Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
ioS~7783
The present invention relates to an apparatus for transferring
articles from a supporting means into a container with an open side.
selgian patent 577,751 issued October 6, 1959 (E.M.S. McWHIRTER -
B. DE PEUTER) discloses an apparatus for loading documents enclosed in jacket~
having laterally pro;ecting shoulders supported by conveyor belts into a con-
tainer with a U-shaped cross-section and by moving these jackets into this con-
tainer through one of the two open ends thereof and in such a manner that their
laterally pro~ecting shoulders come to rest on the upper edges of the side
walls of the container. Such a way of container loading cannot be applied in
machines wherein the articles, such as letters, are not enclosed in such
laterally supported ~ackets but are carried on their bottom edge by a support-
ing plate and wherein the containers are only open at the top. Indeed, in
this case the articles necessarily have to be introduced in the container
through the open top.
An object of the present invention is therefore to provide an
apparatus of the above type which enables articles to be correctly loaded in
a container through the one open side thereof.
In summary, the essence of the inventive concept is the provision
of apparatus for transferring articles stacked in an edgewise manner through
the use of supporting means for carrying the articles and discharging them
into a container having an open side. The articles are introduced through
the open side of the container until they come to rest against an inside part
of the container. The supporting means is removed from the container through
the use of displacement means for gradually removing the supporting means from
below the articles starting from a location close to the inside part of the
container. Guide means mounted above the supporting means and displaced
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therewith continuously hold the articles between the inside part of the
container and the guide means both when the articles are introduced into the
container and when the supporting means is removed therefrom. The displace-
ment means removes the supporting means from the articles by gradually pivot-
ing the supporting means downwardly and displacing the container and guide
means downwardly until all of the articles have been discharged into the con-
tainer.
By using e.g. an end wall of the container as a lateral support for
the articles after a partial insertion of a bottom supporting plate, one is
able to achieve an automatic loading operation which is particularly delicate
in letter handling machines where the letters, to facilitate further processing
at the end of the loading operation, must be correctly positioned in the con-
tainer with one of their edges resting on the container bottom. Indeed, once
this first part of the insertion is accomplished, the letters may be positive-
ly held in such a position that their subsequent orderly discharge on the con-
tainer bottom is greatly facilitated.
A possible way of applying the invention would be to arrange the con-
tainer in a reversed and inclined position and to introduce the supporting
plate carrying the articles into the oblique container laterally through the
open part thereof, while maintaining the supporting plate in the horizontal
position. Afterwards the articles could then be discharged into the container
by rotating the container and the supporting plate into a final position
wherein the supporting plate covers the open part of the container. It has
been found however that while the container and the plate are turned around
and when the articles are constituted by letters of different heights,
especially when they are relatively thin as is the case with air mail letters,
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some may be bent. This is due to friction while the letters are being
inversed by the above motion so that what was the bottom ed8e resting on the
initial support now becomes the upper edge when the opposite one finally
comes to rest on the container bottom. A mechanism avoiding such an inversion
would accordingly be desirable.
The apparatus of the invention does not present this drawback, due
to the fact that said displacement means are able to gradually remove said
supporting means which have been partially introduced into said container from
below said articles, starting from the location close to said inside part, to
thereby gradually discharge said articles into said container.
The articles are thus discharged into the container substantially
one by one and without the above inversion so that the above danger of deform-
ing the articles and of an incorrect positioning does not exist.
The disclosed apparatus include a container with an open part and
means for transferring articles from a supporting means into said container,
characterized in that said container has a movable bottom, whilst said trans-
fer means are constituted by an elevator able to displace said bottom upwardly
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and downwardly.
An advantage of this apparatus is that it is very simple due to
the transfer means being constituted by an elevator.
The disclosed article stacking device includes a fixed guide plate
and a displaceable pressure plate and means to feed said articles between said
guide plate and said pressure plate to gradually form a stack of articles,
characterized in that it includes a third plate which is mounted in the path
of said pressure plate and which has a surface complementary to that of said
pressure plate so as to permit the passage of said pressure plate through
said third plate~, said stack being then held between said guide plate and
said third plate.
