Patent Application
20160256896
The invention relates to postal sorting equipment comprising a sorting machine in which mailpieces of the letter or other flat postal article type are sorted in one or more sorting passes, e.g. such as when preparing a delivery round or “postman's walk”.
In a sorting process that takes place in a plurality of sorting passes, the mailpieces sorted in the sorting outlets of the machine in a first sorting pass are then transported in storage trays to the feed inlet of the machine for another sorting pass.
Currently, for preparing a delivery round, the mailpieces may, for example, be sorted in a sorting machine in two sorting passes.
At the end of the first sorting pass, the sorted mailpieces are retrieved in stacks and on edge in storage trays of the conventional box type that have four sides and that are open-topped. The storage trays as loaded with mailpieces are stored in a precise order on transit shelves of the cart type.
The unstacking operator then moves the carts as loaded with trays to the feed inlet of the sorting machine.
In general, the feed inlet of the sorting machine is provided with an unstacking member having a storage deck on which the mailpieces are placed in a stack and on edge.
The deck of the feed magazine may include a conveyor belt or a plurality of parallel conveyor belts for moving the mailpieces automatically in a stack and on edge to the unstacking member.
For loading the feed magazine, the unstacking operator takes the trays as filled with mailpieces one-by-one and places each tray at one end of the magazine, takes the mailpieces from the tray in handfuls, and places them on the deck of the feed magazine.
Retaining paddles mounted to move along the magazine for the purposes of retaining the mailpieces in a stack on the deck of the magazine may be used to assist the operator while said operator is removing the tray that has been emptied of its mailpieces and is placing it on a cart that is then brought to the sorting outlets so that the tray can be used again.
In the magazine, the mailpieces placed on the deck are thus conveyed in a stack and on edge by the conveyor belt(s), e.g. to an unstacking member that puts the mailpieces in series for the purposes of doing the second sorting pass.
The mailpieces directed towards the sorting outlets are thus stored in storage trays once again.
The trays loaded with mailpieces are then moved by the unstacking operator, e.g. to a removal zone so that one or more delivery persons can retrieve the sorted mailpieces and do their delivery rounds.
Devices exist for facilitating manual unloading of the mailpieces contained in the storage trays onto the deck of the feed magazine.
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 8,172,498 describes a device comprising a tray support mounted to pivot about a first axis and capable of tilting the storage tray stored on it. Retaining means of the clamp type are also mounted to pivot about a second axis, and they are capable of retaining the mailpieces contained in the tray so as to keep them in a stack.
The device further comprises synchronization means for synchronizing the pivoting of the tray support about the first axis with the pivoting of the retaining means, in such a manner that, when the storage tray is tilted so that it can be removed by an unstacking operator, the retaining means retain the stack of mailpieces so that that stack can then be placed on the deck.
With such devices, the task of the unstacking operator is thus basically to remove the tilted tray from the tray support with the operator's arms being at full stretch.
Generally, most of the operations of moving storage trays or carts are performed by an operator entirely manually.
Unfortunately, in particular when they are loaded with mailpieces, carts and storage trays represent considerable weights to be moved by the operator, giving rise to high levels of fatigue and to health risks.
In addition, the accumulation of carts necessary for performing the machine sorting takes up a non-negligible amount of space in the vicinity of the sorting machine. There is also a risk that the trays might be swapped over during the temporary storage on the cart, giving rise to malfunctioning in the preparation of the delivery round.
In addition, at the end of the sorting passes, the unstacking operator brings the storage trays manually one-by-one or on carts to a removal zone remote from the sorting machine, and that operation is a further source of fatigue.
An object of the present invention is to remedy the above-mentioned drawbacks by proposing postal sorting equipment that minimizes the tray-handling operations, that reduces the time taken to unload the trays into the feed magazine at the inlet of the sorting machine, and that thus also reduces the risks of trays being swapped over between two sorting passes.
