FR2537101A1 - DEVICE FOR DYNAMIC STORAGE OF FLAT OBJECTS - Google Patents

Abstract

THE INVENTION RELATES TO A DEVICE FOR DYNAMIC STORAGE OF FLAT OBJECTS 3 IN WHICH THE FLAT OBJECTS ARE STACKED ON THE EDGE BY A STACKER 1. THESE FLAT OBJECTS ARE GROUPED IN PACKAGES 4 OF VARIABLE THICKNESS IN 8 MOBILE BOXES OF WHICH THE MAIN CHARACTERISTIC IS TO BE CLOSED AT THE FRONT AND AT THE REAR BY INTERCALAR MEANS 5 AND 6 WHOSE MOVEMENTS ARE RELATIVELY INDEPENDENT OF ONE OF THE OTHER. THESE FRONT AND REAR MEANS ARE DRIVEN BY SEPARATE CHAIN TOWARDS A TRACKER 10. THE DYNAMIC STORAGE AREA IS LARGE ENOUGH TO CUSHION THE INTERMITTENT OPERATION OF THE DEPILATOR 10.

Description

253 10 1

  DEVICE FOR DYNAMIC STORAGE OF FLAT OBJECTS

  The invention relates to a device for the dynamic storage of flat objects, more particularly thin objects which can be, for example, letters (postal envelopes or other) or else checks.

  slips or similar documents.

  It is known from French patent No. 77 05935 of the application an installation for the implementation of sets of objects in piles or in rows In this installation, a store comprising

  a jogging bench is associated with a plurality of interchangeable elements

  These elements define with the bottom of the store and the jogging edges a set of lockers. The volume of these lockers is determined by construction. A drive means comprising a chain fixed to the intermediate pieces allows the advancement of these lockers up to a unfolding head The lockers of this installation are designed to receive flat objects on edge such as postal envelopes, for example, and the purpose of the mechanism is to

  its advancement, to approach them from a depilation head.

  This unstacking head, in the example described, is of the pneumatic type and comprises a rotary extractor drum with an axis parallel to the surface of the objects and the perforated wall of which is depressed from a fixed chamber connected to a source of fluid in depression, so that the first of the flat objects brought into contact with this drum will come to be pressed on it by suction The drum is moved in a rotary movement along its axis By its rotation it ensures the extraction of the sucked-up object Additional means are provided to ensure the retention of the object following that being extracted. Downstream of this drum, a belt conveyor takes the extracted objects for their treatment.

  The operation is repetitive in order to ensure the pre-collection.

  of all the objects in a locker, the lockers being unstacked

one after the other.

  2 - In this installation, the compartments are loaded manually. In this case in particular, the operator takes care of placing the flat objects in the compartments closest to the destacker according to the stock present in the store. An attempt to replace the he operator consisted in placing a stacking head opposite the first empty rack in the stock The state of the stock being variable, it was necessary to design a mobile stacking head The mobility of this stacking head is At the origin of many drawbacks Indeed, a stacker can comprise, as well as a destacker, a rotating drum, a system with

  controlled vacuum and a set of actuators and detectors.

  This configuration results in a significant mechanical complexity linked to the number of organs which must move. The positioning or scrolling of the inserts at a variable abscissa are also delicate. Finally, the stepwise movement of this assembly as a function of the repetitive stacking of the objects, especially by its

  inertia, causes crippling reliability flaws.

  The object of the invention is to remedy the drawbacks mentioned,

  as well as, in particular, to propose a dynamic storage device

  large capacity mique by using a set of fixed stackers and destackers associated with a storage store performing the

  transport of objects in an original way.

  The invention provides a dynamic storage device for

  flat jets comprising a stacker for placing all the objects to be stored on edge, against each other, and in a storage magazine provided with successive compartments delimited by intermediate means, said intermediate means being driven by drive means, and a destacker for retrieving the objects stored in the racks, characterized in that the destacker and stacker are fixed and in that the intermediate means are independent of the drive means and cooperate in pairs with them by retractable locking means to form each time the front and rear of a said locker and to carry out the transport of a packet of corresponding objects along the

store.

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  3 - The invention will be better understood and other advantages of

  this will appear on reading the detailed description which follows

  and which is made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIG. 1A shows the block diagram of the device of the invention; Figures 1B and IC show an operating mode of the drive means of the device of the invention; Figure 2 shows the organization of the control means for the previous operating mode; FIGS. 3 A, 3 B, 3 C, 4 A, 4 B, 5 and 6 show examples of embodiment of the intermediate means of the invention, FIGS. 7 A and 7 B represent the flowchart specifying the

  operation of the drive means.

