Rapistan Demag Corporation

Teodoro Ceglia

Artemio Affaticati

Claudio Cerutti

The present application discloses a method and apparatus for conveying parcels on a plurality of transport units (32) moving in a conveying path (30) between an induction station (26) and a discharge station (28). The invention provides the ability to handle parcels having a length greater than the length of a single transport unit by providing the ability to induct such parcel onto two contiguous transport units (32) and to discharge the parcel from the two contiguous transport units to a selected receiving port (46). For longer parcels, having a length greater than a given length, the parcel is inducted to two contiguous transport units by operating the induction belts and the carrier belts of the two contiguous transport units in a manner which positions the parcel on the two transport units. The carrier belts of the two transport units are operated in a manner that rotates longer parcels, having a length greater than the given length, in order to position the parcel on the two transport units. Crossbelt sortation system (25) is provided with a transport unit test station (96) that is positioned adjacent to the conveying path. The purpose of the test station is to test movement of the carrier belt associated with individual ones of the transport units passing the test station. Each of the transport units (32) includes a magnet (204a, 204b) that moves in proportion to the linear speed of the carrier belt (36) associated with that transport unit. The test station includes a sensor (200) that senses the magnet of a transport unit passing the test station. The sensor includes at least one Hall-effect cell (208a, 208b) and a magnetic antenna (210) coupled with the Hall-effect cell.

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Turin, Italy

Teodoro Ceglia