ES2367832T3 - SYSTEM FOR DEPOSITING DOCUMENTS IN BOXES. - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a system adapted for printing and for consecutively placing in boxes moving on a conveyor, documents of the slip type (11) in correspondence with the boxes and with the products to be received therein. The system (6) comprises, at the outlet (12) of a printer (5) supplying documents (11) in the form of one or more printed sheets for each box, advance and storage means (13, 14) with a succession of locations (19,20,21,22) for receiving the sheets, between which the documents (11) advance step by step. Means (27, 28) for transferring the documents (11) to the boxes are provided at the last location (22). The advance and storage means (13, 14) define a flat U-shaped path. The system is intended for order preparation lines.

Description

The present invention relates to a system for depositing documents in boxes. Especially in the context of an order preparation line, with a conveyor along which advance cardboard boxes that must be filled each with products corresponding to an order, the invention is interested in a system that is designed to edit, and carry successively in the boxes, documents of type "relationship of preparation of orders" or delivery notes ", established in correspondence with these boxes and with the products to receive in them.

In this type of applications, it is therefore advisable to coordinate the printing and delivery of said documents with the advance of the boxes on the conveyor and to guide these documents to bring it inside the boxes.

A first known is to directly deposit the documents in the boxes, these documents being edited as the boxes arrive at a post provided with a deposit system, associated with a printer or a photocopier. In particular if each delivery note is a bundle comprising a significant number of sheets, the deposit rate is here conditioned by the printing and output speed of the printer or photocopier sheets. The maximum rate of such a system is six boxes per minute. To obtain a higher rate, two systems must be positioned next to each other, above the conveyor.

With this first solution, the guidance of the documents to the boxes can be carried out by means of a slide, the sheets being attracted downwards by gravity, or else the documents are guided and dragged forward between endless tapes that grab them, operated at the same speed and located by both parts of the sheets to deposit.

Document NL 1028696 C2 illustrates an example of this embodiment, providing for a direct vertical descent of the sheets to the boxes.

Another solution, which allows higher deposit rates, is to print the documents "anticipating" the arrival of the boxes, and to make an intermediate storage of the printed documents in a "buffer" area to deposit them at the desired time in each box arriving at a precise point.

In a particular type of embodiments of this type, the storage of the sheets is vertical, and thus the volume occupied by the "buffer" zone is important. In addition, the sheets are not guided to the inside of each box; they are ejected from their storage area and then descend by gravity to the box. This requires a fairing to channel the sheets as well as possible, but the fairing is not adaptable to the height of each box. Thus the accuracy of the deposit of the documents is random here, and important problems of receipt of the documents arise in case of arrival of delivery notes in boxes already full of products.

In another known category of embodiment, a bundle of sheets constituting the document is deposited on an endless belt, or any other sheet plane transport device, the storage of the sheets being horizontal. At each end of printing a bundle of sheets, the tape advances in one step, of length equivalent to the width of length equivalent to the width of an enlarged printed sheet of a few centimeters. Being here the storage of the horizontal sheets, the length of the buffer zone is important; a shortening of this buffer zone is not appropriate because it would then approach the first solution, that is, direct deposit of the documents. Overall, the cadence of these horizontal storage systems can be high, for example of the order of 1800 to 2000 boxes per hour, but these retain the disadvantage of a significant volume in length.

The present invention tends to remedy all the aforementioned drawbacks, and therefore aims to provide a system for depositing documents in boxes, convenient, in particular, for order preparation lines, which allows an increase in the deposit rate of the documents, having at the same time a minimum volume, and that makes a reliable and precise deposit of the documents in some boxes, even filled, adapting if necessary, to the height of these boxes.

