Single pass sequencing assembly
First Claim
1. A single pass sequencing assembly for automatically sorting and sequencing articles to an unloading station in a sequenced manner comprising:
- a transport mechanism for transporting articles, said transport mechanism having at least one discharge chute for discharging the articles; and
at least one article receiver for selectively receiving articles from said at least one discharge chute of said transport mechanism, said at least one article receiver having a plurality of bins, said at least one article receiver being movable along a longitudinal axis of said at least one article receiver, said at least one article receiver being selectively movable in either direction along said longitudinal axis to selectively align a selected one of said bins with said at least one discharge chute, said at least one article receiver selectively receiving articles in said bins such that the articles are received and sequenced in said at least one article receiver at a delivery point sequence after a single sort pass.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for sequencing articles via a single sort pass or process includes a plurality of article receivers or collators positioned along a conveying or transport path and a plurality of carriages movable along the path. The carriages receive articles from at least one induct in a generally random manner and discharge the articles at the appropriate collators. The collators are operable to selectively receive the articles at an appropriate one of a plurality of bins of the collators, such that the articles are positioned within the bins of the collators in a sequenced manner. The articles may be unloaded to a plurality of collecting devices and/or manually unloaded and placed or stacked in a container in the desired sequence. The collecting devices may be manually unloaded while the collators simultaneously selectively receive articles during a subsequent sort wave or process.
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Citations
55 Claims
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1. A single pass sequencing assembly for automatically sorting and sequencing articles to an unloading station in a sequenced manner comprising:
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a transport mechanism for transporting articles, said transport mechanism having at least one discharge chute for discharging the articles; and at least one article receiver for selectively receiving articles from said at least one discharge chute of said transport mechanism, said at least one article receiver having a plurality of bins, said at least one article receiver being movable along a longitudinal axis of said at least one article receiver, said at least one article receiver being selectively movable in either direction along said longitudinal axis to selectively align a selected one of said bins with said at least one discharge chute, said at least one article receiver selectively receiving articles in said bins such that the articles are received and sequenced in said at least one article receiver at a delivery point sequence after a single sort pass. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A single pass sequencing assembly for automatically sorting and sequencing articles to an unloading station in a sequenced manner comprising:
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a transport mechanism for transporting articles, said transport mechanism having at least one discharge chute for discharging the articles; and at least one article receiver for selectively receiving articles from said at least one discharge chute of said transport mechanism, said at least one article receiver having multiple bins and being selectively movable to align said bins with said at least one discharge chute, said at least one article receiver selectively receiving articles in said bins such that the articles are received and sequenced in said at least one article receiver at a delivery point sequence after a single sort pass, wherein said at least one article receiver is tilted at an angle with respect to vertical.
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4. A single pass sequencing assembly for automatically sorting and sequencing articles to an unloading station in a sequenced manner comprising:
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a transport mechanism for transporting articles, said transport mechanism having at least one discharge chute for discharging the articles; and at least one article receiver for selectively receiving articles from said at least one discharge chute of said transport mechanism, said at least one article receiver having multiple bins and being selectively movable to align said bins with said at least one discharge chute, said at least one article receiver selectively receiving articles in said bins such that the articles are received and sequenced in said at least one article receiver at a delivery point sequence after a single sort pass, wherein said at least one article receiver is positioned generally borizontally.
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5. A single pass sequencing assembly for automatically sorting and sequencing articles to an unloading station in a sequenced manner comprising:
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a transport mechanism for transporting articles, said transport mechanism having at least one discharge chute for discharging the articles; at least one article receiver for selectively receiving articles from said at least one discharge chute of said transport mechanism, said at least one article receiver having a plurality of bins, said at least one article receiver being movable along a longitudinal axis of said at least one article receiver, said at least one article receiver being selectively movable in opposite directions along said longitudinal axis to selectively align a selected one of said bins with said at least one discharge chute, said at least one article receiver selectively receiving articles in said bins such that the articles arc received and sequenced in said at least one article receiver at a delivery point sequence after a single sort pass; and at least one collecting device for collecting sequenced articles from said at least one article receiver. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method of sorting articles to a particular sequence comprising:
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transporting articles with a transport mechanism; inducting articles to at least one article receiver via at least one discharge chute, said at least one article receiver having a plurality of bins for receiving articles therein; and selectively moving said at least one article receiver in a first direction to generally align a first selected bin with said at least one discharge chute and selectively moving said at least one article receiver in a second direction to generally align a second selected bin with said at least one discharge chute for selectively receiving the articles in said bins such that the articles are received and sequenced in said at least one article receiver in a delivery point sequence after a single sort pass. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A sequencing assembly comprising:
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a transport assembly for transporting articles along a transport path, said transport assembly having a plurality of discharge chutes positioned along said transport path; and a plurality of collating devices positioned along said transport path, said transport assembly being operable to receive articles from an induct and to discharge articles to an appropriate one of said collating devices via a respective one of said discharge chutes, each of said collating devices including a plurality of bins for receiving articles discharged from said discharge chute, said collating devices being operable to selectively move said bins to generally align with said discharge chutes, said collating devices being operable to selectively move said bins in a first direction to generally align a first bin with said discharge chute and to selectively move said bins in a second direction to generally align a second bin with said discharge chute, said collating devices selectively receiving articles discharged from said discharge chutes in appropriate bins so that articles are received in said bins of said collating devices in a sequenced manner. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A sequencing assembly comprising:
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a transport assembly for transporting articles along a transport path, said transport assembly having a plurality of discharge chutes positioned along said transport path; and a plurality of collating devices positioned along said transport path, said transport assembly being operable to receive articles from an induct and to discharge articles to an appropriate one of said collating devices via a respective one or said discharge chutes, each of said collating devices including a plurality of bins for receiving articles discharged from said discharge chute, said collating devices being operable to selectively move said bins to generally align with said discharge chutes, said collating devices selectively receiving articles discharged from said discharge chutes in appropriate bins so that articles are received in said bins of said collating devices in a sequenced manner, said transport assembly including a plurality of carriages movable to transport articles along said transport path, said carriages discharging articles onto a discharge conveyor at said discharge chute at said appropriate one of said collating devices, said discharge conveyor comprising at least one conveyor belt which is operable to receive the articles from said carriages and to convey the articles to said discharge chute for discharging the articles into said collating devices, wherein said at least one conveyor belt is tilted toward one side such that articles being conveyed along said at least one conveyor belt are generally aligned along one side of said at least one conveyor belt.
