CA1098923A - Flat mail orienting device - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

Apparatus is provided for orienting flat mail pieces serially received in a generally edge-standing configuration and bearing corner positioned postage indicia commonly adjacent the leading or trailing edges. The vertical location of the postage indicia is sensed and the mail pieces are transported to a first or a second transfer station depending on the location of the postage indicia, whether adjacent the upper or lower edge respectively. A conveyor is provided for transport-ing mail pieces away from the transfer stations and at each station a deflector is provided to deflect the mail pieces leaving the station so that all mail pieces are deposited on the conveyor in the same orientation.

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Description

This is a division of Canadian Application Serial No. 309,279 filed August 14, 1978, !i Background of the Invention . _ _ .,, . There is a yreat need to decrease the cos-t of handling mail by the postal service, particularly in.large metropolitan ¦! areas~ To-this end, there ha~e been devised a number o~ auto-. ¦ mated devices for sorting, stacking, and otherwise handling mail pieces to meet certain preselected requirements. The :.
I present invention is directed to that class of apparatus which I! positions flat mail pieces in response to the location of the ~¦ postage indicia and stacks the mail pieces in-to postal trays 10 1~ with all pieces similarly aligned. The prior axt devices or :
:', sorting mail in response to the loc~tion of postage ndicia :~ , ~1 .

1~98'423 l , have been unduly complex, expensive, or otherwise unsatisfactory.

2 1~ The disclosures of the following United States patents are

3 ~ representative of such devîcesJ

4 l U. S. Pa$ent 2,894,626 Mulders et al.
S ii This device senses the vertical position of a stamp 6 li on an edge-traveling piece of mail and directs the mail piece 7 jl either directly to a stamp canceling device or through a turnover 8 ji device. The turnover device is a pair of crossed ~elts. There 9 jl are certain problems inherent in crossed belt turnover devices.
¦I While they will handle standard letters/ their twistin~ action 11 !i may cause damage to items such as photographs contained within 12 1I the envelopes. Furthermore, they are relatively useless for 13 ,i handling particularly large, stiff, or bulky items.
14 ll U. S. Pa-tent 2,895,588 - Van Marle i The disclosure of this patent is directed to a very 16 1! complex device for facing mail which employs rotational conveyors 17 ~ as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 130 18 ! U. S. Pa~ent 2,984 349 of Mathis is also quite complex, ~ .
19 employing pi~oted friction rollers for sorting purposes.
~o !1 u s. Patent 3/140,780 of Richert et al. is also !! - ~ -- . ~
21 !i relatively complex in employing suction devices to guide mail 22 1¦ into and along selected paths.
23 ~¦ It will, accordingly, be apparent that a need exists ~4 , for simple and less expensive mail aligning apparatus and also ~5 ji for such apparatus which will handle mail pieces which cannot ~26 ~! be processed by conventional letter mail equipment. One class 27 ¦¦ of mail to which this invention is particularly directed is ~8 I! defined by the postal service as "flats" and may be 3"-15" in 29 he:ight, 4 1/4"-lS" in lsng~h e~d .006" to .S0" in thiclkness.

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Accordingly it is a primary object of the present invention to provide apparatus for sor-ting postal fla-ts in accordance with the position of postage indicia thereon.
Other objects are to provide such apparatus which is capable of automatically loading said pieces into postal trays; and to provide such apparatus which is simple, inexpensive, and reliable in operation. Other objects, features, and advantages will become apparent from the following description and appended claims.
SUMMA~Y OF THE INVENT~ON
The invention as defined in the parent application encompasses appara-tus for loading flat mail pieces bearing corner positioned postage indicia in either of two orientations into receptacles which are in either of two loading positions and thereafter discharging the loaded receptacles with uniformly faced mail therein. To this end, there is provided a first loading station and means for conveying mail pieces to the first loading station with each having its postage indicia positioned on its upper surface adjacent the trailing edge ~0 relative to its direction of motion. Means are provided for sequentially supply receptacles for loading at the first loading station. The loaded receptacles are discharged from the first loading station with a preselected orientation relative to the postage indicia locations of the mail pieces therein. Addition-ally, there is provided a second loading station and means for conveying mail pieces to the second loading station, each having its postage indicia on its lower surface adjacent its trailing edge~ Similar means for provided for sequentially supplying receptacles at the second loading station and dis-charging loaded receptacles from the second loading stationwith the same orientation as receptacles from the first loading station.

