Transporter/sorter and transport box

• US 20060045673A1
• Filed: 06/29/2005
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Yoshitani, Kazuhito
• Granted Patent: US 7,565,966 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 414/276
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 3/08 using arrangements of conveyors transport of sheets B65H; transport in general B65G
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 17/12 comprising a series of individual load-carriers fixed, or normally fixed, relative to traction element
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 17/22 with oppositely-moving parts of the conveyor located in a common plane and being formed by individual load carriers only
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 17/36 having concave surfaces, e.g. buckets
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/02 Devices for feeding articles or materials to conveyors
• CPC Class Codes: B65G 47/38 by dumping, tripping, or releasing load carriers by flexing or tilting travelling structures B65G47/94

Abstract

A transporter/sorter and a transport box therefore are disclosed. The transporter/sorter 1 comprises a guide rail 50 having straight portions and curved portions and forming an endless loop path, a plurality of transport wagons 30 undergoing excursion along the endless loop path in an inter-coupled state, and transport boxes 20 supported on the transport wagons 30, respectively, in a state of being found on the outer side of the guide rail 50.

Claims

1. A transporter/sorter comprising:

a guide rail having straight portions and curved portions and forming an endless loop path;

a plurality of transport wagons supported for movement and undergoing excursion along the endless loop path in an inter-coupled state; and

transport boxes supported on the transport wagons, respectively, in a state of being found on the outer side of the guide rails.

2. The transporter/sorter according to claim 1, wherein each of the transport wagons supports the side surface of each transport box on the inner side thereof.

3. The transporter/sorter according to claim 1, wherein each of the transport boxes has a shock-absorbing member provided on the front or rear surface.

4. The transporter/sorter according to claim 1, wherein each of the transport boxes has a plurality of accommodating chambers.

5. The transporter/sorter according to claim 1, wherein each of the transport boxes is supported in an inclined state in the progress direction or the counter-progress direction.

6. The transporter/sorter according to claim 1, wherein the guide rail has a rail groove formed on the side surface of the outer side.

7. A transport box for receiving transport articles fed from a feeding port of an accommodating chamber, wherein the transport-direction width of a feeding space in the accommodating chamber increases toward the feeding port.

8. A transport box according to claim 7, wherein the transport box has two or more accommodating chambers, and feeding ports for adjacent accommodating chambers are provided at the opposite sides.

12. The transport box according to claim 7, wherein the transport-direction width of the feeding spaces in the accommodating chambers is different depending on the transport articles.

13. The transport box according to claim 7, wherein each of the accommodating chambers has a discharging means for discharging the fed transport articles.

14. A transporter/sorter comprising a frame having a sorting-out frame and a feeding frame, a guide rail provided inside the frame and in the form of an endless loop having straight portions and curved portions, and a plurality of transport boxes hung from the guide rail and undergoing excursion along the endless loop path, wherein:

the transport boxes are the transport boxes according to claim 7.

9. A transport box for receiving transport articles fed from a feeding port of an accommodating chamber, comprising:

a feeding accommodating part provided in an upper part of the accommodating chamber and having a feeding space with a large transport-direction width;

two or more discharging accommodating parts disposed in a lower part of the accommodating chamber and partitioned from one another in the transport direction; and

a guide means for selectively causing the transport articles fed to the feeding accommodating part to fall into predetermined one(s) of the discharging accommodating parts.

10. A transport box for receiving transport articles fed from a feeding port in an accommodating chamber, comprising:

a first accommodating chamber disposed in an upper part of the transport box and having a feeding accommodating part formed with a feeding space having a large transport-direction width and a discharging accommodating part disposed in an upper part of the feeding accommodating part and having a transport-direction width smaller than the transport-direction width of the feeding space, the transport articles being accommodated in or passing through the discharging accommodating part; and

a second accommodating chamber disposed side-by-side with the discharging accommodating part in the first accommodating chamber and having a feeding space larger than the transport-direction width.

11. A transport box for receiving transport articles fed from feeding ports in accommodating chambers, comprising:

one or more partitioning members each partitioning adjacent ones of the accommodating chambers and revolved to increase the transport-direction width of the feeding spaces in the accommodating chambers; and

revolving means for selectively causing the partitioning members to revolve.

15. A transporter/sorter comprising a plurality of transport boxes undergoing circulation along an endless loop path and feeding units for feeding transport articles to the transport boxes, wherein each of the feeding units comprises:

a feeding means for feeding transport boxes to each transport box, and

a parallel-driving means for driving the feeding means in parallel with the transport box.

16. The transporter/sorter according to claim 15, wherein the feeding means comprises:

a receiving space for receiving the transport articles while being driven by parallel-driving; and

a transport belt provided between a receiving side and a discharging side of the receiving space and transporting the received transport articles to the discharging port side.

17. The transporter/sorter according to claims 15, wherein the feeding means is provided with a discharging belt for discharging the transport articles.

18. The transporter/sorter according to claim 15, wherein the feeding means comprises:

a receiving space for receiving the transport articles while being driven by parallel-driving; and

a transporting/discharging belt provided between a receiving port side and a discharging port side of the receiving space and serving to transport the received transport articles to the discharging port side and discharge the transport articles.

19. The transporter/sorter according to claim 15, wherein the feeding means comprises:

a parallel-driving guide forming an endless loop path; and

a plurality of parallel-driving wagons supported for movement on the parallel-driving guide rail, and undergoing excursion along the endless loop path and supporting the feeding means in an inter-coupled state.

20. The transporter/sorter according to claim 19, wherein the parallel-driving guide rail has a parallel-driving feeding area constituted by a straight portion.

21. The transporter/sorter according to claim 17, wherein the discharging belt or the discharging port side thereof is revolved in the parallel-driving direction upon reception of an external force.

22. A trolley type transporter/sorter comprising:

an outer and an inner guide rails facing each other and disposed side-by-side in the horizontal direction and forming an endless loop path; and

a plurality of transport boxes supported for movement on the outer and inner guide rails and undergoing circulation along the endless loop path in an inter-coupled state for revolution on the inner side of the endless loop path.

23. The trolley type transporter/sorter according to claim 22, wherein each of the transport boxes has feeding rollers rolling on the outer and inner guide rails.

24. The trolley type transporter/sorter according to claim 22, wherein each of the transport boxes has partitioning members for partitioning the accommodating chamber and a revolving means for revolving the partitioning members to increase the transport-direction width of a feeding space in the accommodating chamber.

25. The trolley type transporter/sorter according to claim 24, wherein the revolving means is locked at a predetermined position in a state that the partitioning members are biased in the transport direction.

26. The trolley type transporter/sorter according to claim 24, wherein the revolving means comprises a coupling member for rotatably coupling the partitioning members, and an upper roller and a lower roller for vertically clamping the support rail and rotatably supporting the partitioning members.

27. The trolley type transporter/sorter according to claim 26, wherein the support rail is upwardly curved with respect to the feeding means.

28. The trolley type transporter/sorter according to claim 27, wherein the support rail comprises an outer guide rail and an inner guide rail.