System and method of article feeder operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019367293-A1
Application number	US-201916542172-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 15, 2019
Priority date	Mar 14, 2013
Publication date	Dec 5, 2019
Grant date	—

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 processing system comprising:
a plurality of picking devices, each picking device configured to receive and transport a first article from a plurality of articles, and each picking device comprising:
a moveable belt having one or more openings in its surface;
a vacuum source configured to apply a variable vacuum force to the first article through the one or more openings in the moveable belt; and
a sensor, wherein the sensor is configured to detect a leading edge of the first article;
a controller in communication with the sensor, the controller configured to:
determine a current position of the first article received on the movable belt of a first picking device of the plurality of picking devices based on the sensor;
determine a first virtual window for the first article;
determine a synchronization position for the first article where the leading edge of the first article is synchronized with the first virtual window;
determine a time and a speed of the first article required to rendezvous the first article with a sorter window at a rendezvous point; and
move the movable belt of the first picking device to cause the first article to contact a movable belt of a second picking device based on the synchronization position.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of picking devices are independently controllable to control the speed of one or more of the plurality of articles.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine the first virtual window, the controller is further configured to:
determine a distance between the leading edge of the first article and the rendezvous point; determine a speed and a location of a sorter window; and determine a time required to accelerate the first article to a required speed to rendezvous with the sorter window at the rendezvous point.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein to determine the synchronization position, the controller is further configured to:
determine an initial speed of the first article; determine a rendezvous time required to move the first article via the first picking device to the rendezvous point; and compare the rendezvous time required to move the first article to the rendezvous point and the time required to move the virtual window to the rendezvous point.

5 . The system of claim 4 , wherein the controller is further configured to accelerate or decelerate the first article via the first picking device and second 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.

6 . The system of claim 4 , wherein to rendezvous the first article with the sorter window at the rendezvous point, the controller is further configured to:
determine a location of the sorter window; determine a current speed of the sorter window; determine a sorter window time wherein the sorter window will reach the rendezvous point; compare the sorter window time to the rendezvous time; and move the movable belt of the first picking device to cause the first article to accelerate or decelerate to rendezvous with the sorter window at the rendezvous point.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the current speed of the sorter window is constant.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller is further configured to: re-synchronize the position of the leading edge of the first article with the first virtual window and to move the second picking device.

9 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising a synchronization device disposed downstream of the plurality of picking devices, configured to accelerate or decelerate the first article with the virtual window at the rendezvous point.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the synchronization device further comprises a set of pinch wheels.

11 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising an anti-doubling device configured to prevent more than one article at a time from being picked.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the anti-doubling device is disposed opposite the first picking device.

13 . The system of claim 11 , further comprising at least a second anti-doubling device, each anti-doubling associated with one of the plurality of picking devices.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein each of the anti-doubling devices further comprises at least one sensor configured to detect the leading edge of the first article.

16 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the sensor is an infrared sensor, a photoelectric sensor, an optical photo-eye, or a proximity sensor.

17 . The system of claim 16 , wherein the sensor is disposed parallel to the movable belt of the first picking device.

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

• B65H7/12

  responsive to double feed or separation · CPC title

• B65H3/124 Primary

  Suction bands or belts · CPC title

• B65H2404/2691

  Arrangement of successive belts forming a transport path · CPC title

• B65H2301/321

  Standing on edge · CPC title

• B65H5/224

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