Order filling system
First Claim
1. A method of grouping items to fill orders comprising the steps of:
- (a) positioning a plurality of item dispensers along a conveyor;
(b) loading each dispenser with a single type of item, said dispensers collectively being loaded with a variety of types of items;
(c) conveying an item receptacle bin past said dispensers, said bin being associated with an order for various quanties of said items;
(d) detecting the presence of said bin at each of selected dispensers which are loaded with items defined by the order associated with said bin by the steps of;
(1) ascertaining the position of each dispenser along said conveyor in terms of an offset distance equal to a number of increments of conveyor travel of a selected length from a first reference point on said conveyor;
(2) constructing an order table in a computer memory for each bin, said order table including an offset entry corresponding to the offset distance of each dispenser of items required by said order; and
(3) decrementing each offset entry of said table in response to each increment of travel of said bin; and
(e) dispensing a required quantity of items from a dispenser in response to the offset entry associated with said dispenser being decremented to a selected value.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An order filling apparatus includes an elongated belt conveyor having a bin-on switch and a bin-off switch at opposite ends thereof. A plurality of item dispensers are positioned along the conveyor, and each dispenser is loaded with a single type of item. An order filling control computer has a bus cable extending along the conveyor, and each dispenser has a dispenser control board connected to the bus. Each control board includes an address decoder and circuitry for relaying command signals from the controller to the dispenser and for generating status signals indicating the operational status of the dispenser. A conveyor travel encoder provides a position signal indicative of conveyor travel. The controller stores orders to be filled with items. An order filling method includes a conveying item receptacle bins past the dispensers to receive items therefrom. As each bin engages the bin-on switch, an order is activated and associated with the bin. The controller is operative to track each bin on the conveyor, detect the presence of each bin at a dispenser loaded with items called for by the order associated therewith, control the dispenser to dispense a quantity of items required by the associated order, detect whether each attempt to dispense an item actually occurs, deactivate each order as the associated bin engages the bin-off switch, and effect the printing of a report listing any items which were called for but not dispensed.
126 Citations
23 Claims
-
1. A method of grouping items to fill orders comprising the steps of:
-
(a) positioning a plurality of item dispensers along a conveyor; (b) loading each dispenser with a single type of item, said dispensers collectively being loaded with a variety of types of items; (c) conveying an item receptacle bin past said dispensers, said bin being associated with an order for various quanties of said items; (d) detecting the presence of said bin at each of selected dispensers which are loaded with items defined by the order associated with said bin by the steps of; (1) ascertaining the position of each dispenser along said conveyor in terms of an offset distance equal to a number of increments of conveyor travel of a selected length from a first reference point on said conveyor; (2) constructing an order table in a computer memory for each bin, said order table including an offset entry corresponding to the offset distance of each dispenser of items required by said order; and (3) decrementing each offset entry of said table in response to each increment of travel of said bin; and (e) dispensing a required quantity of items from a dispenser in response to the offset entry associated with said dispenser being decremented to a selected value. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. An order filling system grouping items of orders comprising:
-
(a) an elongated conveyor including a conveyor motor; (b) a conveyor travel encoder operatively associated with said conveyor and providing a signal pulse for each increment of conveyor travel length of an article on said conveyor; (c) a plurality of item receptacle bins positioned on said conveyor for movement, each bin being associated with an order for a variety of items; (d) a bin-on switch defining a first reference point on said conveyor and engaged by a bin upon entry upon said conveyor and a bin-off switch defining a second reference point on said conveyor and engaged by a bin upon exiting said conveyor; (e) a plurality of item dispensers positioned along said conveyor, each dispenser being positioned at a selected dispenser offset distance equal to the number of said conveyor travel increments between said dispenser and said first reference point;
each dispsenser being loaded with a single type of item and including a dispenser motor which is selectively operable to dispense items into bits on said conveyor;(f) an order filling controller including a digital computer with a memory and interconnected with said conveyor travel encoder, said bin-on switch, said bin-off switch, and the dispenser motors; and (g) said computer being programmed to; (1) associate each bin with an order for quantities of items dispensed by selected dispensers, upon said bin engaging said bin-on switch ; (2) construct an order table in said memory for each order including an associated offset distance for each of said selected dispensers of said order; (3) decrement each of the offset entries of the order tables associated with each of the bins positioned on said conveyor between said first and second reference points for each signal pulse from said conveyor travel encoder; and (4) command said controller to dispense a preselected quantity of items from selected dispenser into a bin in response to the offset entry associated with said selected dispenser in the order table associated with said bin being decremented to a selected value. - View Dependent Claims (12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
13. (a) said bins are conveyed on said conveyor in substantially touching end-to-end relationship.
-
23. An order filling system for grouping items of orders comprising:
-
(a) an elongated conveyor including a conveyor motor; (b) a conveyor encoder operatively associated with said conveyor and provided a position signal indicative of the position of articles on said conveyor; (c) a plurality of item receptacle bins positioned for movement on said conveyor, each bin being associated with an order for a variety of items; (d) a bin-on indicator providing a bin-on signal indicative of the entry of a bin onto said conveyor; (e) a plurality of item dispensers positioned along said conveyor, each dispenser being loaded with a single type of item and including a dispenser motor which is selectively operable to dispense items into said bins on said conveyor; (f) each dispenser motor including an extendible ram, said ram being selectively extended to effect the dispensing of an item; (g) each dispenser including a ram position indicator connected to said controller and operative to provide a ram position signal indicatvie of the position of said ram relative to said dispenser motor, said ram position indicator including; (1) a Hall effect device operatively positioned on one of said dispenser motor and said ram; and (2) a magnet operatively positioned on the other of said dispenser motor and said ram whereby the location of a magnetic field of said magnet is changed relative to the position of said Hall effect device in response to a change of the position of said ram relative to said dispenser motor; and (h) an order filling controller interconnected with said conveyor motor, said encoder, said bin-on indicator, and the dispenser motors and operative to detect the presence of each bin at selected dispensers loaded with items called for by the order associated with said bin and to effect the dispensing of quantities of items from said selected dispensers as called for by the associated order.
-
Specification