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~ In accordance with a preferred embodiment of
the i.nvention, t.he ~resent apparatus for transferrin~ a
stnck of let;;ters from a horizontal st~cker ~llte into a
container is adaptea first to rotate this stacker plate
until one end oY the stack comes to rest a~ainst aIl
adj~cent end wall of the container whi.ch is hereby
ma;ntai.ned stati.onary, and afterwards to further rotate
the stacker plate unti.l it reaches its vertical position,
whi.lst simultarleously moving the container and a ~r,uide
1~ plate downwardly until the stack comes to rost on the
contai.ner bottom, this guide plate continuously preventin~
the other end of the stack from fallin~r, over.
~05778;~,
~he above mentioned and other objects and features
of the il~vention will become more apparent and the
invention itself will be best understood by referring
to the following description of embodiments taken in
coniuIlction with the accompanying drawings wherein :
.E~`ig~ 1 is a t.op plan view of a first embodime~t
of an apparatus according to the invention;
Fig. 2 iæ a cross-section alon~ line II-II of
Fi~. 1 considered in the direction of the arrows, only
part of the height of the apparatus being shown;
Fi~. ~ is a cross-section ~ong line III-III of
Fig. 1 considered in the direction of the arrows;
Fi~r,. 4 is a cross-section along line IV-IV Or
Fig. 1 considered in the-direction of the arrows;
Fig. 5 is a left hand side view of Fig. 4;
Figs. 6 to 13 represent an apparatus similar to
that of ~`igs. 1 to 5 in consecutive operative positions;
~'ig. 14 is a top plan view of a container able to
be used in a second embodiment of an apparatus according
~0 to the in~ention;
Fig. 15 is a cross-section along line XV-XV of
Fig. 14 considered in the direction of the arrows;
Fig. 16 is a cross-section of Fig. 14 along line
XVI-XVI considered in the direction of the arrows;
~5 I~'ig. 17 is a schematic diagram of electric c~try
controllin~, the ~ppar~ltus of Figs. 1 to 5.
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- 7 - E. LAMBRECHTS 1
Principally referring to Figs. 1 to 5 the a~paratus
shown therein includes a supporting frame structure which
comprises uprights such as 1, 2, 3, 4, horizontal cross-
beams such as 5, 96 interconnecting these uprights, and
a horizontal base plate 6 secured on top of the uprights.
The supporting frame structure carries four U-shaped guide
rails of which only 7, 8 and 9 are visible, an inclined
cylindrical guide rod 10 and an inclined T-shaped guide
rod 11 which is parallel to the guide rod 10, as well as
to the upper portions of the four guide rails such as
7 to 9. Near their lower ends the four guide rails such as
7 and 9 carry plunger electromagnets such as 90 and 91,
whilst the lower end of guide rod 10 has a transverse
portion 92 by means of which it is secured to the cross-
beam 5.
A letter stacking device is mounted on thehorizontal base plate 6 which has openings 12 to 18. A
pair of horizontal bars 19, 20 provided with lateral like
named U-shaped guide rails 19, 20 having their open parts
directed to each other is secured to the underside of the
base plate 6 in such a manner that these guide rails are
parallel to the longer sides of the rectangular opening
12 in this plate 6. A displaceable horizontal stacker
plate 21 is mounted below the base plate 6 and between the
guide rails 19 and 20 and has pairs of lateral supporting
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rollers 22, 23; 24, 25 and 26, 27 which are engaged between
the flanges of the last mentioned U-shaped guide rails 19,
20 and enable the staoker plate 21 to be longitudinally
displaced below the base plate 6.
