| 摘要 |
A sorting apparatus comprising a train of carriers each having a tiltable support provided with a gripper device for releasably retaining an empty mail sack on the carrier. The carriers follow a loop track and are advanced therealong to and past a loading station and a plurality of unloading stations. Each carrier includes a coding device which may be set by an operator at the loading station at the time an empty sack is positioned in the gripper device. A cyclic drive is provided which includes an endless chain carrying a pawl in a path which approaches the track to engage the pawl with a carrier and move the train a predetermined distance, which is an even multiple or submultiple of the distances between loading and unloading stations, and then departs therefrom to disengage the pawl. As a carrier reaches the loading station, it trips an indexing device which stops that carrier and, accordingly, the train, in proper position. The pawl in departing from the carrier contacts the indexing device and returns it to retracted cocked condition removing the stop element from the path of the carrier, whereby the train may again be moved upon engagement of the pawl with the next carrier. Code sensing arrangements are located at the unloading stations operative to actuate mechanism to tilt the support of a correspondingly coded carrier. In tilting, the support moves the gripped sack laterally, and releases the gripper device. Mechanism at the station is also actuated to restrain the lower portion of the sack against lateral movement whereby the sacks are deposited in horizontal position on a table at the station one on top of the other to form a stack.
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