Lockheed Martin Corporation

Lockhead Martin Corp.

Willson L Mayerberg, Ii

Joe C Bollinger

Jack E Olson

Randall E White

William Wheeler

A new and improved mail sorting system, which is able to dramatically increase the throughput sorting volume of mail pieces or articles, comprises the incorporation of a plurality of cross-circulation path (CCP) conveyors within a conventional looped or folded conveyor belt system whereby, in effect, mail pieces or articles can be effectively removed from primary conveyor flow path sections so as to create gaps or spaces upon the primary conveyor flow path sections into which additional mail pieces or articles can be introduced through means of a second input or infeed port. In addition, a plurality of the new and improved mail sorting systems can be integrated together into a multi-system mail sorting system wherein off-shoot or auxiliary outfeed conveyor belt sections can feed pieces or articles of mail from any particular one of the mail sorting systems to the second input or infeed ports of the other mail sorting systems so as to render the overall system still more efficient.

Cross circulation mail sorter stacker design with dual ported input, and method of operating the same

Objects such as pieces of mail are stacked without significant contact therewith by producing laminar air flow over a surface which defines or parallels a desired movement path for the objects. The objects are placed and form a barrier between the laminar air flow and ambient air and movement such as turning an edge of the object to prevent impact on other objects and regulation of direction velocity an kinetic energy of the motion of the objects is regulated by the Coanda effect of the laminar flow. The object thus provides an acoustic barrier to reduce generation and propagation of noise by the high pressure air used to create the laminar flow. An air amplifier reduces the volume of high pressure air required to provide control of object motion.

Non-contact aerodynamic diverter/stacker insertion system

A new and improved article or mail-piece conveyor system has a vacuum plenum system integrally incorporated therein which effectively withdraws ambient air ahead or downstream of the oncoming conveyed articles or mail pieces such that the oncoming conveyed articles or mail pieces will not be subjected to tip vortices and/or other disruptive aerodynamic forces. In this manner, the articles or mail pieces will not be subjected to destabilizing aerodynamic circulation, currents, downflow, downwash, or momentum forces so as not to, in turn, exhibit flutter, fluctuations, or oscillation movements. Accordingly, extremely high speed conveyance of the articles or mail pieces, within the range of, for example, two hundred inches per second (200 ips) can in fact be achieved.

Vacuum plenum system for facilitating the high-speed conveyance of mail pieces

Objects such as pieces of mail are stacked without making significant mechanical contact with the objects by an apparatus producing a laminar flow of air over a surface which defines or parallels the desired path of movement for the objects. The objects are placed to form a barrier between the laminar air flow and ambient air so that movement, such as turning an edge of the object to prevent impact on other objects and regulation of direction velocity and kinetic energy of the motion of the objects, may be guided by the Coanda effect of the laminar flow of air. The placement of the objects thus provides an acoustic barrier to reduce the generation and propagation of noise by the high pressure air used to create the laminar flow of air. An air amplifier reduces the volume of high pressure air required to control the movement of the objects.

An article or mail-piece conveyor system comprises a conveyor mechanism which has a substantially horizontally oriented product transportation surface upon which the articles can be conveyed in an upstanding mode as a result of the articles effectively being supported upon lower edge portions thereof, and an inclined surface against which the major or primary surface portions of each article is supported so as to permit the articles to be readily and easily conveyed by means of the horizontally oriented product transportation surface. Vacuum plenum chambers are fluidically connected to the inclined surface so as to withdraw ambient air from the article transportation path and thereby maintain the articles attracted to the inclined surface of the product transportation system, and in addition, positive air plenum chambers are also fluidically connected to the inclined surface so as to provide air to the article transportation path so as to effectively form an air bearing structure for the articles so as to facilitate the smooth and easy transportation of the articles along the transportation flow path in a relatively frictionless manner. Air discharge ports also facilitate the routing or sorting of the articles or mail pieces.

Conveyor system having inclined structure utilizing vacuum and air bearing means for facilitating edgewise product transportation

An object arresting device prevents rebounding effects when an object is decelerated from a high velocity by causing an impact-induced flow of fluid such as ambient air through a lattice membrane to develop vacuum effects and vortex activity while absorbing and dissipating energy to prevent damage to the object and preventing collisions between objects in a high-speed, high-capacity sorting/transport system. The lattice membrane is preferably formed as a woven fabric of a smooth polymer or synthetic fiber of preferably circular cross-section which causes laminar flow over the fibers and rotational vortex effects in the corners of each aperture which produce a combination of vacuum effects in a direction to oppose rebound motion and energy dissipation effects. The effects produced are proportional to the impact energy and the device is thus adaptive to a wide range of mass and energy limited only by the forces the device can mechanically withstand.

Mass and impact energy adaptive compensating converter

A conveyor system for synchronously combining the conveying paths of at least two asynchronously operated upstream conveyors for synchronized merger into at least one downstream conveyor comprises a synchronizing conveyor belt disposed upstream of the merger point of the at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors. When articles, such as, for example, postal mail pieces being conveyed along the at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors are detected as being likely to undergo a collision or overlap at the merge point of the at least two upstream asynchronously operated conveyors, the synchronizing conveyor belt is appropriately sped up or slowed down so as to not only avoid such interference, collision, or overlap of the postal mail pieces, but in addition, to provide sufficient spacing of the same upon the at least one downstream conveyor.

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Skiatook, OK, United States of America

Willson L Mayerberg, Ii