| 摘要 |
<p>An automated conveyor sortation and item discharge system for conveying and discharging packages at high speeds. A conveyor assembly includes an elongate crowned conveyor belt (20), which conveys parcels (12) in a longitudinal direction defined across slider beds (18) and across discharge stations. The parcels may be allowed to pass the discharge stations and continue to be conveyed by the crowned conveyor belt, or they can be selectively discharged off of the crowned conveyor belt and into discharge chutes located to either side of the substantially straight path of the crowned conveyor belt. Each of the discharge stations includes a selectively indexable fork member (33) supporting a group of idling rollers (34). The parcels (12) have sliding contact with the slider beds (18) and 'rolling contact' with the idler rollers (34). When a package is in the desired position, the fork member can be indexed to cause some of the rollers to move upwardly and inwardly. This causes the package to tilt about the top of the crowned conveyor belt until the package contacts a withdrawal roller (40) opposing the conveyor belt from the raised rollers. The withdrawal roller (40) draws the package into one of two chutes for sorting purposes.</p> |
