Patent ID: 8060243

Claim:
A sorting apparatus which sorts packages that are carried on a main conveyor, said sorting apparatus comprising: a characteristic information obtaining unit configured to obtain characteristic information of each of the packages; a branching unit configured to perform a branching operation for forwarding a predetermined package among the packages to a branch conveyor branching from the main conveyor; an interval adjusting unit configured to adjust an interval between two of the packages, the two packages being a preceding package and a succeeding package which are sequentially forwarded to the main conveyor; a branch control unit configured to cause said branching unit to change a speed of the branching operation for forwarding the preceding package to the branch conveyor according to the characteristic information of the preceding package obtained by said characteristic information obtaining unit, and to cause said branching unit to change a speed of the branching operation for forwarding the succeeding package to the branch conveyor according to the characteristic information of the succeeding package obtained by said characteristic information obtaining unit; and an interval control unit configured to obtain a time required for the branching operation for the proceeding package, and cause said interval adjusting unit to increase the interval between the two packages in proportion to the obtained time required for the branching operation for the preceding package.