  In these different figures, the same references designate the

same elements.

  In figure l A, the principle diagram of the

  storage device of the invention A stacking or stacking head

  their 1 fixed ensures storage on edge in a store 2 of flat objects 3 The flat objects 3 are grouped in packs 4, by a set of intermediate means 5 and 6 and are supported by the bottom 7 of the store One or two banks of jogging, arranged in planes parallel to the plane of the figure, on either side of the packages 4, complete the construction of the mobile lockers 8 The lockers thus formed are brought by a drive means 9

  in contact with a destacking head 10 or destacker.

  The operation of the dynamic storage device of the invention is as follows: when flat objects arrive, which can

  be random, stacker 1 stacks these items in a stacker

  lage provided only with a front intermediate means 6 The intermediate means 6 is said before because it will be at the front of the package during the transit of the latter in the storage magazine When the stacking of the package is finished, what the '' one can determine for a certain number of objects to be stacked, for a certain thickness of the package to be produced, or for a certain waiting period after the 4 - last stacked object, a couple of rear intermediate 5 and front 6 means is brought to the rear of the packet during stacking This couple then comes apart, the rear intermediate means 5 leaving with the packet made up, while the new front intermediate means 6 is waiting downstream of the stacker to receive the new objects to be stacked The rack 8, the thickness of which is variable for the reasons mentioned, therefore passes through the store and comes up against the packages awaiting unstacking and contained in the storage area of this store We call the store storage area ,

  an area where packages can be stored pending unstacking.

  During the unstacking operation, an unstacker 10, similar to that described above, removes the objects from the packages During this operation, all of the stored racks move -simultaneously towards the unstacker 10 at the rate of unstacking The racks being stored one behind the other the others, pairs of front intermediate means 6 and rear intermediate means 5 are reformed During advancement, when these pairs of intermediate means arrive near the unstacking head 10, they are retracted to

  allow the removal of objects from the next package.

  By the effects described, it can therefore be seen that the device of the invention allows dynamic storage of the objects to be stored, and that by the way the stackers and destackers are fixed Finally, the speed of transit of the packets formed up to their stop on the last packages of the stock being higher than the stacking or unstacking speed, the device of the invention does not cause a delay in the processing by the destacker 10 of the flat objects stacked by the stacker 1 It is in particular this situation which would prevail if a fixed stacking head had been placed at the end of the installation of

the art cited.

  In a very simplified version of the invention, the storage magazine is only provided with two front intermediate means and

  two rear intermediate means, arranged alternately and circu-

  lant on a looped circuit 11 Furthermore, the drive means comprise a single chain 17 extending all along the device - and looping back on itself This chain comprises a lug 18 coming to bear on a retractable cleat 12 located at the foot of the rear intermediate means 5 The rear intermediate means 5 thus comprise the retractable cleat 12 fixed to a carriage 15 which supports a set of thrust fingers 13 In this version,

  the front intermediate means 6 comprise a carriage 16 supporting

  as a set of retaining fingers 14 The cleat 12, retractable may consist of a steel blade, of given flexibility, and coming to bear against the lug 18 of the chain When the package thus pushed comes into abutment on the stock waiting for unstacking, the flexible cleat undergoes a high stress, bends momentarily and the lug of the chain escapes The lug of the chain still escapes

  under the cleat of the other rear carriage 15, waiting in the stock.

  The chain thus continues to rotate with each passage of the lug the packages being propelled by jerks towards the destacker Due to the compressions undergone during these advances, by the objects contained in the packages these have the reaction to push towards the objects to be unstacked before a new compression cycle is

  restored by the new passage of the lug of the chain.

  When the last object of a packet approaches the destacker, the pair of rear and front intermediate means escapes This situation is made possible by a particularity of the fingers which will be seen later The arrival of the lug of the drive chain causes the advance of the rear intermediate and front intermediate couple in a return movement upstream of the stacker 1 The rear carriage 15, located in this case in front of the front carriage 16 is linked to the latter at this time by a latching device The torque is then always brought by the chain downstream of the stacking head, where a cam acts on the latching device to disunite the torque created The lug of the chain at this time does not cause more than the rear carriage of the locker which has just been formed, and brings the latter into abutment on the package during unstacking The retractable cleat 12 in this case constitutes the retractable locking means of the invention The stacking of new 6 -

  objects can also be realized during these same durations then-

  that a front intermediate means is then pending downstream of the stacker.

  In another operation with a single chain 17 this

  this pushes, at the rate of unstacking, the entire stock towards the stacker When a new stacked package is ready to be directed to the stock, the chain 17 performs a turn It sets up a new front carriage downstream of the stacker; it quickly pushes the package which has just been stacked towards the stock, and a

  times in abutment on it continues to advance at the rate of unstacking.