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28. A sequencing assembly comprising:
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a transport assembly for transporting articles along a transport path, said transport assembly having a plurality of discharge chutes positioned along said transport path; a plurality of collating devices positioned along said transport path, said transport assembly being operable to receive articles from an induct and to discharge articles to an appropriate one of said collating devices via a respective one of said discharge chutes, each of said collating devices including a plurality of bins for receiving articles discharged from said discharge chute, said collating devices being operable to selectively move said bins to generally align with said discharge chutes, said bins being selectively movable in opposite directions to align a selected one of said bins with said discharge chute, said collating devices selectively receiving articles discharged from said discharge chutes in appropriate bins so that articles are received in said bins of said collating devices in a sequenced manner; and a plurality of collecting devices which are configured to receive sequenced articles from said bins of respective ones of said collating devices after the articles have been selectively received by said collating devices. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31)
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32. A sequencing assembly comprising:
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a transport assembly for transporting articles along a transport path, said transport assembly having a plurality of discharge chutes positioned along said transport path; a plurality of collating devices positioned along said transport path, said transport assembly being operable to receive articles from an induct and to discharge articles to an appropriate one of said collating devices via a respective one of said discharge chutes, each of said collating devices including a plurality of bins for receiving articles discharged from said discharge chute, said collating devices being operable to selectively move said bins to generally align with said discharge chutes, said collating devices selectively receiving articles discharged from said discharge chutes in appropriate bins so that articles are received iii said bins of said collating devices in a sequenced manner; and a plurality of collecting devices which are configured to receive sequenced articles from said bins of respective ones of said collating devices after the articles have been selectively received by said collating devices, wherein said collating devices and said collecting devices are oriented generally horizontally with said collecting devices being positioned generally below said collating devices. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
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35. A sequencing assembly comprising:
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a transport assembly for transporting articles along a transport path said transport assembly having a plurality of discharge chutes positioned along said transport path; a plurality of collating devices positioned alone said transport path, said transport assembly being operable to receive articles from an induct and to discharge articles to an appropriate one of said collating devices via a respective one of said discharge chutes, each of said collating devices including a plurality of bins for receiving articles discharged from said discharge chute, said collating devices being operable to selectively move said bins to generally align with said discharge chutes, said collating devices selectively receiving articles discharged from said discharge chutes in appropriate bins so that articles are received in said bins of said collating devices in a sequenced manner; and a plurality of collecting devices which are configured to receive sequenced articles from said bins of respective ones of said collating devices after the articles have been selectively received by said collating devices, wherein said collating devices are tilted at an angle with respect to vertical such that the articles are received by said collating devices in a manner whereby gravity functions to move the articles toward a side or corner of the respective bins of said collating device. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37)
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38. An article sequencing system comprising:
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a transport assembly including a conveying path and a plurality of carriages movable along said conveying path, said transport assembly including at least one induct operable to induct articles onto said plurality of carriages; a plurality of collators positioned along said conveying path, said collators being operable to receive articles front said plurality of carriages, each of said collators including a plurality of bins and being operable to selectively move said bins in either direction along a longitudinal axis of said collator and relative to a discharge of said sorter carriages to generally align said bins with said discharge such that articles are received by said bins of said collators in a sequenced manner; and a plurality of collecting devices configured to receive the sequenced articles from said bins of said collators, said plurality of collators being operable to discharge received and sequenced articles in said bins into a respective one of said plurality of collecting devices, said plurality of collecting devices being movable to an unloading position for unloading of the sequenced articles from said collecting devices. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48)
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49. A method of sorting articles to a desired sequence comprising:
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providing a transport assembly having a conveying path, at least one induct along said conveying path, and a plurality of carriages movable along said conveying path; loading articles onto said plurality of carriages; discharging articles from said plurality of carriages to a discharge chute at a particular one of a plurality of collators positioned along said conveying path, each of said collators having a plurality of collator bins; selectively moving said collator bins in a first direction to align an appropriate first one of said collator bins wit said discharge chute; receiving the discharged articles in said appropriate first one of said collator bins; selectively moving said collator bins in a second direction to align an appropriate second one of said collator bins with said discharge chute; receiving the discharged articles in said appropriate second one of said collator bins such that the articles are arranged in said collator bins in a sequenced manner; and unloading said collator bins of said plurality of collators to respective ones of a plurality of collecting devices and receiving said sequenced articles in said plurality of collecting devices. - View Dependent Claims (50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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Specification