Patent ID: 6484886
Filing Date: 2002-11-26
Classification: B65G,Y10S

Abstract:
An apparatus for feeding a stream of articles to a sorter comprising;an infeed conveyor; a detection system configured to determine the spacing and number of articles on the infeed conveyor, the detection system controlling the rate at which articles are loaded onto the infeed conveyor, the detection system comprising a vision system which monitors the number of articles present in each of a plurality of areas of the infeed conveyor; a singulator, the singulator receiving a disordered stream of non-flat, three dimensional articles from the infeed conveyor and spacing the articles for transfer from the singulator one at a time; a scanner, the scanner receiving articles from the singulator and scanning a plurality of sides of the article for destination indica, the scanner generating a signal corresponding to the scanned indica; and a diverter, the diverter directing selected articles in response to the signal generated by the scanner.