Rapistan Systems Advertising Corp.

Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc.

Mannesmann Dematic Rapistan Corp.

Rapistan Demag Corporation

Ricardo N Schiesser

Douglas E Olson

David H Cotter

Gary P Burns

Bernard H Woltjer

Dennis J Schuitema

Gerald A Brouwer

Curtis E LeMay

Phillip J Gilmore

Michele Vitalini

John I McCort

Richard J Micheletti

Ernie A Romeo

W Scott Kalm

Robert L Stone

Charles R DeVries

Arthur J Terpstra, Jr

Jeffrey D Price

Jesse Eugene Cornwell

John Stafford

Dick D Brinkley

James C Burrous

Jack W Tomanek

A system and method for manipulating articles includes providing a bed having at least one conveying surface. The conveying surface is adapted to move articles in a direction of conveyance from an upstream end to a downstream end of the bed. At least one sensor is provided to determine the position of any articles on the bed. Selected articles are moved in the direction of conveyance at a speed that is generally higher than articles traveling on the bed that have yet to be manipulated and the articles are selectively rotated.

Conveyor system with distributed article manipulation

A method for handling trays for use with an article sorter includes providing a conveying surface along a plurality of sorter units and conveying empty trays along the conveying surface. The empty trays that are being conveyed along the conveying surface are stopped with a tray stopping device that is positioned at least partially below the conveying surface and operable to project a portion of the tray stopping device above the conveying surface to engage and stop an empty tray. The stopped empty trays are moved from the conveying surface to the tray support areas in a direction generally transverse to the conveying surface. The empty trays are at least partially filled at the tray support areas, and the partially filled trays are moved from the tray support area onto the conveying surface.

Automatic tray handling system for sorter

A method and apparatus for sequencing articles via a single sort pass or process includes a plurality of article receivers or collators positioned along a conveying or transport path and a plurality of carriages movable along the path. The carriages receive articles from at least one induct in a generally random manner and discharge the articles at the appropriate collators. The collators are operable to selectively receive the articles at an appropriate one of a plurality of bins of the collators, such that the articles are positioned within the bins of the collators in a sequenced manner. The articles may be unloaded to a plurality of collecting devices and/or manually unloaded and placed or stacked in a container in the desired sequence. The collecting devices may be manually unloaded while the collators simultaneously selectively receive articles during a subsequent sort wave or process.

Single pass sequencing assembly

An automatic tray handling system for use with an article or mail sortation system, such as a flats mail sortation system, is operable to automatically remove filled or partially filled trays from individual sorter units and to replenish the sorter units with empty trays. The empty trays and/or filled trays are moved along at least one conveying surface adjacent to the sorter units. The automatic tray handling system includes a plurality of tray moving devices, which are operable to move the empty trays from the conveying surface to the sorter units, whereby the trays are at least partially filled by the sorter units. The tray moving devices are then further operable to move the at least partially filled trays from the sorter units to a conveying surface, whereby the filled trays may be conveyed to downstream operations, such as an automatic labeling station. Preferably, the empty trays are movable in a continuous loop about the mail sortation system. The automatic tray handling system may include an upper and lower conveying surface and a vertical tray moving device, which is operable to lower empty trays from the upper conveying surface to the lower, empty tray-conveying surface, whereby the empty trays are returned to an upstream end of the conveying surface along the sorter units. The empty trays may be conveyed along the conveying surfaces and may be moved into a proper position for filling at an appropriate one of the multiple sorter units positioned therealong.

A tray destacker is operable to separate individual trays from a stack of trays and to discharge the individual trays. The tray destacker includes a tray separating device which engages an edge or handle of the individual tray and moves the tray away from the stack of trays, while a tray retaining device engages a next tray adjacent to the individual tray and retains the remaining trays of the stack. The tray separating device may be biased toward an engaging position so as to engage the individual tray when the trays and the tray separating device are in an appropriate position relative to one another. The tray retaining device may also be biased to engage the next tray and may release the next tray in response to the tray separating device returning to the stack of trays to remove the next tray from the stack.

Tray destacker

An extendable conveyor has an extendable conveyor section supported in a cantilevered manner including at least one extendable conveyor unit that is extendable between an extended position and a retracted position nested within the extendable conveyor section. The conveyor further includes a user interface section supported in a cantilevered manner from the extendable conveyor unit.

Extendable trailer loader/unloader with user interface section

A self-driven roller shaft support for supporting a shaft end of a self-driven conveyor roller at a conveyor is interconnectable to the shaft end and to the conveyor. The conveyor includes a frame and a plurality of passive conveyor rollers driven by the self-driven conveyor roller. The self-driven conveyor roller has an axis of rotation extending longitudinally along the self-driven roller between the shaft end and an opposite shaft end. The shaft support is pivotable to move the opposite shaft end of the self-driven conveyor roller relative to the frame in a generally vertical plane.