To this end, the invention provides postal sorting equipment comprising a sorting machine with an unstacking member and a feed magazine in which mailpieces are placed in a stack and on edge for unstacking by the unstacking member, the equipment further comprising storage trays for storing mailpieces and for bringing them into the feed magazine;
said postal sorting equipment being characterized in that the feed magazine has a deck with a first deck portion and a second deck portion, the first deck portion extending in a such a manner as to be superposed above the second deck portion;
in that each tray has a bottom shaped to define a groove that is open to the front and to the top of the tray and on which the mailpieces in a stack and on edge stand; and
in that the first deck portion is designed to fit into the groove in the tray via the front so that when said tray filled with mailpieces in a stack and on edge is standing on the second deck portion, the mailpieces stand on said first deck portion.
The idea on which the invention is based is thus to use storage trays having bottoms that are open and grooved so that they are shaped like a deck of a goods transport pallet with one or more openings under the pallet deck to for receiving the prongs of a front-loading fork.
The second deck of the magazine is thus offset heightwise from the first deck of the magazine, and the first deck of the magazine acts as a loading fork.
The first deck of the magazine thus has a free end that is superposed above the second deck of the magazine so that when a tray filled with mailpieces in a stack and on edge is moved on the second deck towards the unstacking member, the first deck portion then fits into the groove(s) of the tray under the stack of mailpieces.
Said stack of mailpieces may then be taken from the tray by relative movement between the first deck portion and the second deck portion of the feed magazine.
The invention thus makes it possible automatically and simply to remove mailpieces from a storage tray into the feed magazine of a postal sorting machine while also keeping the mailpieces on edge and in a stack on the deck of the magazine.
The postal sorting equipment of the invention may advantageously have the following features:
The invention also provides a method of loading a feed magazine for feeding mailpieces to a postal sorting machine, the loading taking place with a storage tray filled with mailpieces in a stack and on edge, said method being characterized in that it comprises a step consisting in inserting a first deck portion of the magazine into the front of the storage tray, said first deck portion being superposed above a second deck portion of the magazine, on which portion the tray stands, said mailpieces then standing on edge on the first deck portion.
The method of the invention may advantageously also have the following features:
The present invention can be better understood and other advantages appear on reading the following detailed description of embodiments given by way of non-limiting example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The deck 8 may be provided with one or more parallel conveyor belts 9 for acting once the tray 4 has been removed from the magazine to move the mailpieces 3 in a stack and on edge towards the unstacking member, as shown in
The unstacking member 5 puts the mailpieces 3 stored in the feed magazine 7 in series, and the series of mailpieces are conveyed by a sorting conveyor 11 that directs them towards the sorting outlets 6 of the machine.
The postal sorting equipment 1 shown in
A second tray conveyor 13 for conveying trays 4, which conveyor is shown in fragmentary manner in
The first and second tray conveyors 12 and 13 may be of the belt conveyor type with a gripping flat surface. The conveyors 12 and 13 may also be of the roller conveyor type or of some analogous type without going beyond the ambit of the invention.
In accordance with the invention, in order to allow mailpieces to be transferred automatically from a tray to the deck 8 of the feed magazine, provision is made for the deck 8 to be made up of a first deck portion 22 and of a second deck portion 23 with the first deck portion having a free end that is superposed above the second deck portion 23.
The two deck portions 22 and 23 are thus superposed and offset heightwise by a few centimeters.
The second deck portion 23 is mounted to move vertically relative to the first deck portion 22 so as to be moved between a first position in which it is slightly below the first deck portion and a second position that is lower than the first position.
The second deck portion may also be mounted to pivot about an axis A1 in such a manner as to tilt while it is being moved between the first and second positions.
The lowering and pivoting movements of the second deck portion 23 may be obtained by means of motors that are controlled to move the second deck portion at a predefined speed.
The second deck portion 23 may be provided with a tray-moving conveyor that is not shown in the figures and that makes it possible to move a storage tray towards the unstacking member when said second deck portion is in the first position, i.e. in the feed direction in which the unstacking member is fed with mailpieces, and also towards the second tray conveyor 13, i.e. perpendicularly to said feed direction, when said second deck portion is in the second position.
