Solystic

Bruno Cartal

François Madar

Didier Tresse

Nicolas Basset

Franck Girodet

Matthew Gene Good

Pierre Campagnolle

Jean Rieu

Olivier De Sousa

Damien Hugues

Karim Kara

Eric Moullard

Jean-Michel Reboul

Pierre Jourdan

Jacques Chapelet

Mickael Dauvergne

Lionel Faivre

David Morisot

Jean Michel Reboul

Frederic Badier

Frédéric Badier

Mickaël Dauvergne

An adjustment method for adjusting the heights of the nipping belts in a transport conveyor that moves flat articles in series and on edge, so that a transport height is substantially constant for the flat articles. The method causes the conveyor to operate empty in such a manner that the nipping belts of heights that are to be adjusted run without any flat article in the conveyor, emits two parallel and superposed light beams towards a belt of height to be adjusted, spaced apart by a certain distance equal to the width of the belt between the two opposite edges of the belt to be adjusted, the light beams emitted from a portable tool, and manipulate a tensioner adjusting the belt so as to move the belt heightwise while it is running empty until the two light beams intersect respective ones of the two opposite edges of the belt.

Method of adjusting the heights of the nipping belts in a transport conveyor

Storage tray for automatically unloading stacks of flat articles stacked on edge, the storage tray having panels and a bottom plate provided with slots through which moving fingers can pass for moving the edges of the flat articles away from or towards the bottom plate and for automatically unloading the flat articles from the storage tray, and for automatically loading the flat articles into the storage tray, the panels defining bearing faces suitable for receiving the flanks of the stacks of flat articles and provided with grooves in register with the ends of the slots so that the moving fingers extend beyond the stack of flat articles into the grooves so as to ensure that all of the flat articles are moved. Also a method of loading and of unloading the storage tray.

Storage tray for automatically loading and unloading stacks of flat articles on edge, and a loading and unloading method

A sorting machine for sorting mailpieces including both letters and flats comprises: a first sorting system () adapted for flats and including a first mailpiece conveyor suitable for directing the flats towards sorting outlets of the type having racks () into which the flats fall by gravity; and a second sorting system () adapted for letters and including a second mailpiece conveyor suitable for directing the letters towards sorting outlets of the type having stackers () in which the letters are stacked on edge one behind another. The two sorting systems have the same number of sorting outlets, the two systems being superposed so that the sorting outlets of the first sorting system are superposed on respective ones of the sorting outlets of the second sorting system. Each sorting outlet of the first system may be equipped with at least two racks towards each of which a flat can be directed selectively by the first conveyor.

Machine for sorting 'flats' and letters

The invention relates to a postal sorting machine () for sorting mailpieces () and separators (), which machine includes: sorting outlets (); a first unstacker (); a conveyor () for distributing said mailpieces () and said separators () between said sorting outlets (); a second unstacker () for automatically unstacking at least one separator () on the basis of at least one predetermined criterion, and for inserting it into the stream of mailpieces (), said conveyor () distributing said reinserted separator () to a certain predetermined sorting outlet (); and a stacker () for stacking separators (), which stacker is interposed between said first unstacker () and said second unstacker () for the purposes of extracting separators (), of stacking them, of storing them, and of feeding said second unstacker () automatically. The invention also relates to a sorting method using said postal sorting machine ().

Postal sorting machine for mailpieces and separators, and a method for sorting mailpieces and separators

In a method of sorting mailpieces, in which method the mailpieces sorted into the sorting outlets of a postal sorting machine are transferred from said sorting outlets to an unstacker magazine of the machine, or to an unstacker magazine of another sorting machine for the purpose of being sorted again into sorting outlets, said mailpieces are handled by means of shuttle trays of variable storage capacity for the purpose of transferring them from the sorting outlets to the unstacker magazine.

Method of sorting mailpieces by means of shuttle trays of variable storage capacity

A sorting outlet device including a support surface on which a stack of flat articles is formed by accumulation as the flat articles are inserted, accumulated, and pushed on-edge one-by-one in a main direction against a retaining element for retaining the stack, which element is provided at the front end of the stack. The support surface is mounted to be free to move in translation in the main direction, being moved synchronously with the movement of the retaining element in the main direction. The retaining element is also mounted to move relative to the frame under the effect of accumulation of said articles and associated with means of the winder or counter weight type arranged so as to exert a return force on the stack of flat articles in such a manner as to retain it. A postal sorting machine is equipped with at least one such stacker device.

