GB1098274A - Improvements relating to conveyors - Google Patents

Abstract

1,098,274. Endless conveyers. SOVEX Ltd. July 12, 1965 [April 14, 1964; Dec. 2, 1964], Nos. 29455/65 and 49022/64. Heading B8A. Documents are conveyed on carrier tray 57 of an endless chain elevator, and at a discharge station may be discharged to a conveyer 65a if they are contained in a container 21, otherwise they are discharged to a conveyer 65b. In a modification (Fig. 1, not shown), documents not in a container are discharged via a shoot (64) to a box (65). Containers are suspended by side ribs (26) which engage rails (62) leading to a conveyer 63. The carrier tray 57 is shown in its discharging position. In its normal conveying position its load-carrying surface is horizontal, a pin 53 being latched in a member 48 which runs in rails 50. The tray 57 may carry destination selectors which determine at which station the tray is to be discharged. A correspondence between the setting of the selector and mechanism at a selected station causes release of the latch at 53 thus permitting the member 53 to leave the member 48 and follow the contour of guide rails 55a (if a container is to be discharged) or the guide rails 55b (if documents on their own are to be discharged. Portions 55d of the rails 55b lift to permit the member 53 to pass the rails 55b when necessary. In a modification, if at a station at which a discharge has been signalled, a container is not sensed as being present on the carrier tray, release of the latch is made subject to a mechanical and/or electrical time delay. Containers or documents are fed to the downward moving side of the elevator through an opening (58) (Fig. 2, not shown). A container engaging the sill 60 of this opening would operate a switch to stop the elevator. The same result would obtain by the presence of a container or document for an undue time in the opening 58. The containers may also carry destination selectors which may operate a selected carrier tray of the present elevator and may also control the selection of conveyers in a system as described in the parent Specification.