3. PREAMBLE OF THE DESCRIPTION: The following complete specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is performed.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present embodiment generally relates to a sorting mechanism. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated pre-sortation system which minimises the time being taken for sorting goods, generally in a conveyor belt system. Specifically, an aspect of the present embodiment relates to a cross-belt sorter embedded with an integrated pre-sortation system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

As humanity started evolving from the stone age, it invented various means and methods to ease their daily requirements. Traditionally, goods were transported from one place to another manually, by the person who wanted the goods to be transported.

As commercialisation rose, so did the concept of brands which started delivering worldwide and required shipment of massive amounts, also giving way to courier and postage services.

Traditionally, sortation of goods would be done on the basis of the receiver’s address listed on the good and trolleys would be used to transport the goods from one location to another, manually. Because of such level of manual intervention, goods would often get lost, or be misplaced, or even sent to wrong locations- incurring high costs of transporting the same. Additionally, such amount of manual work would require a lot of human resources as well. With the advent in technology, conveyor belts started being used instead of trolleys and goods could now be tracked on the basis of barcodes stuck on the packaging of the good, and scanned at all location checkpoints. However, these solutions did not provide any relief to the issues of appropriate sortation of goods.

This need in the market gave way to a solution that built onto the existing conveyor belt systems, the cross-belt sorter. Generally, a cross belt sorter is type of conveyor-based sortation system which consists of a chain of independently operated short conveyor belts mounted transversely along the main track, which appropriately sort multiple goods onto the short conveyor belts from the main track.

Traditionally, goods or articles have to be pre-sorted and then fed into the cross-belt sorter manually by operators. In such scenarios, the pre-sortation process is random and because of that reason, an ideal throughput cannot be attained without the inclusion of additional manual intervention, which ultimately increases the costs. If additional manual intervention is not utilised, then the throughput attained is excessively low, and ultimately results in higher costs. Since the pre-sort is done manually, the goods often have to traverse on the cross -belt sorter twice before they reach their appropriate destination.

Therefore, in light of the above-mentioned limitations of the cross-belt sorter, there exists a need of an efficient cross-belt sorter which is embedded with an integrated pre- sortation system. More particularly, there exists a need for an integrated pre-sortation system which increases the throughput without the requirement of additional manual intervention.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION:

In light of the limitations of the existing conventional systems as discussed above, it is evident that there arises a need of an integrated pre-sortation system to be configured within a conveyor belt system, or more specifically, a cross-belt sorter for substantially overcoming the above-mentioned limitations.

The present disclosure portrays a massive increase in the hourly throughput of the system by integrating the pre-sortation into the conveyor belt system, which further links to a technical and economic advantage. Another object of the present disclosure is to reduce the requirement of manual intervention by the integrated pre-sortation system. Yet another object of the present disclosure is to embed the integrated pre-sortation system into a cross-belt sorter and ultimately increase the hourly throughput without the requirement of additional manual intervention.

In an aspect, embodiments of the present disclosure provide an integrated pre-sortation system (100) having an integrated pre-sort arrangement (160), wherein the integrated pre-sort arrangement (160) including one or more feed lines (102, 104), a pre-sorting set up (106), one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110), a feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) and a downstream pre-sort apparatus (400), is connected to a server (120) having a processing unit (180) via a communication network (140). Further, the feeding presort apparatus (200) includes one or more weighing scales (202, 204), one or more barcode scanners (206, 208), one or more dual direction conveyors (210, 212) and an operator panel (218); and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) includes one or more load conveyors (410, 412), a receiving conveyor (414), a spacing conveyor (422), a merge conveyor (424), and a plurality of sensors including one or more parcel receiving sensors (402, 404), one or more parcel releasing sensors (406, 408), one or more checkpoint sensors (416, 418), an array curtain sensor (420), a length sensor (426), and an induction sensor (428).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects, features, and advantages of the embodiment will be apparent from the following description when read with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals denote corresponding parts throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein;

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein;

FIGs. 3A and 3B illustrate schematic diagrams depicting a feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein;

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic diagram depicting a downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein; and FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein.

DETAILED DESCRPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an integrated pre-sortation system (100) which maximises the hourly throughput while reducing the manual intervention required. The integrated pre-sortation system (100) is embedded in a conveyor belt system or a cross-belt sorter and offers a unique placement of the pre-sort and feed line stations, as well as unique shapes of the conveyor belt loop which maximise utility and increase the throughput.