For this purpose, the object of the invention is a system for depositing documents in boxes, especially a system that, destined for an order preparation line with a conveyor along which some particular cardboard boxes advance which must be filled each one with some products corresponding to an order, is designed to print, and to successively bring in the boxes, documents of type delivery note in correspondence with these boxes and with the products that must be received in these, being the system of the type that comprises a storage area for printed documents, prior to their arrival in the boxes, this document deposit system being essentially characterized in that it includes, at the exit of a printer that releases the documents in the form of one or several printed sheets for each box, advancing and storage means in the form of a succession of sites for receiving the sheets between which the d documents advance step by step, from an exit location that receives the sheets at the exit of the printer, and to a final deposit waiting location, passing through one or several intermediate locations, being means of transferring the documents to the boxes associated to the last location, the advance and storage means defining a U-path lying down for the documents to be deposited, with an upper arm on which the exit site is located, and with a lower arm on which places the deposit waiting location.

Thus, this deposit system, of a particularly compact configuration, is capable of recovering the sheets at the exit of the printer, of regrouping all the printed sheets at the destination of the same box, and depositing sheets in the box when it It is presented, being deposited flat. Preferably, the system is designed to store the documents of at least four boxes, the printing resume time can thus be disguised with the deposit of four groups of sheets, so that printing breaks have no effect on the overall cadence of the system. A number of reception sites strictly equal to four here constitutes a preferred solution, to preserve a compact system.

The advancing and storage means comprise, in an embodiment of the invention, parallel endless belts each provided with at least one stop and capable of advancing the sheets from one receiving location to the next, and stops operated by cats, provided to the different reception sites to retain or release the leaves.

The documents, constituted by a sheet or by several regrouped sheets, can thus advance in a controlled way from their exit location, to the exit of the printer, to a last location where they are waiting for deposit, being the passage of documents towards a next location conditioned by the fact that this next location is empty or has been evacuated from the sheets it received previously. The cat-operated stops, provided for each intermediate location, prevent any mixing of the sheets constituting consecutive documents, preventing the sheets located at one location from sliding due to the effect of gravity towards the next location.

According to an advantageous feature of the system of the invention, the second to last reception location, that is to say that it precedes the deposit waiting location, comprises a stop activated by a jack and thus being movable alternately at high speed, in particular this offset stop in the opposite direction to the advance of the sheets to reconstitute the stacks of sheets placed in correspondence.

Staple joining means can be provided at the last deposit waiting location, to regroup the sheets intended to constitute the same document just prior to transfer to the boxes.

In a variant of the system of the invention, stapling means are provided at the first reception site, to gather from its exit from the printer the sheets intended to constitute the same document.

In the last reception location, the means of transferring the documents in the boxes are advantageously constituted by a pushing jack, capable of moving each plane document and in a guided manner, until reaching the top of the corresponding box. The documents are thus guided to the boxes, without the need to cover the boxes with a fairing. Once arrived in the box, the document presents its printed side facing up, that is to say easily readable without manipulation of the document in the box.

In a variant, the final function of transferring the documents in the boxes can eventually be performed by blowing.

The invention will be better understood with the description below. Referring to the attached schematic drawing, by way of example, an embodiment of this document deposit system.

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 Figure 1 is an overall plan view of an order preparation line provided with a document deposit system in accordance with the present invention;

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 Figure 2 is a side view of the document deposit system alone;

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 Figure 3 is a plan view of this document deposit system.

Figure 1 represents, in plan view above and in a very schematic way, an order preparation line in which cardboard boxes 2 located on a conveyor 3 move along an arrow F, constituting a continuous flow of boxes. At the entrance of the line is located a barcode reader 4, intended for the identification of each box 2 that is still empty here. The barcode reader 4 allows the sending of the good computer file corresponding to this box 2, with a view to printing a document designated as "order preparation document" that should arrive in the corresponding box as explained below. Lower than the barcode reader 4, it is provided on one side of the

conveyor 3 a printer 5, to which the document deposit system itself is associated, designated globally by reference 6 and represented especially in Figures 2 and 3. Beyond the printer 5 and the document deposit system 6, a set 7 of two is also installed barcode readers, intended to verify the consistency between each box 2 and the deposited document that, In principle, it should correspond to this box 2.

