter of 1160 mm is inscribed within the module. The rotary element can perform a rotation controlled by the control system in such a way as to assume the position perpendicular to previous movement direction. Inside this element the reversible belt conveyor 1 of the 1010 mm length is installed. If the machine's purpose is also to be sorting small items, it may be necessary to use additional rollers parallell to the conveyors' reels 1, shorter than the reels, driven synchronously with the conveyor belt, and placed between belt conveyor and the edge of the rotary element, to allow to slide the smallest items across the area not covered by the conveyor belt.

The item is transported from entry point to destination point (or to transfer point to another level in case of cascading) by means of the reversible conveyor belts' i movements as designated by the sorting control system, parallel to the line which provided the item or perpendicular to that line, after rotation of the rotary element by a quarter of the full turn.

During parallel level 3 operating mode, the sorting destinations, so called chutes 5, are interconnected.

While working in cascading mode, every level 3 has its own destinations (but the control program can duplicate the destinations from other levels). This model requires the area of about 200 m to operate, while the machines used so far require the area of about 1600 m to operate.

It is possible to design a mixed setup combining the benefits of both solutions (the sample cascading model is described in the example below).

In the described model (raster 5 x 5) with cascading setup of three sorting levels

3 with three item induction lines 7, the estimated operational capacity fluctuates in the range of 9 to 10 thousand items per hour, and the number of destination chutes is 54 + 1 rejection destination.

The same model with parallel setup of three sorting levels 3 (each of them with three item induction lines 7) has thrice the capacity of the cascading model, and the number of the destination chutes is 14 + 1 rejection destination.

This model requires the area of about 200 m to operate, while the traditional machine having the same number of destination chutes, but significantly lower capacity requires the area of about 900 m to operate.

The production capacity of the traditional sorting machines is within the range of 7 to 8 thousand items per hour.

Extending the modular machine by a single additional induction line 7 carries with it the increase in capacity by the capacity equal to already existing induction line 7, while increasing of the number of the modules (extending the raster net 2) allows to increase the number of the destinations.

Parallel setup of the sorting levels causes the increase in capacity (capacity of a single level multiplied by the number of levels) and the cascading setup of the sorting levels causes increase in the number of destinations (number of destinations of a single level multiplied by the number of the levels), while preserving the capacity of the induction level of the sorted items.

The technical capability with the single induction line is about 5400 items per hour and it is limited by the capacity of the induction line. It seems prudent to assume that every level should have three induction lines, and also to assume that the target capacity of the single line will be 3000 items per hour, which gives the combined capacity of the single level about 9000 items per hour.

Claims

Patent claims

1. The sorting machine being a part of the sorting system, consisting of induction lines of the sorting machine, collection lines of the sorting machine made of chutes, reversible conveyors and the control system, characterised in that every level includes reversible belt conveyors (1), located inside the theoretic raster net (2) and that the number of levels (3) and raster net size (2) are not limited theoretically and that the amount of the area (4) limited by the outline of the machine and not used by the active sorting modules is close to zero, and also that more than half of the direction chutes (5) can be reached by at least two transport paths (6).

2. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the reversible belt conveyors (1) located in the raster net (2) are able to rotate around vertical axis (la) going through the center of the conveyor.

3. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the reversible belt conveyors (1) located in the raster net (2) are able to rotate around horizontal axis (lb) parallel to the axes of the reels of the reversible belt conveyors (1).

4. Machine according to claim 1, characterized in that it has an open architecture based on its modular and repetitive structure equivalent to its raster net (2).

5. The method of the sorting of the items characterized in that the items provided by the induction lines (7) of the sorting system are transported along the axes of three-dimensional spatial system of coordinates in both senses of every direction and also rotate around horizontal or vertical axis while moving to the reversible conveyor (1) located on the adjacent raster (2) of the same or adjacent level (3), until they reach the collection line (8) made of chute or reversible conveyor (1), while their sorting occurs on the finite path leading from induction lines to collection lines (8) along the spatial track consisting of stages that reflect the movement of the reversible conveyors (1) designated by the control system's algorithm for given item's sorting.