Throughout the present disclosure the term “conveyor belt system” refers to a carrying medium to transfer goods and products from one location to another. Furthermore, the conveyor belt system includes two or more rollers coupled to an endless loop or a conveyor belt. Moreover, the conveyor belt systems are configured to continuously transfer the goods and products from one location to another. In a preferred embodiment, the present disclosure refers to integrated pre-sortation system (100) embedded into the conveyor belt system to enhance the throughput and reduce the manual intervention required.

Referring to FIG.l, the figure illustrates a schematic diagram of an integrated pre- sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein. The integrated pre-sortation system (100) includes one or more feed lines (102, 104), a pre-sorting set up (106), one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110), a feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) and a downstream pre-sort apparatus (400). One or more goods are placed on the pre-sorting set up (106), which is a part of the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200). The one or more goods are transferred from the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) to the downstream presort apparatus (400). The downstream pre-sort apparatus (400), along with the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) is responsible for the pre-sortation of the goods in the integrated pre-sortation system (100). As indicated above, the pre-sortation is performed in two parts, and is divided among two individual sets of apparatuses, namely, the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200), and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400). The pre- sortation is performed by the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200), and the downstream presort apparatus (400), post which the good is transported onto the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110), from which it is ultimately sorted and sent to the desired location. According to an embodiment, the one or more feed lines (102, 104) may be made up of conveyor belts, robots, tracks, automated guided carts, automated storage and retrieval systems, or automated guided vehicles.

According to an embodiment, the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) includes weighing scales, barcode scanners, dual direction conveyors, confirmation sensors and operator panel; and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) includes load conveyors, receiving conveyor, spacing conveyor, merge conveyor, and a plurality of sensors including parcel receiving sensors, parcel releasing sensors, checkpoint sensors, array curtain sensor, length sensor, and induction sensor.

The pre-sortation performed by the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200), and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) are explained below in detail with the assistance of figures 3 A and 3B, and figure 4; respectively.

According to an embodiment, the pre- sorting set up (106) may be automated or manually driven, or a combination of both. Further, the pre-sorting set up (106) may comprise of multiple elements including but not limited to sensors, conveyor belts, computers, scanners, panels, and weighing instruments.

According to an embodiment, the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110) may be made up of a cross-belt sorter integrated onto a conveyor belt system. Further, the conveyor belts utilised in the conveyor belt system, or the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110) may be made up of rubber, PVC, or a fabric such as nylon, polyester, neoprene, or nitrile. Referring to FIG.2, the figure illustrates a schematic diagram of the integrated pre- sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein. The integrated pre-sortation system (100) includes one or more feed lines (102, 104), a pre-sorting set up (106), and one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110). One or more goods are placed on the pre-sorting set up (106), which is responsible for the pre-sortation of the goods and once the good is pre-sorted by the pre-sorting set up (106), it is transported onto the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110), from which it is ultimately sorted and sent to the desired location.

Referring to FIGs.3A and 3B, the figures illustrate schematic diagrams depicting the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein. As shown, wherein FIG. 3A is a perspective view and FIG. 3B is a top view of the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200).

The feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) includes one or more weighing scales (202, 204), one or more barcode scanners (206, 208), one or more dual direction conveyors (210, 212) and an operator panel (218). The feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) is the first in the two-part integrated pre-sort as mentioned in the present disclosure for the integrated pre-sortation system (100). The good is placed onto one of the dual direction conveyors (210, 212), wherein one of the weighing scales (202, 204) senses a non-zero value, which, in turn, triggers one of the barcode scanners (206, 208) to read the barcode.

The barcode scanners (206, 208) read the barcode and send the respective information to the server (120) via a communication network (140). The processing unit (180) of the server (120) processes the barcode information, and in-turn provides information to the dual direction conveyors (210, 212) to either discharge the good in the left direction, or in the right direction. During this information relay, the weighing scales (202, 204) stabilize and the good is discharged in the left direction, or in the right direction, based on the information provided by the server (120).

The operator panel (218) displays the working of the integrated pre-sortation system (100), along with the messages relayed to and from the server (120), which assists in appropriate management and overlook of the pre-sortation.