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The present invention, on the other hand, may be seen to encompas~ apparatus for orienting flat mail pieces serially received in a generally edge-standing configuration and bearing corner positioned postage indicia commonly adjacent the leading or trailing edges comprising; means for sensing the location of the postage indicia relative -to the vertical dimension of each piece; a first transfer station; means for transporting mail pieces having upper edge located indicia to the first transfer station in a first direction; a second transfer station; means Eor transporting mail pieces ha~ing lower edge located indicia to the second transfer station in a second direction su~stantially parallel to the first direc-tion; means for conveying mail pieces away from the first and second transfer stations in a third direction; means at the first transfer station for depositing mail pieces onto the conveying means in a preselected orientation relative to the third d~rection; and means at the second transfer station for depositing mail pieces onto the conveying means in the same orientation relative to the third direction as mail pieces from the first transfer station.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a plan view of a pair of transfer stations in accordance with this invention, inc]uding means for propelling mail pieces to said stations via desired pathways;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the transfer stations of FIG. 1, portions thereof being broken away to illustrate their construction;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of first and second load-ing stations in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged detail of the loading mechanism ; of one of -the stations of FIG. 3; and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an overall system incorporating the present invention.

9~l3;~:3 1 j~ De~cri~tion of the Preferred Embodiment ~ !, Transport Apparatus 3 ¦ Wi.th particular reference to FIG. 1 r there is ~ I illustrated a first 10 and a second 12 transfer station, together S !I w.ith transport apparatus 14 ~or selectively deliverin~.mail ~ 1I pieces thereto. Mail flats are delivered to the transfer stations 7 !~ in an edge-standing con~iguration resting upon a hori~ontal, ~ relatively low friction surface 16. The flats are conveyed 9 ¦ to the transfer stations via a pl.urality of passageways formed ¦ by friction belts and movable gates. At the let end of FIG. 1, 11 j there are illustrated a pair of fla-ts F~, F2 being sequentially 12 ¦! advanced into the transport apparatus~ The flat Fl is shown 13 ¦¦ as held between a pair o belts 18a, lBb mounted upon suitable 14 î¦ drive and idler rollers 20 to propel khe flat in the direction ¦¦ of the arrow from left to right. A pair of similar belts 22a, 1~ l; b are positioned slightly "downstream" ~rom the first set so 17 1¦ as to leave a gap 24 therebetween. Positioned to view a flat 18 !¦ passing through gap 24 is a photodetector 26 which is o~ con- .
19 1 ventional design. The photodetector 26 has the ability to detect 1~20 1 postage indicia and determine whether it is at the leading edge ~1 1 or trailing edge, and along the upper or lower edye of each 2Z 11 flat. A controller 28 receives the output of the photodetector 23 ¦ 26 and controls the position of a pair of pivoted gates 30, 32.
24 ~ From belts 22 each flat traverses one of three paths.
, A first path 34 leads to first transfer station 10 and includes a 26 11 first section defined by a belt 36 mounted on suitable rollers 27 !! 38 and a plurality o idler rollers 40 mountea in a vertical ~8 1¦ guide wall 42. The second section o~ path 34 is defined by 29 1l belts 44a, b, mounted on rollers 46 leading di.rectly into first transfer station 10.

