Patent GB-1038116-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to circulating conveyor systems
IPC: B65G47/48
Filed: 1964-07-15
Abstract: 1,038,116. Discharging articles from endless conveyers. G. M. PFAFF A.G. July 15, 1964 [July 18, 1963], No. 29406/64. Heading B8A. In a circulating conveyer system having displaceable goods carriers 9, connected to an endless chain 1, each carrier incorporates a device 3 for selecting the code of a receiving station to which the carrier is to be directed, each device 3 being provided with a plurality of adjustable trips 26 which engage scanning devices 48 at the receiving station and each trip 26 is integral with an adjusting member 21 which is linked through lost motion elements 17, 18 to a push-button 10, the adjusting member 21 cooperating with an adjustable finger 31 at a loading station. Each device 3 has a stack of adjusting members and trips 21, 26 mounted on each side thereof, one trip in each stack combining to form a destination code. The latter can either be selected by manually pressing the appropriate buttons 10 or by the adjusting fingers 31 automatically engaging the adjusting members 21 whereby the trip 26 is rotated about shaft 22 into a position where it is engageable by the scanning device 48 at the appropriate receiving station. The conveyed goods, in this case clothes on hangers 7, are supported on a V-shaped member 8 mounted on the front of a shaft 5 journalled in a front plate 4 of the carrier. The shaft 5 is coupled through linkages to a pair of rollers 63 which upon engaging a movable rail 55, Fig. 4 (not shown), at the appropriate receiving station causes the member 8 to rotate against spring pressure to discharge the hanger 7. The automatic code setting device incorporating the adjustable fingers 31 is located at the most frequently used receiving station to set the code for that station on any empty carriers passing therethrough. The adjustable fingers 31 are set to the height corresponding to the appropriate coding by cable means 34 communicating with a stationary selector 37. The fingers 31 are slidable on vertical shafts 29 rotatably mounted in housing 27 at the receiving station. Any carrier passing through the station having had a different receiving station code manually selected carries a hanger 7 which engages a feeler 43 which causes the fingers 31 to be rotated out of the path of the carrier via a spring lever 40 operated by a solenoid controlled by micro-switch 47. The trips 26 of a carrier due to discharge at the receiving station engage the scanning levers 48 causing rotation of shafts 49 and subsequent operation of a solenoid 53, Fig. 4 (not shown), which pivots the rail 55, Fig. 4 (not shown), into a spring locked position in the path of one of the rollers 63 depending on which side of the discharge of the hanger 7 is to take place. The hanger is then transferred to a receiving rack 73, 74, Fig. 4 (not shown). With further advance of the carrier, the roller 63 causes the spring lock 56, Fig. 4 (not shown) of the rail 55 to be released and the V-shaped member 8 returns to its normal position. Further rollers 72 engage rails 71 in the discharge regions to stabilize the carrier as the member 8 is rotated.