S At its forward or right hand end (Fig. 2) the
stacker plate 21 carries an oblique vertical pressure plate
constituted by three vertical lip portions 28, 29 and 30
and at its forward edge it has a lateral oblong cut-out
portion 77 which opens towards this forward end. The stacker
plate 21 finally also carries motors 54 and 95 which when
operated are able to displace this plate 21 in forward direc-
tion.
As shown in Figures 4 and 5 the roller 27 engaged
between the flanges of the guide rail 20 is associated with
an electromagnet 56 having a plunger S7 which is able to
engage with the roller 27 to block it when the electromagnet
56 is operated.
The stacking device also includes a letter feeding
device which includes a vertical fixed guide plate 31,
with a transverse portion 97, mounted on the mounting
plate 6 and carrying a freely rotatable roller 32 making
contact with a belt 33 which is also carried by rollers
34 and 35 of which 3S is a driving one. Another belt 36
carried by rollers such as 37 is continuously urged into
contact with belt 33 by means not shown.
The apparatus also includes a carrier formed by a
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lever mechanism which is con~tituted ~y t,wo eubstantially
L-shaped levers 38, 39 extending at both sides of the
stac~er plate 21 and mounted on a common axle 40 arran~ed
below the base plate 6 and hinged to the spindle 93 of a
spindle motor ~ he housing of the latter motor 41 i8
itself hinged to the suppoxtin~ frame structure through
bracket ~2 and a U-shaped rail 43 secured to the cross-beam
5. At their one end each of the le~ers 38, 39 has a pair
of protuberafices 44, 45 and 46, 47 which normally protrude
throu~Jh the corre~ponding apertures 13, 14 in the mounting
plate 6 respectively. ~he ex~remitie6 48, 49 of the
~-shaped le~er~, 38,39 normally protrude throu~h the corres-
ponding openings 17, 18 in the mounting plate 6 and e~ch
carry a freely rotatable roller 50, 51 respectively. A
weight 53 is further attached to the axle of roller 25 of
the stacXer plate 21by means of a cord 52 rllnrlin~ on a
freely rotatable twin guide roller 55 mounted on the u~y~t1.
The spindle motor 41 is a motor generally available
on the Belgian m~et under type name SP100.6 AC, m~ufactu~d
by the German firm Magnetic Electromotoren GmbI~, Maudburg,
Germany.
~he apparatu~ further includes a container carrier
comprisinK side w~ls 58, 59, an end wall formed by a
cylindrical rod 60 and a bottom formed by three cyli~drical
rod~ 61, 62, 63~ N~ its edge the inner ~urface of each
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of the side walls 58, 59 of the container carrier has a
groove 64, 65 adapted to receive a corresponding outwardly
bent lateral edge 66, 67 of a through-shaped container 68.
At their outer surface each of the side walls 58, 59 of the
container carrier has a substantially L-shaped cut-out
portion or slot 69, 70 clearly visible in Fig. 2 and into
which the rollers 50, 51 at the extremities 48, 49 of the
levers 38, 39 may be engaged via extremities 48 and 49. The
side walls 58, 59 of the container carrier further carry
lateral suFporting rollers 71, 72 and 73, 74 at their upper
and lower portions, these rollers being engaged between
flanges of the U-shaped guide rails 7 to 9. Finally, a
weight 76 is attached to the rod 60 of the container carrier
by means of a cord 75 also running on the twin guide roller 55.
The apparatus further also includes a so-called
linear motor 78 which is mounted on the cylindrical rod
10 and is secured to one side of a U-shaped yoke 79 by
means of a bracket 80. A guide plate 81 is hinged in 82
and 83 to a supporting piece 94 secured to the transverse
portion of the L-shaped yoke 79 and has downwardly directed
lips 84, 85, 86. Hereby it should be noted that the
surfaces of the pressure plate 28-30 and of the hinged
guide plate 81 are complementary. The other side of the
U-shaped yoke 79 has an extension 87 carrying rollers 88,
89 which are in engagement with the T-shaped guide rod 11,
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thus preventing the yoke 79 from rotating.