The schematic installation in FIG. 1 still includes an entrance stop 8, which can be raised above the plane of the conveyor 3 in front of the bar code reader 4, another stop 9 can be raised above the conveyor plane 3 in front of the reservoir system 6 , and optionally an exit stop 10, located below the set 7 of barcode readers for consistency checking. These stops 8,9 and 10 can each be housed between two drive rollers of the conveyor 3; they are raised above the plane of this conveyor 3 to stop a box 2, and they are retracted below this plane in order to leave the boxes free. The stop 9 allows in particular to make a frank and repeatable stop of each box 2 under the deposit system 6, to allow a correct deposit of the corresponding document (as detailed below). The exit stop 10, optional, allows to control a possible change of direction of the boxes 2, for example for the passage of a box from one conveyor to another (in a configuration comprising several conveyors).

In an unrepresented way, an electrical cabinet containing an automaton, and a control panel, as well as a computer can also be associated with the deposit system 66, and can be of the "PC" type and a pilot logistic.

Referring to figures 2 and 3, the deposit system 6 itself is described, which receives documents 11 at the exit 12 of the printer 5, and which brings each document 11 into the corresponding box 2 (not shown here) ). Each document 11, schematically represented as a simple sheet, is actually a document consisting of one or several printed and regrouped sheets.

The deposit system 6 comprises, for the advance and intermediate storage of the documents 11, a set of parallel endless belts 13, for example three belts 13, which are each provided with a stop 14. The belts 13 pass on two drums 15 and 16, respectively for drive and forwarding, rotatably mounted around respective horizontal axes 17 and 18.

The belts 13 thus define, starting from the output 12 of the printer, a "U" path lying down for the documents 11, with an upper horizontal arm, a 180 ° downward forwarding and a lower horizontal arm, this path being placed in a transverse plane to the conveyor. Along the lying "U" path, a succession of sites is distinguished, especially (in the illustrated example) four locations that are respectively:

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 an exit location 19 located on the upper horizontal arm, at the exit of the printer,

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 a first intermediate location 20, located on the upper horizontal arm;

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 a second intermediate location 21, located in the forwarding zone and on the lower horizontal arm;

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 a last receiving location, called deposit waiting location 22, located on the lower horizontal arm.

At the different locations thus defined, stops 23 are provided operated by pneumatic jacks 24, which allow the leaves to be retained or released.

However, between the last two receiving locations 21 and 22, a specific stop 25 is provided, actuated horizontally by a pneumatic jack 26.

Finally, at the level of the last receiving location 22, a deviation in the path of the documents 11 is provided on the one hand in order to give way to the stops 14, and on the other hand a reservoir jack 27 by operating fingers 28 of ejection of documents.

During operation, the conveyor 3 advances step by step, advancing all the boxes 2 in the same way, and simultaneously the printer 5 edits the corresponding documents 11, releasing them by its exit 12 at the exit location 19 of the storage tank system. documents 6. In this system, documents 11 also advance them step by step, from one receiving location to the next, thus passing through the two intermediate locations 20 and 21 to reach the depot waiting location 22. The stops 23 actuated by the jaws 24 control the advance of the documents: before the stops 14 of the belts 13 push a bundle of leaves towards the next location, the stop 23 is cleared of the path of the leaves by the jack 24 to which it is coupled , then this stop 23 is returned to its active position after the passage of the stops 14, so that the leaves of the next bundle can be stopped. The last stop 25, actuated alternately at high speed by its jack 26, allows, by its opposite movement to the direction of advance of the sheets, to reposition in perfect correspondence all the constituent sheets of the same document 11. Finally, each document 11 arrived

to the last location 12 is transferred flat, by means of a reservoir jack 27 and ejection fingers 28, towards the corresponding box 2. As an example, the operating rate (expressed in number of boxes treated per minute) of the system The document deposit described above may be the following, depending on the number of sheets constitutive of a document:

for one sheet: 25 boxes / minute for 2 sheets: 20 boxes / minute for 4 sheets: 11 boxes / minute for 6 sheets: 7 boxes / minute for 8 sheets: 5 boxes / minute for 10 sheets: 4 boxes / minute

Thus, for documents constituted each of a single sheet, the hourly rate obtained will be: 25 x 60 = 1 500 boxes / hour

This result is obtained in minimum volume, in particular by the fact that the documents are guided along a lying "U" path (as illustrated in the drawing).

