Patent GB-473996-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for use in sorting letters or like articles
IPC: B07C3/08
Filed: 1936-04-29
Abstract: 473,996. Sorting letters. ERICSSON TELEPHONES, Ltd., WILMAN, C. W., and TRAPP, C. C. April 29, 1936, Nos. 12137 and 29423. [Class 78 (i)] In sorting-apparatus of the kind in which the letters, &c. are carried by a conveyer divided into sections, each section is divided into a plurality of compartments so that the des. tination of a letter is determined in part by its insertion into a particular compartment in the section by which it is transported. Seats 1 .. 4 for the operators are provided on a platform 5 in front of pairs of endless belts 6, and keyboards 10. The belts are divided into compartments each of sufficient size to contain one letter, and are supplied with letters from a loading table 8. Travelling light indicators 113, 114 at each station of the kind described in Specification 446,667 indicate which letter is to be dealt with next. From the belts 6 the letters are dropped either automatically or manually into a shoot 16, Fig. 2, from which they pass through a transversely movable selector 17, and one of a series of shoots 18 into one of the compartments of a section 12 of the main conveyer. This conveyer passes a munber of collecting positions 13 at any one of which a letter can be removed by a blast of air from a nozzle 23 controlled electromagnetically and directed by shoots 14 into one of a vertical column of receptacles 15. Deflectors 22 direct the letters on to 'ledges 21 at the lower ends of the inclined perforated partitions 20 forming the compartments of each section 12. The selector 17 is mounted on rods 28 slidable in bearings 29, and is reciprocated by the action of cams 34, 35 and springs on levers 32, 33 connected to slidable blocks 30, 31. The cams cause the outward movement of the blocks, and after their withdrawal, the magnets 37 ..42 are set in accordance with the compartment to which delivery is to be made. The magnets control stops 36, and the extent of the inward movement of the blocks 30, 31 under spring action is limited by the stops placed in their paths. An apertured shutter 19 slidable on rods 43 follows the movements of the selector 17, and is controlled through a lever 45 by a cam mounted on the same shaft as the cam 35, and by a spring 44. The timing is such that the shutter opens the lower end of the selector as soon as the latter has been positioned. The shoots 18 are slidable on rods 47 and are accelerated to the speed of the conveyer 12 when a letter falls into them. The movement of the shoots is effected by chains 48 provided with laterally extending pins 54, Fig. 4, which engage with a slot 55 formed in the framework. Each section of the conveyer 12 comprises a casting 56, Fig. 5, supporting the partitions 20 and forming bearings for rods 57 pivotally connecting adjacent sections and also forming driving pins which engage slots in the driving wheels 11. The rods 57 support rubber-tyred wheels 59, 61 running on tracks 60, 62 supported by brackets 63 on the platform 5. In a modification an operator seated at a keyboard 73, Fig. 9, picks up the front letter of a series stacked on a belt 72, and after pressing the key corresponding with it destination, drops it into the appropriate one of four shoots 74. The downward movement of the letter is arrested by a shutter corresponding to the shutter 19, Fig. 3, but comprising four pairs of flaps 75 which are swung in opposite directions by rack-and-pinion mechanism actuated by cams 81 and levers 80. As the letters are removed from the belt 72, a carriage 85 carrying a roller 86 against which the foremost letter presses is moved to the right by a spring 87 and tensions the spring 90. When the latter spring overcomes the spring 91, the arm 88 moves over the dead centre and closes the contacts 84, thereby starting the driving motor 83 of the belt 72. The letters are carried forward, and the carriage 85 moves to the left until the arm 88 snaps back over the dead centre and opens the motor circuit. A visual signal may indicate to the operator when each letter is allowed to fall from the shoots 74. When automatic transfer from the conveyer 6 to the conveyer 12 is provided, electrical means may register the compartments of the sections of the conveyer 12 into which the various letters are to be transferred, and also the collecting positions at which the letters are to be removed from the main conveyer. This registering mechanism may be step-by-step switches set through the intermediary of marking relays, of which there may be two or more sets connected in turn to the keyboard. Specification 473,996 also is referred to.