NETWORKED MOTORIZED DRIVE ROLLER CONVEYOR

摘要

A motorized drive roller conveyor includes an upstream zone and a downstream zone, with each zone having a drive roller, an idler roller that is driven by the drive roller, and a sensor. The upstream zone and the downstream zone are controlled by a card, which measures a gap between a first item on the conveyor and a second item on the conveyor by beginning a counter when a trailing edge of the first item passes the sensor of the upstream zone and stopping the counter when a leading edge of the second item passes the sensor of the upstream zone to generate a counter value. If the first item is stopped in the downstream zone, the card of the upstream zone causes the drive roller of the upstream zone to advance the second item into the downstream zone for a distance derived from the counter value before stopping the transportation of the second item.

主权项

1. A networked motorized drive roller conveyor comprising:
a plurality of motorized drive roller assemblies, each assembly comprising a zone; a plurality of networked cards, each card controlling a pair of adjacent zones; a plurality of sensors for detecting items on the conveyor, each sensor corresponding to a zone; wherein for a pair of adjacent zones, the corresponding networked card measures a gap between consecutive items on the conveyor by beginning a counter when a trailing edge of a first item passes the sensor of an upstream zone within the pair of zones, and stopping the counter when a leading edge of the second item passes the sensor of the upstream zone within the pair of zones to generate a counter value.