Axle holding yoke for conveyor roller

A lift assembly for raising and lowering a load includes a first member, which is adapted for resting on a reference surface, and a second member, which defines a support surface for supporting a load. The lift assembly also includes a drive assembly, which selectively moves the second member relative to the first member from an initial position to a final position to raise or lower the second member relative to the first member. The drive assembly is adapted to move the second member from the initial position at a progressively increasing speed to an intermediate position and after which at a progressively decreasing speed until the second member is moved to the final position.

Conveyor transfer lift box

An article separation conveyor system includes a plurality of conveyors which are independently and/or collectively operable to destack, separate and/or align articles being conveyed along the article separation conveyor. The conveyor system includes a destacking conveyor, a side by side eliminating conveyor and/or an aligning conveyor. The destacking conveyor includes a plurality of conveying portions, which are inclined to convey articles up and then drop or guide them onto the next adjacent conveyor. The side-by-side eliminating conveyor includes a pair of diverting members and is operable to redirect articles from one side of the conveyor to the other to destack and separate articles as they are continuously conveyed along the conveyor. The aligning conveyor is operable to align articles along one side of the discharge conveyor so the articles are arranged for identification at a downstream scanning device and induction onto a sortation system.

Article separation conveyor

An automatic tray-handling system for use with a mail sorter ( ) having a plurality of tray supporters, comprises a transporter ( ) having a conveying surface ( ) and an insertion/extraction assembly ( ); and respective feed ( ) and discharge conveyors ( ) adapted to feed empty trays ( ) to the transporter conveying surface ( ) and receiving at least partially full trays ( ) from the transporter conveying surface. The insertion/extraction assembly ( ) is adapted to insert empty trays ( ) to tray support areas and remove at least partially full trays ( ) from tray support areas. The conveying surface operational is adapted to receive empty trays ( ) from the feed conveyor ( ) and at least partially full trays ( ) from the insertion/extraction assembly ( ). Moreover from the conveying surface empty trays are dischargeable to the insertion/extraction assembly ( ) and to the discharge conveyor ( ).

A shaft support for supporting a shaft end of a conveyor roller is pivotable about an axis extending generally along the direction of conveyance of a conveyor, such that the support may pivot to accommodate a change in vertical positioning of one or both ends of the roller. The shaft support may also be pivotable about a generally vertical axis in order to also accommodate skewed rollers mounted at an angle not perpendicular to the direction of conveyance. Because the shaft support is pivotable about the axis extending in the direction of conveyance, the shaft support simplifies the installation and removal of the motorized roller, while providing for a roller does not require a spring loaded shaft or axle. The roller may thus be a low cost roller which may be easily installed and removed from the conveyor.

An extendable trailer for loading and unloading items from a truck trailer, or other type of transportation unit, includes a user interface section. The user interface section is cantilever supported and both longitudinally and horizontally movable. The user interface section is attached to a mechanically extendable section that includes a conveying surface separate from the conveying surface of the user interface section. The user interface section may be vertically pivotable and may include a locking system which allows longitudinal movement of the user interface section only when the mechanically extendable section is in a fully retracted position. A cable retracting unit is positioned on the mechanically extendable section adjacent the user interface section and takes up slack in the power cable supplying power to the user interface section.

An active high volume storage and retrieval system provides an improved accumulator and package transfer devices. The storage and retrieval system includes a storage carousel having a plurality of spaced apart, horizontal storage tiers and a lift having a plurality of article supports for supporting articles to be delivered to or to be received from the storage carousel. A first conveyor is provided which delivers articles to the article supports of the lift assembly. A second conveyor is provided which receives articles from the article supports of the lift assembly. A first article transfer device is disposed adjacent the lift, which includes a plurality of injection pushers for pushing containers from the storage supports of the lift onto storage tiers of the carousel. A second article transfer device disposed adjacent the carousel. The second article transfer device includes a driver beam and a plurality of ejection pushers, with each ejection pusher aligned with one of the article supports. The driver beam is adapted for movement between a first position and a second position. The ejection pushers are releasably coupled to the driver beam such that when the driver beam is moved to the second position any of the ejection pushers, which are coupled to the driver beam, push the article on the associated storage tier onto one of the article supports. Preferably, at least one of the ejection pushers is selectively, releasably coupled to the driver beam by a magnetic coupler. More preferably, the ejection pushers are selectively, releasably coupled to the driver beam by an electromagnetic coupler. In this manner, the ejection pushers may be selectively driven by the driver beam to push selected articles from the carousel to the lift.

Growing community of inventors

Rockford, MI, United States of America

Ricardo N Schiesser