System and method of article feeder operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10815083-B2
Application number	US-201815989039-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2018
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

Embodiments of a system and method for shingulating, singulating, and synchronizing articles in an article feeder system are disclosed. The article feeder system may include a shingulating device configured to receive a stack of articles and to produce a positively lapped stack of articles, a plurality of picking devices configured to pick one or more articles from the positively lapped stack of articles and to produce one or more singulated articles, and one or more synchronization devices configured to deliver the one or more singulated articles to one or more sorter windows.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An article feeder system comprising:
a picking device configured to pick one or more articles from a positively lapped stack of articles and to produce one or more singulated articles, the picking device comprising:
a vertically oriented perforated belt having one or more openings in its surface, the perforated belt configured to be driven by a motor;
a vacuum manifold located adjacent to the perforated belt, the vacuum manifold configured to apply suction to the one or more articles through the one or more openings in the surface of the perforated belt; and
a vacuum valve configured to control the amount of suction applied to the vacuum manifold between a first level greater than zero and a second level greater than the first level; and

a controller comprising one or more processors and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising causing the vacuum valve to control the amount of suction between the first level and the second level based on the location of an article of the one or more articles and on the location of a virtual window configured to travel past the picking device.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the picking device is configured to:
pick the article from the positively lapped stack of articles, including opening the vacuum valve and exposing the vacuum manifold to the suction, the vacuum manifold applying the suction through the one or more openings in the perforated belt to attach the article to the perforated belt; and
produce a singulated article, including separating the article from the positively lapped stack of articles by driving the perforated belt with the attached article forward using the motor.

3. The system of claim 2 , further comprising a plurality of picking devices configured in a row, wherein a downstream most picking device in the row that is substantially completely covered by the positively lapped stack of articles is configured to pick the article from the positively lapped stack of articles and to produce the singulated article.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the picking device is located in a picking zone which includes an anti-doubling device opposite the picking device, the anti-doubling device configured to prevent more than one article at a time from being picked from the positively lapped stack of articles.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising an anti-doubling device comprising:
a presence sensor configured to detect a first article;
an edge detector sensor positioned upstream from the presence sensor and configured to detect an edge of a second article; and
a vacuum unit configured to apply suction to the second article when the presence sensor detects the first article during a time period in which the edge detector detects the edge of the second article.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the presence sensor includes a photoelectric sensor.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the perforated belt is driven by a single servo motor.

8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a controller configured to control movement of each article of the stack of articles to synchronize a first time when each of the one or more singulated articles reaches an exit point within a predetermined time.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the synchronization of the first time with the predetermined time is based on one or more of: a location of a first article being picked by a first picking device, a velocity of the first article, an acceleration rate of each of a plurality perforated belts included in each of the plurality of picking devices, an acceleration rate of one or more synchronization devices, a maximum velocity allowed for each of the plurality perforated belts included in each of the plurality of picking devices, a maximum velocity allowed for a perforated belt included in the shingulating device, a maximum velocity allowed for the one or more synchronization devices, a length of each of the plurality of perforated belts included in each of the plurality of picking devices, a length of the perforated belt included in the shingulating device, a number of perforated belts, a length of the one or more synchronization devices, and a number of the one or more synchronization devices.

10. A method of managing articles in an article feeder, the method comprising:
picking one or more articles from a positively lapped stack of articles using a picking device comprising:
opening a vacuum valve of the picking device to expose a vacuum manifold of the picking device to a first level of suction;
applying the suction from the vacuum manifold through one or more openings in a perforated belt of the picking device to one of the one or more articles; and
attaching the one article to the perforated belt using the suction through the one or more openings;

producing one or more singulated articles by separating the article from the positively lapped stack of articles by driving the perforated belt with the attached article forward using a motor; and
transporting the one or more singulated articles to an adjacent picking device by at least reducing the applied suction from the first level to a second level greater than zero and less than the first level based on the location of the one article and on the location of a virtual window configured to travel past the picking device and the adjacent picking device.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the article feeder comprises a plurality of picking devices and wherein the singulated article is picked and produced by a downstream most picking device in a row of picking devices that is substantially completely covered by the positively lapped stack of articles.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising preventing more than one article at a time from being picked from the positively lapped stack of articles using an anti-doubling device located in a picking zone that includes the picking device.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising controlling movement of each article of the stack of articles to synchronize a first time when each of the one or more singulated articles reaches an exit point within a predetermined time.

14. A method of processing articles comprising:
receiving a first article on a moveable belt in a first one of a plurality of picking devices;
applying a vacuum force to the first article via the first picking device;
detecting, via a first sensor, a leading edge of the first article;
determining a first virtual window for the first article, wherein determining the first virtual window comprises:
determining a distance between the detected leading edge of the first article and a rendezvous point;
determining a speed and location of a sorter window; and
determining a time required to accelerate the first article to a required speed to rendezvous with the sorter window at the rendezvous point;

synchronizing a position of the leading edge of the first article with the first virtual window, wherein the synchronizing comprises:
determining an initial speed of the first article;
determining a time required to move the first article via the first picking device to the rendezvous point;
comparing the time required to move the first article to the rendezvous point with the time required to move the virtual window to the rendezvous point; and
accelerating or decelerating the first article via the first picking device to match the speed and position of the first article with the speed and position of the virtual window at the rendezvous point;

passing the first article from the moveab

Assignees

• United States Postal Service

Inventors

• Brown John W
• Houston Edward F
• Roman Juan A
• Shiu Leung M
• Mayhall Riley H
• Hillerich Jr Thomas A
• Timm Jacob L
• Good Matthew G
• Mcconnell William P
• Schlender Robert L
• Austin Christopher D

Classifications

• B65H3/124 Primary

  Suction bands or belts · CPC title

• B65H2404/2691

  Arrangement of successive belts forming a transport path · CPC title

• B65G47/28

  during transit by a single conveyor · CPC title

• B65H2220/09

  indicating that several of an entity are present · CPC title

• B65H5/224

  by suction belts (B65H11/005 takes precedence) · CPC title