Article sorter with active discharge
First Claim
Patent Images
1. An article sortation system, comprising:
- an article sorter having an article support surface moving in a longitudinal direction,a plurality of discharge conveyors extending from said article support surface, wherein said sorter comprises diverters that are adapted to initially displace an article on said article support surface without rotating that article then continue to displace that article to discharge that article from said article support surface to one of said discharge conveyors; and
wherein at least one of said discharge conveyors comprises a driven surface made up of plurality of generally parallel driven conveying lanes, at least one of said driven conveying lanes having a high-friction conveying surface and an adjacent one of said driven conveying lanes having a low-friction conveying surface, wherein said high-friction conveying surface having a coefficient of friction that is higher than a coefficient of friction of said low-friction conveying surface.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An article sortation system and method of sorting articles includes an article sorter having an article support surface moving in a longitudinal direction and a plurality of discharge conveyors extending from the article support surface. The sorter is adapted to discharge articles from the article support surface to said discharge conveyors. One or more of the discharge conveyors includes an active aligner having a driven surface that is adapted to reorient at least some of the diverted articles.
-
Citations
10 Claims
-
1. An article sortation system, comprising:
-
an article sorter having an article support surface moving in a longitudinal direction, a plurality of discharge conveyors extending from said article support surface, wherein said sorter comprises diverters that are adapted to initially displace an article on said article support surface without rotating that article then continue to displace that article to discharge that article from said article support surface to one of said discharge conveyors; and wherein at least one of said discharge conveyors comprises a driven surface made up of plurality of generally parallel driven conveying lanes, at least one of said driven conveying lanes having a high-friction conveying surface and an adjacent one of said driven conveying lanes having a low-friction conveying surface, wherein said high-friction conveying surface having a coefficient of friction that is higher than a coefficient of friction of said low-friction conveying surface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
-
-
9. A method of sorting articles, comprising:
-
supporting articles with an article sorter having an article support surface moving in a longitudinal direction, discharging articles to a plurality of discharge conveyors extending from said article support surface, including initially displacing an article on said article support surface with a diverter without rotating that article then continuing to displace that article to discharge that article from said article support surface to one of said discharge conveyors; and wherein at least one of said discharge conveyors comprises a driven surface made up of plurality of generally parallel driven conveying lanes, at least one of said driven conveying lanes having a high-friction conveying surface and at least one of said driven conveying lanes adjacent to said high-friction conveying surface having a low-friction conveying surface, wherein said high-friction conveying surface having a coefficient of friction that is higher than a coefficient of friction of said low-friction conveying surface. - View Dependent Claims (10)
-
Specification