The linear motor 78 is generally available on the
Belgian market under type name I~IPK 19/6, manufactured by
the German firm Conen (Demag), Hamburg, Germany.
Principally referring to Fig. 17 the electric
circuitry shown therein includes micro-switches 109 and 110
which are make contacts and which are also shown on Fig.2,
microswitch 111 which is a change-over contact and which
is also represented on Fig. 3, bistable circuits 112, 113
and 114 of which 113 is a so-called scale-of-two counter,
monostable circuits 115 and 116 having time constants of 4
and 5 seconds respectively, and delay circuits 117 and 118
of 1 second and 2 seconds respectively. The microswitch
109 which is operated during the forward movement of the
stacker plate 21 sets the bistable circuit 112 to its
l-condition wherein it operates the motors 54 and 95.
Hereby it should be noted that the microswitch 109 is so
arranged that it cannot be operated during the backward
movement of the stacker plate 21. The micro-switch 110
which is operated when the stacker plate 21 reaches its
outermost forward position resets the bistable circuit 112
to its 0-condition and basculates the scale-of-two counter
113. When the latter is thus brought in the l-condition
it controls the electromagnet 56 and activates input 1 of
the spindle motor 41 via the 1 seconds delay circuit 117
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and the monostable circuit 115. This input 1 when activated
operates the spindle motor 41 in such a manner that the
latter rotates in a direction wherein its spindle 93 is
moved upwardly. It should be noted that when the micro-
switch 110 is closed for a second time the scale-of-two
counter 113 is again basculated. The microswitch 111
which is operated when the container carrier reaches its
lowermost position activates the input 2 of the spindle
motor 41 via the 2 seconds delay circuit 118, due to which
this motor rotates in a direction wherein its spindle 93
is displaced downwardly. Hereby it is supposed that when
the spindle 93 reaches the ends of its downward and upward
strokes the motor 41 stops operating. The microswitch 111
when operated also sets the bistable circuit 114 to its
l-condition wherein it operates the linear motor 78 and
triggers the monostable circuit 116 to its unstable condition
for 5 seconds. In this unstable condition this monostable
circuit 116 energizes the electromagnets 90 and 91.
Finally, when the microswitch 111 is brought in its rest
position shown the bistable circuit 114 is reset to its
0-condition wherein the linear motor 78 is de-energized.
Principally referring to Figs. 1 to 13 and 17 the
operation of the above described apparatus is as follows,
it being supposed that the bistable and monostable circuits
of Fig. 17 all are in their 0-condition whilst the micro-
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switches are in the position shown.
In the rest position of this apparatus the horizontal
stacker plate 21 is in a position wherein the oblique
pressure plate 28-30 is close to the fixed guide plate 31.
The pressure plate 28-30 hereby makes an angle with the guide
plate 31 which opens towards the input of the stacking
device. When the apparatus is then put into operation the
belts 33 and 36 are displaced in the directions indicated
in Fig. l so that each time a letter to be stacked is fed to
the stacking device, it is seized between these conveyor
belts and displaced forwardly on its bottom edge until its
front edge abuts against the transverse portion 97 of the
fixed guide plate 31. This letter thereby displaceS the
stacker plate 21 and its pressure plate 28-30 in the forward
direction towards the yoke 79 and the hinged guide plate 81
hereby raising the weight 53. Thus a stack of letters ll9
(not shown in Figs. l and 3) is gradually formed on the
stacker plate 21 and held between the fixed guide plate 31
and the pressure plate 28-30. When the latter plate 28-30
reaches the position wherein its lips 28 to 30 are co-
planar with the lips 84 to 86 of the hinged guide plate 81the microswitch lO9 is closed due to which the bistable
circuit 112 is brought in the l-condition. In this position
it stops the feed of letters in a way not shown and operates
the motors 54 and 95 which both further advance the stacker
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plate 21 into the position shown in Figs. 1 to 3 wherein
the axle 40 uniting the levers 38, 39 engages in the oblong
cut-out portion 77 of the stacker plate 21. This stacker
plate 21 is thus prevented from being further displaced
in forward direction.
