ATPOBOX 6
Transfer System
Of The Automatic PO Box System
CLAIMS
The present patent application is complementary to the patent application submitted with "Automatic PO Box System" as the title. The claim of the present patent application is: A mechanism constituted of a pair of flat cams, a set of transfer fingers and step motors designed to solve a problem of mechanical interference between the boxes of the storage system of the automatic PO Box system during their traveling from one level of the railing of the storage system to the other. |
ATPOBOX 6
Transfer System
Of The Automatic Po Box System
DESCMPTION
The present patent application is complementary to the International patent application submitted with "Automatic PO Box System" as the title.
The TRANSFER MECHANISM (1) of the storage system of the Automatic PO Box system was designed to solve the problem of mechanical interference between the PO Boxes (2) during their movement as they reach the end of a HORIZONTAL RAIL (3) and have to be transferred from on level of the railing to the other. Due to the initial quest of the designer to reduce space usage of the storage system to a minimum and attain maximum box density per unit volume of the storage system, the boxes were stacked in line at MINIMUM INTERVALS (3).
As described in previous related patent applications the PO Boxes are driven on the rail by the CHAINS via the FINGERS OF THE CHAIN LINKS (5) the chains themselves are driven by STEP MOTORS (22) via SPROCKET WHEELS (23).
During their horizontal displacement, when the boxes reach the END OF A STRAIGHT SECTION OF THE RAIL) (4), the boxes are liberated from the fingers of the chain links to be transferred along a WIDE CURVE (6) allowing them to pass over one another without interference.
This transfer is executed by a mechanism constituted of a STEP MOTOR (7) which turns the BIG WHEEL (8).
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The big wheel, a steel disk, carries near the edge of its outer flank four FINGER HOLDERS (9). The four finger holders are positioned at 90 degrees intervals at the quadrants of the big wheel.
The finger holders are steel parts carrying two FINGERS (10) each. These fingers, steel pins, are lodged in holes drilled in a radial direction perpendicularly to the peripheral face of the pin holders. The fingers are allowed to slide outwards and inwards along these HOLES (11). The inner ends of the fingers slide on the outer rim of a CAM (12) machined on the FIXED HUB OF THE BIG WHEEL (13). As they reach the UPPER LOBE OF THE CAM (14) the fingers are pushed outwards. The fingers are equipped with recall springs pulling them inwards to reenter the lodging holes in which they slide as they reach the LOWER LOBE OF THE CAM (15).
The PO Boxes are pushed or pulled by the fingers of the chain links during their horizontal displacement. When the boxes reach the end of a straight section of the rail, the CHAINS (16) curve sharply around the DRIVING SPROCKET WHEELS (1) either upwards or downwards while the fingers of the chain links liberate the boxes. At that instant he boxes will be taken over by the rising fingers of the big wheel which have reached the upper lobe of the cam just in time to cage in the rollers of the boxes.
The ROLLERS OF THE BOXES (17) are steel cylinders placed axially on the PINS OF THE BOXES (18) between the side of the PO Box proper and the BALL BEARING (19) previously mentioned in patent application "Automatic PO Box System" The rollers are positioned outside the rail and do not interfere with it at any time. They also allow the box to swing freely and remain vertical under the action of gravity as it is transferred from the UPPER LEVEL (20) to the LOWER LEVEL (21) or vice-versa.
During the transfer operation, the rollers of the PO Box are imprisoned between the fingers of the big wheel as long as the inner ends of these fingers remain on the upper lobe of the cam, in such a way the speed of transfer of the boxes is controlled by the speed of the step motor of the big wheel. To ensure proper positioning of the PO Box at the end of the transfer journey, the movement of the chain and that of the transfer mechanism are
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synchronized. This will allow for a specific box to be moved to the proper space between the fingers of the chain links at the beginning of the next horizontal rail. In this manner, the usual spacing between boxes will be observed. During the transfer, the boxes continue to follow the path of the curved section of the rail as this trajectory is imposed on them by the ball bearings which continue to roll along the curved section of the rail. So the fingers of the big wheel are designed to set the pace of the transfer of the boxes and thus their proper positioning and not the trajectory which is ordained by the rolling of the ball bearings on the curved section of the rail. At the next level, either upper or lower, the fingers of the big wheel will slide inwards as they reach the lower lobe of the cam and liberate the rollers of the boxes which will be simultaneously recuperated by the fingers of the chain links at the beginning of the next horizontal section of the rail.
At any moment, during the movement of the system, there is one box departing the horizontal section of the rail to roll along the curved path, another departing the next quadrant of the curved path towards the next horizontal path and a last one just entering the next horizontal path.
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