Patent ID: 11858006
Assignee: UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICES
Field: Chemical engineering (Chemistry)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 12:
13. A method for sorting delivery items, the method comprising:
scanning an indicia of a delivery item from a source of delivery items with a scanner of an intake area;
transmitting data corresponding to the indicia of the delivery item from the scanner to a computing system;
disposing the delivery item on a first end portion of a sorting area conveyor of a sorting area;
moving the delivery item from the first end portion of the sorting area conveyor toward a second end portion of the sorting area conveyor;
determining, with the computing system, a proper sort location among a plurality of sort locations of the sorting area for the delivery item based at least in part on the data from the scanner;
sending a signal from the computing system to an indicator of the sorting area to indicate the proper sort location for the delivery item;
disposing the delivery item in the proper sort location indicated by the indicator;
determining that the delivery item is disposed in the proper sort location indicated by the indicator;
moving at least one delivery item from the source of delivery items to an accumulator area conveyor of an accumulator area via the sorting area conveyor; and
storing the at least one delivery item on the accumulator area conveyor, wherein storing the at least one delivery item on the accumulator area conveyor comprises:
receiving, with the computing system, a signal from a first accumulator area sensor disposed at a first end portion of the accumulator area conveyor indicating the presence of the at least one delivery item;
transmitting, with the computing system, a signal to the accumulator area conveyor to move the at least one delivery item toward a second end portion thereof;
receiving, with the computing system, a signal from the first accumulator area sensor indicating the absence of the delivery item; and
transmitting, with the computing system, a signal to the accumulator area conveyor to stop the movement of the delivery item towards the second end portion thereof.