In the case of documents consisting of two sheets or several sheets, it is also possible to provide a stapling module designed to gather the sheets intended to constitute the same document. As Figure 1 shows very schematically, the staple junction module 29 can be associated with the last receiving location, called the deposit waiting location 22. In this case, all the sheets of the same document are joined by stapling after having been repositioned in perfect correspondence by the stop 25 operated by the jack 26, and just before its transfer to the boxes 2.

In a variant not illustrated, the staple connection module is associated with the first receiving location 19. Thus, the sheets intended to constitute the same document are assembled at the exit of the printer 5, and run through all the locations 19 to 22 being gathered.

The document deposit system, object of the invention, can be implemented at the beginning or end of the order preparation line, in a new or pre-existing installation. In the case where the system is located at the beginning of the order preparation line, it allows depositing the order preparation documents in still empty boxes, that is, some documents each containing the list of the different products to choose and place in the corresponding boxes along the conveyor on which these boxes move forward. If the system is located at the end of the order preparation line, just before the closing point of the boxes, the system allows the delivery documents to be placed in boxes full of products previously chosen for export shipments for example.

It would not depart from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims:

-modifying constructive details, and using any equivalent, for example, replacing the pneumatic jacks with electric or electromagnetic actuators (solenoid);

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 incorporating in the system a printer of any type;

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 using the system for the deposit of any type of documents, comprising a variable number of sheets attached or not between them, the information contained in these sheets being very variable depending on the application cases;

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 allocating this system to deposit documents in boxes of any format and constituted of any material.

Claims (7)

one.

1. System for depositing documents in boxes, the system being destined for a line of preparation of orders with a conveyor (3) along which advance some boxes (2) especially cardboard that must be filled each with products corresponding to an order, being this system designed to print, and to successively bring in the boxes (2), delivery documents of the delivery type (11) in correspondence with these boxes (2) and with the products that must be received with them, comprising The system is a storage area for printed documents, before being brought into the boxes, characterized in that it comprises, at the exit of the printer (5) that it releases the documents in the form of one or several printed sheets for each box (2) , advance and storage means (13,14) in the form of a succession of sites (19,20,21,22) for receiving sheets, among which the documents (11) move step by step, from a location from sa lida (19) that receives the sheets at the exit (12) of the printer (5), and until a last location (22) waiting for deposit, passing through one or several intermediate locations (20,21), being means of transfer (27,28) of the documents to the boxes associated to the last location (22), the advance and storage means (13,14) defining a “U” path lying down for the documents to be deposited, with one arm above which the exit location (19) is located, and with a lower arm on which the deposit waiting location (22) is located.

2.

System for depositing documents according to claim 1, characterized in that it is designed to store the delivery notes (11) of at least four boxes (2), the number of receiving locations (19,20,21,22) being preferably equal to four .

3.

System for depositing documents according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the advance and storage means comprise parallel endless belts (13) each provided with at least one stop (14) and capable of advancing the sheets of a receiving location (19,20,21,) to the next, and stops (23) actuated by cats (24), provided in the different reception sites to retain or release the leaves.

Four.

System for depositing documents according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the last-to-last reception location (21), that is, the one preceding the deposit-waiting location (22), comprises a stop (25) actuated by a jack ( 26) and thus becomes movable alternately at high speed, this stop (25) being displaced in the opposite direction to the advance of the sheets to reconstitute stacks of sheets placed in correspondence.

5.

System for depositing documents according to claim 4, characterized in that stapling means (29) are provided in the last location (22) waiting for deposit, to gather the sheets intended to constitute the same document (11), just before of its transfer to the boxes.

6.

System for depositing documents according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that staple joining means are provided in the first receiving location (19), to gather the sheets intended to constitute a printer at its exit from the printer (5). same document (11).

7.

System for depositing documents according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that at the last reception location (22), the means for transferring the documents in the boxes are constituted by a push jack (27,28) moving each document (11) flat and guided, until it reaches the top of the corresponding box (2).