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l3$~3 1 ¦l A sec~nd path 48 leads to second transfer station 12 2 ¦¦ an~ includes a first portion defined by a belt 50 mounted on 3 ¦¦ rollexs 52 and idler rollers 54 mounted in a guide wall 56.
4 ¦ The second section of second path 48 is defined by belt 58 ¦ mounted on rollers 60 in cooperation with idler rollers 62 in 6 1 guide wall 64. The third and final section o~ second path 48 7 ¦ is defined by belts 66a, 66b mounted on rollers 68 and lead;ng 8 ! directly into second transfer station 1~.
9 1 A ~hird, or reject, path 70 includes the ~irst secti~n ~ of path 48 and is therea~ter defined by a belt 72 on rollers 74 11 j cooperating with idler rollers 76 in a guide wall 78. The ~inal 12 portion of rejec~ path 70 is defined by~belts 80a, 80b on 13 rollers 82 and extends between and beyond the first and second 14 transfer stations~
Passing beneath the firs~ 10 and second 1~ transfer 16 stations and substantially perpendicular to the paths formed.by ` 17 1 the transport apparatus is a conveyor belt 84. In adaition, and .
18 ¦ downstream from the reject path 70~ is the entrance to a second 19 transport apparatus 14' substantially identical with transport `:~ apparatus 14 previously described. -21 TransPer Stations .
: 22 ~ The fixst transfer station 10 and second transfer .
23 1 station 12 are substantially ident.ical although reversed.
They are ~llustratea in detail in FIG. 2. It will be noted ~; ¦ from FIG. 2 that the surface 16 is inlettea to de~ine an aper~ure 86 o~er the conveyor belt 84~ Extending beyond the aperture 86 27 ¦ is a vertical wall B8a which is L-shaped to define a stop wall ~8 ¦ 90a. Txansfer station 12 has a similar, but revexsed, constructio ~29 includina wall 88b and stop wall 90b. Mounted across the angle 11 .

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l I between walls 88 and 90 is a cur~ed metal de~lector 9~. The ~¦
2 ~ deflector 92, which is included in both txansfer stations, has 3 ~ a somewhat plow-shaped contour so as to receive and deflect ~ edge-standing flats from the respective paths 34 and 48. Fla.ts S I which are not selected to pass through eithe.r of the fi~st or :
6 , second transfer stations pass between the stations in ~elts 7 j 80 as illustrated in FIG. 2.
8 ! As pre~iously explained, a third and ourth transer 9 station, which are substantial duplicates of the ~irst and lO , second transfer stations, are located downstream. Because of ..
he similarity in construction, they are not lllustrated in . ~::
lZ ~ detail. However, leading from the third and fourth transfer :
13 I station is a conveyor 84' which extends parallel to conveyor .:~
14 1 84 as illustrated in FIG, 3.
: . ¦ Loadin~ Stations . . :;
:l6 ¦ There are illustrated in PIG. 3 a first loading I :
17 ~I station 94 and a second loading station 96, which are sub- .
18 1 st~ntially identical. Accordingly, only s~ation ~4 will be 19 ¦ described in detail and similar reference numerals with a i, prime (') attached will be employed for loading station 96.
~l Station 94 receives mail pieces from the first and 22 second transer stations via conveyor ~4 and station 96 ~3 ¦ receives similar mail pieces from the third and fourth transfer ~4 1 stations via conv~yor 84'. Just downstream from the end of ~5 1 conveyor 84 is a drive roller 98 powered by a brake/clutch drive ~6 l 100 a~d in contact with an upper drag roller lOZ. Just down- .
27 1 stream from the rollers 98 and 102 are a pair of ejector ~8 ¦ rollers 104 and 106. Extending at an angle downwardly from 29 just bove the bite between the rollers l04, 106 is a guide !1 _7_ Il lU19~

