Patent ID: 6736253
Filing Date: 2004-05-18
Classification: B65G

Abstract:
An apparatus for sorting articles that are conveyed on a conveyor belt, where the apparatus includes at least one actuator-controlled channel-formed gate pivotable about a vertical axis at an end thereof, said gate arranged to be able to guide an article sideways relative to the longitudinal direction of the conveyor belt by a rotational movement across the conveyor belt, and which in a neutral position is arranged to allow the article to move past unaffected by the gate, and where the actuation of the gate is controlled on the basis of a signal indicating the sorting direction sent from an article-recognition station, characterised inthat the gate has two channel side walls separated by a distance approximately equal to the width of the conveyor belt and where the side walls at the top are connected via at least one connecting piece; that the actuator is placed at a level above the gate and is via its vertical shaft connected to the gate connecting piece at the downstream end of the gate; and that the actuator is designed, based on said signal, to: either maintain the gate in a neutral position so that articles can pass unobstructed through the channel with its walls parallel to the direction of transport; or turn the gate towards one side or the other of the conveyor belt, so that the upstream end of the gate lies essentially beyond a longitudinal edge of the conveyor belt, and so that an article that is to be removed from the conveyor belt through said sideways guidance is movable along an outside face of one of the channel walls having its upstream end closest to said longitudinal edge.