PNEUMATIC TRANSPORT DELIVERY CONTROL

摘要

The presented inventions seek to create a verifiable and closed loop chain-of-custody for a specific transaction in a pneumatic tube transport system while allowing a sender and recipient to perform asynchronous activity. That is, one aspect the presented inventions allows a sender to securely send a carrier to a desired recipient while allowing the desired recipient to receive the secured carrier at a convenient time and/or location without tying up system resources. Another aspect improves the physical barriers between high value payloads and the unintended recipients. This is done in part by introducing randomness into the carrier delivery process such that no member of the general public or facility staff knows the location and/or delivery time of a secured carrier without having access to specific database records indicating the current location and/or delivery status of the secured carrier.

主权项

1. A method for use in a pneumatic carrier system that includes a plurality of user stations, pneumatic tubes and transfer devices, comprising:
receiving an input identifying an intended destination for a carrier at an origination location within the pneumatic carrier system; sending a message to a communications device associated with the intended destination, wherein said message indicates a carrier is inbound for delivery and wherein the message includes an access code; transporting the carrier to the destination location via the pneumatic tube system; and releasing the carrier upon the access code being received via an input device at the destination location.