| 摘要 |
A system and method for automatically processing a supply of cartons, in flattened form and of different types, in accordance with a selectable number of plural, different and separately identifiable carton types. Unsorted cartons are removed in successive layers from stacks thereof and transported in serial succession along a transport path. Sorting modules are disposed along the transport path, each including respectively associated routing and stacking devices individually predesignated to receive and stack a given, identifiable carton type. A system controller tracks the progress of each carton, simultaneously for plural cartons, along the transport path and when a match of the carton type with a predesignated stacking device is determined, actuates the associated routing device to route a carton of a matching type from the transport path and to the associated stacking device for stacking. The system controller monitors the stack content of each stacking device and, when a first matching stacking device is full, automatically routes successive cartons of the common type to an alternate and commonly predesignated stacking device, if available. One or more overflow stacking devices is predesignated to receive identified cartons for which no stacking device has been predesignated and/or for which all matched stacking devices are full. Cartons which are not identifiable or which do not satisfy acceptable carton condition criteria are automatically transported to a reject bin.
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