~ plate 108. Mounted below the ejector rollers 104, 106 is an 2 !l inclined conveyor 110 upon which may be positioned a plurality 3 1l of conventional postal trays T (as by means of separating cleats 4 1l 112) for movement downwardly and beneath the ejector rolls.
¦i At the bottom of the inclined conveyox 110 is a 6 !I short hoxizontal conveyor formed by a pair of belts 114 which 7 ll terminate at a rollex 116. Just beyond roller 116 there are 8 ¦I positioned a plurality of conical rollers 118 which are commonly 9 il powered in conventional fashion and are oriented with their ¦¦ apexes sharing a common point. They lead to a powered ~ cylindrical roller 120~ beyond which are a plurality of idler 12 ~¦ rollers 1~2 arranged to form a downwardly inclined, low friction 13 ¦I ramp 124 leading to a discharge conveyor 126.
14 ¦~ Before proceeding to an explanation of the operation ¦¦ of this invention, attention i.s directe~ to FIG. 4 which dis~ .
16 !¦ closes the guide plate 108 which extends downwardly into the 17 ¦ trays. This guide plate may be pivotally mounted by any suitable 18 ¦ means such as the yoke 128~ The lower end of the guide plata : ¦ 108 extends into the tray T to rest against mail pieces therein I and the yoke 128 is positioned to activate a switch 130. The 21 I lower end of the gui~e plate 108 is hinged, as by hinge.132 which 22 j will operate in the direction indicated by the dotted lines but 23 which is normally held outwardly by the action of a spring 134.
~ 24 ¦ Operation - ! A. Tran~er Function 26 ¦¦ Mail flats are fed inwardly from the le~t as shown 27 ¦ in FIG. 1 so as to be scanned by the photodetector 26. Thi~
28 photodetector observes if the postage indicia is at the leading 29 edge of the flat or its trailing edge and whether it is at I!
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33~3 1 ~ the top or the bottom edge. Based upon the results of this 2 scan, the controller 28 will cause the gates 30, 32 to assume 3 the correction positions. It will be understood that either 4 set of transfer stations may accept leading or trailîng edge S postage indicia. However, for purposes of explanation, it will 6 ¦ be assumed that the fixst pair of trans~er stations, i~e., 7 1 stations 10, 12, will accept flats bearing postage indicia 8 ¦ adjacent the leading edge. It will also ~e assumed that the 9 1 "normal" position for postage indicia is in ~he upper right ¦ hand corner as one vi ws the address side o the flat~
11 Assume that a flat F2 passes through the gap 24 12 with its postage indicia in the upper right hand corner as 13 ¦¦ viewed by an observer at position X of F~G, 1. Under these 14 ¦ conditions, the controller 28 will cause both g~tes 30, 32 to pivot downwardly into the positions illustrated by solid lines.
16 The flat F2 will thereby be forced through pathway 48 and into 17 transfer station 12. If the postaye indicia of another flat is 18 also adjacent ihe leading edge, but at the bottom, the gate 30 19 ~ill be triggexea to its upwardly pivoted position so that the flat will pass through path 34 and into station 10. If neither 21 condition is met, gate 30 will remain down and gate 32 will 22 1 be pivoted upwardly so as to pass a flat meeting neither condition 23 ¦ through the "reject" path 70, the~eby bypassing both transfer 24 ¦ stations 10 and 12.
¦ FIGo 2 illustrates the flats advancing into transfer 2~ ¦ station 10. These ~lats have the postage indicia along the 27 leading e~ge but at the bottom. They are advanced by belts 44a, 28 b, past the aperture ~6 and against the deflector 92a so that they 23 are caused to fall do~nwardly ~hrough a 90~ arc onto the conve~or 84 es i lustreted. ~- viewed looking down onto the incoming Il _g~

l!
)8~23 ,, 1 I conveyor, ~he postage indicia will be in the upper right hand 2 l¦ corner. Similarly, the flats directed into station 12 will 3 ii be deflected backwardly so as to fall onto the conveyor 84 4 ¦¦ as shown in ~IG. 2 so that all flats upon conveyor 84 will be ¦! aligned in the same fashion.
6 l~ The rejec~s, which have passed through stations 10 7 l¦ and 12, will include all flats having properly positioned indicia 8 ll along the ~railing edges. ~hese are handled in a~actly the 9 1I same manner by the second pair of transfer stations, although 1. the indicia of ~he flats on th~ belt 84' will be on the bottom 11 li as shown in FIG. 3. Flats whose postage indic1a do not meet 12 l! either of the criteria required for the first or second pair of 13 !! stations will be advanced onto a reject path where they may be 14 1¦ h~ndled manually or as desired.
-I 15 !I B. Tra~ Loading 16 1¦ Referring now to FIG. 3, it will be noted that there 17 ~1 are two conveyors 110 t 1101 onto which postal trays T may be 18 !¦ loaded-, manual~y or otherwise, for downward movement aiong the 19 1 incline of the conveyors. ~onsidering only the nearest loading ~i station as viewed in FIG. 3, it will be seen that the flats F
21 li which are carried by conveyor 84 are fed into the bite between 22 ~I driven rol].er 98 and dray roller 102. The function of the drag 23 1! roller is to singulate the mail so that only single flats there-24 ¦¦ after pass between the e~ector rollers 104, 106a These 1~ rollers are faster than the preceding rollers and propel each 26 j! piece of mail into its associated tray T helow the guide plate 27 11 108. As flats accumulate in the particular tray, guide plate 28 1! lOB is gradually lifted until, when the tray is ~ufficiently 29 iull, the switch 130 is actuated to activate the convey~r 110 o-.

