Siemens Aktiengesellschaft

Christoph Hofmann

Peter Berdelle-Hilge

Josef Mok

Armin Zimmermann

Michele Vitalini

Uwe Maertin

Oliver Schitthelm

Alexander Schnurr

Juergen Braun

A conveyor chute is suitable for use as a store for goods, such as packages and pieces of luggage. The conveyor chute has at least one sliding section with an inclined sliding surface with a direction of fall along the sliding surface as well as a sliding width. The sliding section has a width adjusting mechanism which allows the goods to be distributed across at least part of the sliding width and which thus allows the conveyor chute to be used in an improved manner for storing the goods.

Conveyor chute comprising a width adjusting mechanism

Apparatus for handling and sorting packages

The present invention relates to an input unit of a letter sorting system which comprises separable first and second conveyor lines. The first line is positioned proximate to an isolating device which processes letters. The first line comprises a conveyor surface and supporting wall along with a linear guide which extends beyond the surface. On the linear guide runs a separating blade. The second line also comprises a conveyor surface and supporting wall along with a linear guide, however this linear guide does not run beyond the length of the second conveyor line supporting surface. At least one second separating blades run on the second conveyor line linear guide. In operation, letters are placed on the second conveyor supporting surface from bins. The placement may be in a select order. The second conveyor line is then brought proximate to the first conveyor line where the two are then coupled. The conveyor surfaces of the two lines substantially mate so as to facilitate transported by a separating blade of the letters from the second to the first conveyor line and then to the isolating unit for processing.

Input unit of a letter sorting system and method for loading the input unit

The invention relates to a device and a method for loading the input unit of a letter sorting system with letters that are stood on their edges. The device comprises of at least one stack receiving device which is located on a carriage and which can receive a stack of letters at a given location. The device comprise a stack base which can be moved beyond the carriage in the direction of the stack, horizontally, and one or two separating blades which hold the stack. The blades can be displaced along the stack base and can rotate in and out of the stack receiving device. The dimensions and the height of the stack receiving device are configured in such a way that the stack base can be moved onto the letter conveyor line with the separating blade(s) of the stack receiving device and urged to the input unit.

Device and method for loading the input unit of a letter sorting system

A method and a device form a scaled flow of overlapped articles from a flow of individual, flat and elastic articles, e.g. for stacking, without the following articles impacting with the rear edges of the preceding articles. In order to achieve a high flow rate, independent of the article length, the respectively preceding article remains during the overlapping in a locally fixed position until the supplied, respectively following article impacts from the side with the preceding article in accordance with the predetermined overlapping length. Following this, the two articles as well as all previous articles are jointly transported further until the rear edge of the now last, preceding article has reached the locally fixed position according to the predetermined overlapping length.

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Salem, Germany

Christoph Hofmann