Fairchild Industries, Inc.

Romualdas K Gruodis

Eugene D Milbradt

An apparatus for collection of articles at the discharge ends of article sorting machines, particularly a plurality of sorting machines that are arranged one above the other in elevation, and where it is desired to collect articles discharged by the multiple sorting machines at common collection points without causing damage to the articles. The article collection apparatus includes a slide which accepts articles discharged from a plurality of article sorting machines that are arranged in elevation one above the other, and guides the articles discharged from the plurality of sorting machines such that the articles are caused to follow a path that is in a direction essentially opposite to the direction of the sorting machines' transport movement and at an angle of substantially forty degrees to the horizontal, thereby causing the initial velocity imparted to the articles by the discharge action of the sorting machines to be reduced to zero, and also thereby permitting articles discharged from the plurality of sorting machines arranged one above the other to enter a common slide. The end terminus of the slide is shaped to discharge the articles horizontally into a free fall trajectory. A flexible barrier located in the path of the article trajectory causes the velocity of the articles to be reduced to zero. Beneath the flexible barrier there is a collection receptacle that receives the articles which drop after impacting the flexible barrier. The collection container may have a door located at the bottom that, when opened, permits the articles to drop onto a conveyance means for transporting the articles away from the sorting machines.

Article collection apparatus

An article stacking apparatus for stacking flat randomly shaped articles and the like including a movable article transporter, inclined slides located beneath the transporter, and containers having three sides and an open top located at the lower end of the slides. The transporter, slides and the containers are uniquely configured to minimize the impact velocity of the article with the slide and to permit the random articles to be placed in a stack that has two flush sides. Elevators are provided for adjusting the height of the containers in accordance with the height of the stack, and sensors are provided which detect the height of the stack and feed appropriate signals to an elevator control circuit which controls the elevators.

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Mt. Airy, MD, United States of America

Romualdas K Gruodis