From the above it follows that due to the pressure
plate 28-30 being displaceable through the guide plate 81
the right hand end of the stack of letters 119 which was
first held by the plate 28-30 is now held by the plate 81.
This stack of letters 119 is now discharged into
the container 68 supported by the container carrier 58-63
in the following way.
At the end of its forward displacement the stacker
plate 21 closes the microswitch 110 due to which the
bistable circuit 113 is brought in its l-condition wherein
it resets the bistable circuit 112 and operates the electro-
magnet 56. The bistable circuit 112 in its reset condition
de-energizes the electromagnets 54 and 95, whilst the
plunger 57 of the thus energized electromagnet 56 engages
with the roller 27 of the stacker plate 21 so as to prevent
this roller and therefore the stacker plate 21 from being
longitudinally displaced in backward direction. From that
moment on the lever mechanism 38-40 and the stacker plate 21
form one unit. The last mentioned closed microswitch 110
also operates the monostable circuit 115 after a time
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delay of 1 second has elapsed i.e. when one is sure that
the stacker plate 21 has been blocked by the electro-
magnet 56. The monostable circuit 115 remains in itsunstable condition for 4 seconds and during this time i-t
activates the input 1 of the spindle motor 41 which moves
the spindle 93 in the upward direction. Consequently, the
whole unit formed by the lever mechanism 38-40 and the stacker
plate 21 is pivoted about the supporting rollers 26, 27 of
this plate in anti-clockwise direction ~Fig. 6~. During
this angular displacement the rollers 50, 51 at the
extremities of the lever arms 38, 39 of the lever mechanism
engage in the substantially L-shaped slots 69, 70 in the
side walls 58, 59 of the container carrier 58-63 respectively.
However, as long as these rollers 50, 51 move in the
substantially vertical portions of these slots the container
carrier 58-63 remains stationary. When the rollers 50, 51
have substantially reached the bottom of these vertical
portions the stacker plate 21 occupies the position shown in
Fig. 6 wherein the left hand edge of the plate 21
substantially touches the bottom of the container 68. I* is
clear that by the rotation of the stacker plate 21 the
latter is partially introduced into the container 68 so
that also the stack of letters 119 carried by this plate
is partially introduced into the container the left hand
end of the stack coming to rest against the adjacent end
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wall of this container. During this angular movement of
the stacker plate 21 both the motor 78 and the yoke 79
carrying the hinged guide plate 81 move downwardly under
influence of their own weight. Hereby the motor 78 moves
along the guide rod 10, whilst the hinged guide plate 81
constantly remains into contact with the stacker plate 21.
This hinged guide plate 81 also continuously remains into
contact with the right hand end of the stack 119 which is
thus held at both sides and prevented to fall over.
During the further upward displacement of the
spindle 93 of the spindle motor 41 the unit formed by the
lever mechanism 38-40 and the stacker plate 21 is further
rotated in the anti-clockwise direction so that the rollers
50, 51 at the ends of the lever arms 38, 39 engage in the
substantially horizontal portions of the slots 69, 70 of
the container carrier 58-63 respectively. Consequently
the latter carrier rolls downwardly along the four guide
rails such as 7 to 9 and hereby the weight 76 attached to
the container carrier is raised, as represented in Fig. 7
which also shows the position of the yoke 79, the guide
plate 81 and the linear motor 78. During this rotation
the stacker plate 21 is gradually removed from below the
stack of letters 119 arranged thereon starting from the
location close to the end wall of the container 68, but
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this stack 119 is prevented from falling over since its
left and right hand ends are continuously held by this end
wall and by the hinged guide plate 81 respectively.
When the spindle 93 of the spindle motor 41 has
reached the end of its upward stroke the unit formed by the
lever mechanism 38-40 and the stacker plate 21 has been
rotated over an angle of 90 from its horizontal position.