Stacker device for stacking flat articles on edge, and a postal sorting machine equipped with at least one such device

A method of sorting mailpieces amongst N logical sorting destinations with a sorting machine including a mailpiece conveyor that serves M sorting outlets, each of which is provided with a removable mailpiece storage tray that is handled by a tray conveyor, where M is less than N, consists in detecting that a current mailpiece to be sorted has a certain logical destination that is said to be 'overbooked' and that is not associated with a sorting outlet, and in dynamically allocating to said overbooked logical destination a certain sorting outlet of the machine that is occupied by another logical destination. In said certain sorting outlet, a tray change is made and the tray extracted from said certain sorting outlet is put on standby on a loop of the tray conveyor.

Method of sorting mailpieces by using a process for dynamically allocating sorting outlets

In a method of sorting mailpieces in a plurality of sorting passes in a postal sorting machine () provided with sorting outlets so as to sequence the mailpieces in the sorting outlets for delivery in the order of a delivery round, delivery points defining the delivery round are grouped together into disjoint subsets of delivery points. For the various sorting passes, the delivery points of each subset are associated every time with a common sorting outlet. Statistical data () is retrieved from a memory of the machine, which data is associated with respective ones of said delivery points, and is representative of the volume of mail delivered in association with the delivery point in question, and successive delivery points are grouped together into a common subset of delivery points by taking account of said statistical data associated with said delivery points.

Method of sorting mailpieces in a low-capacity machine

The device for unloading an open-top tray filled with flat articles placed in a stack on the bottom of the tray comprises a pivot member suitable for taking hold of the tray and for tilting its opening downwards. The device further comprises: a pusher for holding the flat articles at the bottom of the tray when the tray is tilted; a shuttle box moved by a conveyor between the pivot member and a box unloading zone remote from the pivot member, the shuttle box having a bottom with back and front walls that are retractable or removable relative to the bottom; a box tilting device for tilting the box into a tilted position immediately below the tray; and a moving paddle mounted to be moveable vertically and horizontally, and designed in such a manner as to retract the front wall of the box and as to be inserted between the back wall of the box and the stack of flat articles.

Device for unloading trays using a pivot member

The method of handling mail items for preparing delivery rounds in a postal sorting machine having sorting outlets with interchangeable trays, in which in order to separate the mail items of two delivery rounds at one sorting outlet, the machine causes a tray to be changed at said sorting outlet.

Method of processing postal articles for making up and separating delivery rounds

In a method of handling mail items in a postal sorting machine, in which method the mail items pass a first time and then a second time through the machine in compliance with a sorting plan, the following steps are performed: during the first sorting pass, and for each current mail item, measuring a physical magnitude specific to the mail item, and determining an expected sequence of mail items for the second sorting pass; and, during the second sorting pass, and for each current mail item, measuring the same physical magnitude once again, and, if it is determined that said current mail item is not the item expected in said sequence, comparing the physical magnitudes as measured for the same mail item respectively during the first pass and during the second pass so as to identify the presence of mail items in multiple takes.

Method of identifying overlapping articles

A method of processing postal items in a postal sorting machine for preparing delivery rounds in a plurality of sorting passes (typically two sorting passes) includes a step that is performed during a sorting pass and for each current item, said step consisting in monitoring () data representative of an order number or rank allocated to the distribution point corresponding to the current postal item in a predetermined sequence of distribution points to be run through this sorting pass in order to prepare each delivery round, the monitoring consisting in observing how rank varies for successive postal items in order to detect any difference relative to said predetermined sequence. In response to detecting such a difference for a current item, said current item is put back into circulation through the machine in order to delay its sorting and thus recreate the expected sequence.

Postal-item processing method, including rank monitoring

A method of sorting postal items in a plurality of sorting passes in a sorting machine having sort outlets with removable trays, the method including the steps of: (i) after a first sorting pass during which the sorted items are stored in the trays, determining and storing in a memory the pass sequence in which the items are to pass through the sorting machine for the subsequent sorting pass; and (ii) during said subsequent sorting pass, while a current item to be directed towards a sort-outlet tray is passing, determining in the pass sequence the difference in rank between the current item and a next item immediately following the current item and that is to be directed to the same sort-outlet tray as the current item, and comparing the difference with a threshold for causing the sort-outlet tray to be replaced with an empty tray.

Method of sorting postal items with predictive management of sort-outlet tray replacement

In a method for sorting postal objects in a sorting machine comprising sorting outlets with movable trays for the storage of the postal objects, respective logical destinations (DL) are associated to the sorting outlets and some sorting outlets of the machine are reserved, called reserved sorting outlets, without logical destination association. In case of the detection of a tray overflowing in a sorting outlet (DP'), the postal objects intended to this overflowing sorting outlet are directed to a reserved sorting outlet (DP&#x2033;) extracted () from a logical waiting list () of reserved sorting outlets, an index is associated () to the empty tray of the reserved sorting outlet, the overflowing sorting outlet is inserted () into said waiting list and an empty tray is loaded () in the overflowing sorting outlet in the place of the full tray.

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Montelier, France

Bruno Cartal