  In a preferred manner in the invention, the number of intermediate means will not be reduced to 4, but will be significantly more

  important, the drive means being arranged differently.

  These drive means appear in section in FIGS. 1B and 1C, shown plumb with FIG. 1A In FIG. 1B which is a top view, a distinction is made between the stacking drum 1 and the destacking drum 10. the pushing fingers 13 and the retaining fingers 14, the semicircular section of which indicates that the rounded parts of these fingers are in contact with the objects contained in the compartments. There is also a jogging edge 19 situated on the left side. in relation to the direction of advancement of the racks (arrow F) Through the exploded view of the packages of objects and the stacker and destacker drums, there are a set of five chains numbered from 20 to 24 These chains are arranged

  longitudinally in the direction of advancement of the packages and are available

  seated one beside the other Each of these chains is driven by a motor independent of the motor of the other chains Each chain comprises, as the case may be, one or a plurality of retractable lugs, represented by dashes across the chains in FIG. and

  by small teeth in figure IC.

  In FIG. 1C, these same five chains are also represented but in side view, that is to say, in a manner identical to the presentation in FIG. 1 A An active zone of these chains cooperates with the carriages of the infill means This area is

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  7 7- located in a plane, the bottom plane 7 of the store To help with the representation, these chains were arbitrarily presented at staggered levels. However, it must be understood that the active upper part of the drawn chains can be in practice at a same level. Finally, in FIG. 1B, it can be seen that each carriage is provided with at least three tabs. These tabs are shown in FIG. 1B by small dots arranged at the alignment of the fingers 13 or of the fingers 14 of each carriage. These tabs are shown by sticks in Figure IC The lugs of rank I denoted 12 1 cooperate according to the position of the carriage in the store with the chain 20 or the chain 21 The lugs of rank 2, denoted 12 2 or 12 3 according to whether they relate respectively to a front carriage or rear carriage, respectively cooperate with the front transfer chain 22 or the rear transfer chain 23 Finally

  rank 3 tabs denoted 12 4 cooperate with the return chain 24.

  In this embodiment of the intermediate means of the invention, it can therefore be seen that these are provided with a set of fingers 13 or 14 to hold the packages of objects, are provided with carriages 15 or 16 circulating on the circuit 11, and are animated by a set of chains 20 to 24 acting for the needs of the cause on the cleats 12 1 to 12 4

  located next to these chains, below the carriages 15 or 16.

  The cleats in cooperation with the retractable lugs constitute

  the retractable locking means of the invention.

  The operation of this complex mechanism is as follows when stacking objects in the crate in formation, the stacking chain 21 evolves at a speed controlled by the stacking rate by pushing by one of its retractable lugs 25 the cleat 12 1 of the front carriage of the locker in formation When the content of this locker is deemed sufficient, the return chain 24, provided with a retractable lug 26, pushes on the third row cleat 12 4 of the front carriage 16 of the torque of rear carriage front carriage, waiting upstream of the stacker By its fast forward action, this chain places this torque downstream of the stacker The carriage -8 - before 16 thus installed plays the role of front carriage for a new locker, while the rear carriage in front of it comes

  ensure the closure of the previous locker.

  At this time, the two rear transfer chains 23 and front 22, each provided with a single retractable lug 27 and 28 respectively, are hooked respectively in the second row tabs 12 3, 12 2 of the package which comes from 'to be fully stacked These two chains 22-and 23 in an overall movement from the stacker to the destacker bring this package into abutment against the existing stock By the way, the first row cleats 12 1 of the carriages of this rack retract the pins 25 of the chain 21 This operation being carried out, the two chains 22 and 23 in a reverse movement to the previous return to be put in place on standby at the entrance of the stacker 1 They are thus ready to start their action for a next locker Their passage under the second row cleat 12 2 of the front carriage in

  waiting is made possible because their lugs retract.

  During the penetration of the rack transferred into the storage area, the first row tabs 12 1 of the front carriage 16 or rear 15 of the rack 8 retract the retractable lugs 29 of the unstacking chain 20 These retractable lugs return to their place by rising as soon as the cleats 12 1 have passed When the transferred rack comes up against the stock and the front and rear transfer chains are withdrawn, the last rack brought in is thus taken into account by the unstacking chain whose last raised lugs are supported now respectively on the first row cleats of the front 16 or rear 15 carriages of this rack The unstacking chain advances at the rate of unstacking and is slaved to

this function.