~ g8~ 3 1 ,¦ to advance the nex-t tray into position. Simultaneously, brake/
2 1¦ clutch 100 is energized to briefly stop roller 98 and the flow of 3 l¦ mail pieces while the trays are positioned. The hinge 132 4 ¦¦ permits the end of the guide plate 108 to deflect an* permit the ¦I passage of the tray rim. It then returns to its original position 6 ¦j for insertion in the succeeding tray.
7 !¦ Upon advancement of the next tray into the loading 8 ~¦ position, the bottommost loaded tray on the conveyor 100 will 9 ¦I be advanced onto the b~lts 114 and carried to the po~ered ¦ conical rollers 118. As the large diameter ends of these 11 ¦ conical rollers have a faster peripheral speed than their small 12 diameter ends, each of the loaded trays received thereon is 13 caused to pivot through a 90 arc and into contact with cylindrica 1 14 roller 120. Roller 120 propels -the loaded tray onto the ramp 124 where it rolls onto the discharge conveyor 126~
16 If the position of the postage lndicia is now traced 17 - through the sequence of operation just described, it will be 18 ¦ noted that the postage indicia of all flats in the loade~ tray 19 now face downstream o~ conveyor 126 and are positioned in the ~0 upper le~t corner as the illustration is viewed. The operation 21 of the loading station 96 is similar except that the 90 22 rotation of the loaded trays is in the opposite airection.
~3 If a similar analysis of the movement of the flats is made 24 of this loading station, it will be seen ~hat the loaded tray ¦ which is positioned on the conveyor 126 from the ramp 12~' 26 carries flats aligned identically to those from the preceding 27 station.
28 C. System Operation 29 ~I~. S illustrates the manner in which the apparatus l o~ ~his ~nvention may be incorporated in~o an overall system.

1~9B~1123 1 ¦¦ The various functions of the system are denominated hy Roman ~ ¦ numerals I-VX. The speci~ic functions of the present invention 3 ¦ are incorporated in III~V~ although a postmark and canceling 4 ¦ station are included between photodetector 26 and the first i transport apparatus 14, ~he numbers 1-4 ldenti~y ~he postage 6 11 indicia locations which are handled by each o~ the transfer 7 1! stations.
8 ¦¦ Conclusion 9 I It will now be apparent that all of the ob~ectives 10 set forth abov~ are achieved by the present inventîon. It 11 will also be apparent.that these ob]ectives are achieved with 12 simple and inexpensive apparatus as compared with those of th~
13 ¦ prior art. It will also be apparent that many variations and 14 modifications may be made in this invention without depaxting 15 from its spirit and scope. Accordingly, the foregoing .
16 description is to be construed as illustrative only, rather than 17 limiting~ This invention is limited only by the scope of the 18 j follo~ing claims.

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Claims (7)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. Apparatus for orienting flat mail pieces serially received in a generally edge-standing configuration and bearing corner positioned postage indicia commonly adjacent the leading or trailing edges, comprising:
means for sensing the location of said postage indicia relative to the vertical dimension of each piece;
a first transfer station;
means for transporting mail pieces having upper edge located indicia to said first transfer station in a first direction;
a second transfer station;
means for transporting mail pieces having lower edge located indicia to said second transfer station in a second direction substantially parallel to said first direction;
means for conveying mail pieces away from said first and second transfer stations in a third direction;
means at said first transfer station for depositing mail pieces onto said conveying means in a preselected orienta-tion relative to said third direction;
and means at said second transfer station for deposit-ing mail pieces onto said conveying means in the same orientation relative to said third direction as mail pieces from said first transfer station.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said conveying means comprises a belt underlying each of said transfer stations.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each of said trans-fer stations defines a mail piece receiving aperture overlying said conveying means.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein each of said transfer stations comprises means for deflecting each of said mail pieces from its edge-standing configuration and down-wardly through said aperture to a flat position on said con-veying means.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein each of said mail pieces is deflected through an arc of approximately 90°.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein the direction of mail piece deflection at said first transfer station is substantially opposite the direction of mail piece deflection at said second transfer station.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said conveying means comprises a belt underlying both of said transfer stations.