These tray-moving means may comprise a conveyor belt or any other means of imparting movement, e.g. by thrust, magnetic, or sliding drive.
As shown in
Each storage tray 4 of the invention has a substantially rectangular bottom 26 and edges 27 or sides that are substantially perpendicular relative to the bottom of the tray.
The bottom 26 of the storage tray is a little like the deck of a goods transport pallet with openings under the deck of the pallet.
In particular, the bottom of the tray is provided with one or more grooves 28 that are open to the top of the tray and to one side of the tray, which grooves form one or more openings into which the prong(s) of the first deck portion 22 can fit. The mailpieces 3 are thus stored on edge on the tops of the grooves 28 constituting the bottom 26 of the tray 4, and transversely to said grooves 28 of the tray, so that said mailpieces are raised relative to the lower base of the tray.
The prong(s) 24, 25 of the first deck portion of the magazine are thus adapted to fit into the groove(s) 28 in the tray like the prongs of the fork of a forklift or pallet truck into the openings in a transport pallet.
The prong(s) of the first deck portion 22 fit(s) into the groove(s) 28 of a tray when the base of the tray is standing on the second deck portion, the first portion of the zone fitting progressively into the groove(s) in the tray as the tray is moved in the feed direction on the second deck portion 23.
The tray may be caused to advance on the second deck portion as indicated above by a conveyor belt or the like.
The grooves 28 in the bottom of the tray extend in the feed direction when the tray is standing on the second deck portion. Each groove has a front opening on the side of the tray that faces the unstacking member.
The first deck portion comes to fit into the groove(s) in the tray 4 under the lower edges of the mailpieces 3 stored in the tray.
In order to unload the mailpieces from the tray, the second deck portion is lowered while the first deck portion retains the mailpieces heightwise. Once the tray is fully lowered, the conveyor belts 9 of the first deck portion 22 are actuated to move the mailpieces on edge and in a stack towards the unstacking member.
In order to facilitate maintaining the mailpieces in a stack and on edge on the first deck portion, it is possible to provide trays 4 that have sloping bottoms, as can be seen in
In these figures, in particular in
The back of the tray is provided with parallel slots, thereby enabling the prongs 24, 25 to be removed from the tray by lowering and pivoting the tray, while the front of the tray is almost fully open.
As can be seen, the bottom of the tray slopes downwards towards the back of the tray, which back is provided with the slots, so that, after the tray has been lowered onto the second deck portion, the stack of mailpieces is, as it were, combed and carried by the first deck portion, and said stack of mailpieces facing the unstacking member is sloping in such a manner as to be leaning towards the back of the stack. The slope of the bottom of the back may be about 10°.
It can be understood that the unstacking operator, with two stack-retaining paddles 32 hinged and movable along the first deck portion 22 in the feed direction can thus store, at the same time, two stacks of mailpieces on the deck 8, and then merge them into a single stack that comes to bear against the unstacking member as is known.
The trays 4 are preferably designed to be stackable and to include handles 30 on opposite sides 27 for handling them when they are empty, and handle-forming recesses 30 at the base of the tray in the front and in the back of the tray for handling the tray when it is loaded with mailpieces.
The trays 4 of the invention are, in particular, trays made of a plastics material and shaped by molding.
With the postal sorting equipment 1 of the invention, handling by the unstacking operator is limited during the successive sorting passes to handling the paddles 32 for retaining the stack of mailpieces on the deck 8 of the feed magazine.
Such sorting equipment with this type of tray and this type of feed magazine can be well adapted to sorting large-format postal articles or to sorting mixtures of small and large format postal articles.
Naturally, the present invention is in no way limited to the above description of one of its embodiments, which can undergo modifications without going beyond the ambit of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1359057 | Sep 2013 | FR | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/FR2014/051780 | 7/10/2014 | WO | 00 |