The various members of the apparatus then occupy the
positions shown in Fig. 8, wherein the linear motor 78 has
reached the end of the guide rod 10, wherein the hinged
guide plate 81 is vertical and wherein the rollers 50, 51
at the extremities of the lever arms 38, 39 are disengaged
from the slots 69, 70 of the container carrier 58-63. In
this position the stack of letters 119 has been completely
discharged in the container 68.
Due to their weight the container carrier 58-63 and
the loaded container 68 supported thereon move further
downwardly until the carrier 58-63 comes to rest on the
plate 98 as shown in Fig. 9. In this position, the micro-
switch 111 is operated so that the bistable circuit 114 is
set to its l-condition wherein it operates the linear motor
78, whilst the monostable circuit 116 is triggered to its
unstable condition wherein it remains for 5 seconds and
hereby energizes the electromagnets 90 and 91. During this
5 seconds time interval the plungers of these energized
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electromagnets prevent any upward displacement of the
carrier, so that the loaded container 68 may then be
removed from the container carrier 58-63 and replaced by
a fresh one, as shown in Fig. 10. The operated linear
motor 78 moves upwardly along the guide rod 10 until it
reaches its initial rest position wherein also the yoke 79
and the hinged guide plate 81 both occupy their initial
position. The operated microswitch 111 also activates
the input 2 of the spindle motor 41 via the delay circuit
118 providing a delay of 2 seconds. This 2 seconds delay
is provided in order that the clockwise rotation of the unit
formed by the lever mechanism 38-40 and the stacker plate 21
should not be hindered by the linear motor 78. This clock-
wise rotation is controlled by the operated spindle motor
41 which commences the return of this unit back to its initial
position. This is shown in Fig. 12. In this position the
microswitch 110 is closed again due to which the scale-of-two
counter 113 is reset to its 0-condition wherein it de-
energizes the electromagnet 56. Gbnsequently the roller 27
of the stacker plate is unblocked so that this stacker plate
21 then starts moving backward towards itsinitial position
under influence of the weight 53. On the other hand, after
the above 5 seconds have elapsed the electromagnets 90 and
91 are de-energized so as to unblock the container carrier
58-63 which consequently also moves towards its initial
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position, as shown in Fig. 12, under influence of the
weight 76. At the end of this displacement the various
members of the apparatus occupy the positions shown in
Fig. 13. It should be noted that when the container
carrier 58-63 leaves its lowermost position the contact 111
is brought back in its rest position wherein it resets the
bistable circuit 114. Consequently the linear motor 78
which at that moment has already reached its highest
position is no longer energized.
The above described apparatus has the advantage
of being able to load containers of a classical type. When
the use of such containers is not imperative use may be made
of a special container shown in Figs. 14 to 16 and having
the advantage of requiring only a very simple loading
apparatus.
The container 100 shown has a fixed bottom 101
with four apertures 105 to 108 and a movable bottom plate
102 which is hingedly connected to the fixed bottom by
means of the arms 103 and 104. The loading apparatus
adapted to load such a container 100 must simply be an
elevator having means to displace the movable bottom
plate 102 through the apertures 105 to 108 in the fixed
bottom plate 101. With such an elevator, when a stack
of letters must be loaded into the container 100, first
this stack is brought on the movable bottom plate 102
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after the latter has been raised to the position shown in
Figs. 14 to 16, and afterwards the movable bottom plate
102 is lowered into the container 100 together with the
stack of letters.
It should be noted that the above container 100
may also be unloaded in the same easy way by the same
elevator apparatus. Hence, this container and this elevator
apparatus are both able to be used at the inputs and out-
puts of an article e.g. letter handling system.
While the principles of the invention have been
described above in connection with specific apparatus, it
is to be clearly understood that this description is made
only by way of an example and not as a limitation on the
scope of the invention.
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