TRAY HANDLING SYSTEM AND PROCESS
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A device for sequencing trays, comprising:
- a tray receiving conveyor which receives trays outputted from bin locations positioned remotely from one or more input feeders; and
a recirculating conveyor buffer system having one or more merge locations, and being configured to recirculate staged trays and coordinate merging of the staged trays with newly ejected trays received from the bin locations into a multiple of sequenced trays at the one or more merge locations.
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Abstract
A device and method for sequencing trays includes a tray receiving conveyor and a recirculating conveyor. Trays are placed on the recirculating conveyor and merged with ejected trays into a multiple of sequenced trays at one or more merge locations. The system can include more than one merge location, with one of the merge locations providing a merge of trays into a contiguous sequence of trays.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A device for sequencing trays, comprising:
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a tray receiving conveyor which receives trays outputted from bin locations positioned remotely from one or more input feeders; and a recirculating conveyor buffer system having one or more merge locations, and being configured to recirculate staged trays and coordinate merging of the staged trays with newly ejected trays received from the bin locations into a multiple of sequenced trays at the one or more merge locations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of sequencing trays, comprising the steps of:
placing at least one tray from any of a plurality of bin locations positioned remotely from one or more input feeders into a flow path in response to a first triggering event; recirculating the at least one tray to a merging location; placing at least one other tray from any of the plurality of bin locations in the flow path in response to a second triggering event; and merging the at least one tray and the at least one other tray into sequence as they pass the merging location. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A mail sorting system, comprising:
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at least one mail feeder feeding mail to trays located in bin locations comprising a working area and at least one queued area; a tray receiving conveyor which receives the trays ejected from the at least one queued area in response to a triggering and qualification event; a recirculating conveyor buffer system, including; at least two merge locations; at least two diverting locations downstream from the at least two merge locations, respectively, and a conveying system leading to the at least one mail feeder or an output; and a controller coordinating controlled movement of the trays ejected during different processing operations from the at least one queued area as they pass through the at least two merge locations and the at least two diverting locations in order to sequence the trays into a sequence at a second of the at least two merge locations. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A machine readable medium containing code for merging, in sequence, trays, comprising at least one module for:
placing at least one tray from any of a plurality of bin locations positioned remotely from one or more input feeders into a flow path in response to a triggering event; recirculating the at least one tray to a merging location; placing at least one other tray from any of the plurality of bin locations in the flow path in response to the triggering event; and merging the at least one tray and the at least one other tray into sequence as they pass the merging location.
Specification