Patent ID: 8583275
Filing Date: 2013-11-12
Classification: B07C,B65H

Abstract:
1. An unstacker device for a sorting machine for sorting flat articles, said unstacker device having an inlet and an outlet and being configured to accept at its inlet flat articles in a stack, and to deliver at its outlet said flat articles in series, and with a predetermined gap between said flat articles, said unstacker device comprising: first detection means suitable for detecting the transition between an article N of a first specialized article type or of a default article type and a consecutive article N+1, respectively of a second specialized article type or of a first specialized article type; a first specialized unstacking program and a second specialized unstacking program, each of which is suitable for maintaining respectively a first nominal gap and a second nominal gap between two consecutive unstacked flat articles; and a monitoring/control unit suitable for automatically executing one of said first and second specialized unstacking programs depending on the article type that is detected; wherein said unstacker device includes a default unstacking program suitable for maintaining a default nominal gap between two consecutive unstacked articles, which default nominal gap is different from said first and second nominal gaps, said monitoring/control unit being arranged for automatically executing said default unstacking program in response to detection of said transition, for counting said flat articles subsequent to said transition, and, in response to a predetermined counting threshold being reached, for executing, for said subsequent flat articles and until the next transition detection, one of said first and second specialized unstacking programs that corresponds to the detected specialized article type.