Referring to FIG.4, the figure illustrates a schematic diagram depicting a downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein. As shown, the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) includes one or more load conveyors (410, 412), a receiving conveyor (414), a spacing conveyor (422), a merge conveyor (424), and a plurality of sensors including one or more parcel receiving sensors (402, 404), one or more parcel releasing sensors (406, 408), one or more checkpoint sensors (416, 418), an array curtain sensor (420), a length sensor (426), and an induction sensor (428). The downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) is the second in the two-part integrated pre-sort as mentioned in the present disclosure for the integrated pre-sortation system (100).

The good is transported form the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) to the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400). The one or more parcel receiving sensors (402, 404) confirm the receipt of the good from respective pre- sort carrier on to the one or more load conveyors (410, 412). Herein, the one or more parcel releasing sensors (406, 408) stop the good or parcel and release it only when the receiving conveyor (414) is ready to receive new goods, for example, if the existing goods placed on the receiving conveyor (414) are awaiting induction to the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108, 110).

The one or more load conveyors (410, 412) discharge the good onto the receiving conveyor (414) in a sequential manner. Herein, one of the one or more checkpoint sensors (416, 418), specifically the checkpoint sensor (416) acts as a checkpoint to stop the good at the receiving conveyor (414) and release the good only when the spacing conveyor (422) is ready to receive new goods.

The array curtain sensor (420) senses the position of the good with respect to the width of the conveyor belt, assisting in fine-tuning the speed of the merge conveyor (424) while inducting the good onto the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108, 110).

The checkpoint sensor (418) acts as a checkpoint to stop the good at the spacing conveyor (422) and release the good only when the merge conveyor (424) is ready to receive new goods.

The length sensor (426) calculates the length of the good, assisting in fine-tuning the speed of the merge conveyor (424) while inducting the good onto the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108, 110).

The induction sensor (428) is the final sensor which triggers the acceleration of the merge conveyor (424) to reach the speed necessary for appropriate induction of the good onto the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108, 110) from the merge conveyor (424), post which, the merge conveyor (424) decelerates back to normal speed after inducting the good onto the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108, 110).

Referring to FIG.5, the figure illustrates a block diagram of an integrated pre-sortation system (100), according to an embodiment herein. As shown, the integrated pre- sortation system (100) includes the integrated pre-sort arrangement (160), the server (120), the processing unit (180) and the communication network (140), wherein the integrated pre- sort arrangement (160) is connected to the server (120) having the processing unit (180), via the communication network (140). Further, the integrated presort arrangement (160) includes the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400).

According to an embodiment, the integrated pre-sortation system (100) comprises of the integrated pre-sort arrangement (160), wherein the integrated pre-sort arrangement (160) includes the one or more feed lines (102, 104), the pre-sorting set up (106), the one or more cross belt sorter segments (108,110), the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400), and is connected to the server (120) having the processing unit (180) via the communication network (140). Further, the feeding pre-sort apparatus (200) includes the one or more weighing scales (202, 204), the one or more barcode scanners (206, 208), the one or more dual direction conveyors (210, 212) and the operator panel (218); and the downstream pre-sort apparatus (400) includes the one or more load conveyors (410, 412), the receiving conveyor (414), the spacing conveyor (422), the merge conveyor (424), and the plurality of sensors including the one or more parcel receiving sensors (402, 404), the one or more parcel releasing sensors (406, 408), the one or more checkpoint sensors (416, 418), the array curtain sensor (420), the length sensor (426), and the induction sensor (428).

According to an embodiment, the integrated pre-sortation system (100) is more efficient when the cross belt sorter segments (108, 110) are arranged in specific shapes to form a loop, for example, a Z shaped loop, a double U shaped loop, an S shaped loop, a ladder shaped loop, an M shaped loop, or a W shaped loop.

According to another embodiment, the integrated pre-sortation system (100) is affixed with direct bagging chutes which bag a good and imprint a barcode on the same for scanning later on. This embodiment may also include secondary bagging of the good after the sorting is performed, and transportation of the good onto bagging conveyors.

According to yet another embodiment, the integrated pre-sortation system (100) can utilise bots to perform the two-part sortation.

As will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art, the present invention may easily be produced in other specific forms without departing from its essential composition and properties. The present embodiments should be construed as merely illustrative and non-restrictive and the scope of the present invention being indicated by the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all changes which come within therefore intended to be embraced therein.