  As soon as a pair of rear carriage 15, front carriage 16 created by the piling up of racks in the stock arrives near the unstacking head, at a distance for example equal to one tenth of the

  height of the objects to be stored, a mechanism which will be seen later

  This allows the fingers to be removed. The rear carriage couples 9 front carriage continue however to be advanced by the unstacking chain When creating a new rack by the stacker, the lug 26 of the return chain 24 can then grasp this rear carriage couple front carriage downstream of the destacker to recycle it in the direction of the stacker. In summary, the movements of the chains are as follows: the stacking chain is controlled by the stacker, the unstacking chain which follows it is controlled by the destacker, the transfer chains have a sequential action in a back and forth movement comes initialized by the constitution of a new locker, and the return chain after the installation of a couple rear carriage, front carriage, downstream of the stacker, continues its movement causing the passage by its lug 26 all the couples of rear carriages front carriages, which have passed the destacker For this purpose, the structure of this chain 24 is such that its active zone is located from upstream to downstream of the stacker, near the destacking, and on the route back from the circuit It connects the destacker to the stacker The last two active areas only have an object in so far as automatic recycling of the carriages is envisaged This recycling is not essential to the device of the invention By a device for t is, this chain 24 interrupts its action as soon as any one of the pairs arrives on standby upstream of the stacker. The test can, for example, consist of the passage of any one of the cleats of one of the carriages torque on a pedal 33 2 disposed upstream of the stacker In a reverse movement, this return chain 24 then comes into place upstream of

  the stacker just behind the first pair of trolleys on standby.

  This reverse movement is made possible by nature

retractable lug 26.

  In the version described, the movements of the various chain motors will be controlled by a logic control circuit 32

  appearing in FIG. 2 and having two actions of different types

  rents The first of these actions consists in determining the thickness of the packages to be created We said earlier that this thickness

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  - could be fixed in advance, in which case it is known that it will be reached when the third row cleat of a front carriage passes over a pedal 33 1, see figure l B, in this case we are sure to have always packets of the same thickness. The front and rear carriages both have third row cleats, it will of course be necessary to take information on two. If the thickness of a packet must be determined by the number of folds , the predetermined positions (185) of a counter 30 linked to the stacker 1,

  indicate when the package is finished If finally the

  The stacking rate is random, we can decide to consider that a packet is finished anyway after a certain period of time after the stacking of the last object. This time period is determined for example by the falling edge of a pulse issued by a

  monostable type 31 rocker excited at each load operation

pounding of an object.

  The control logic circuit 32 takes into account all of these indications at the same time. It acts first on the return chain 24 so that it has downstream of the stacker a couple of rear carriage and front carriage to allow the constitution of a new packet After a delay time 'r having enabled this action to be carried out, it puts the motor of the transfer chain into operation before 22, then with a slight delay Espar compared to the commissioning of this motor, it activates the motor of the rear transfer chain 23 This delay t is intended to allow the lug 28 of the front transfer chain 22 waiting downstream of the stacker to cross the thickness of the packet which comes from 'be made up and even a little more than this thickness so as to cause a slight decompression of the package which has just been made up This

  operation aims to make a complete operation easier

  jogging of the packages against the jogging edge 19

during the package transfer.

  The second operation which must be carried out by the control unit consists in continuously measuring the position of the back of the stock in the warehouse 2 This position measured by

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  it - relative to the upstream of the unstacking head is a function, at a given moment, of the thickness of the packages which have been brought there since the commissioning of the machine, reduced by the path traveled by the unstacking chain since this same instant Knowing the bottom position of the stock, the control unit stops the movement of the transfer chain before 22 when it has estimated that the lug 28 of this chain has reached this position The control unit then stops the movement from there rear transfer chain slightly later, so as to ensure a

  recompression of object packets The compression state of pa-

  quets can then be equal to or different from that which existed when the package was made. In a preferred manner in the invention, all the chain drive motors will be stepper motors acting on the chains in such a way that the knowledge of the position of the motor ipso facto results in knowledge of the position

of the corresponding string.

  In summary, the control unit knows the thickness of a pack by the number of steps taken by the motor of the stacking chain since the beginning of this pack. The control unit knows the position of the back of the stock before the arrival of the new packet by adding the thicknesses of the packets stored therein reduced by the number of steps taken by the unstacking chain motor The control logic therefore knows the number of steps, in principle equal, that must be carried out by the front and rear transfer chain motors to ensure

correct stockpiling.

  FIG. 2 indicates that the positions of the chains 20 and 21 are taken into account by the control logic 32 Commissioning

  of these chains is linked to the functioning respectively of the 5 tam-

bour stacker 1 or destacker 10.

  For the optional recycling operation, the logic of com-

  Mande must know the state of the empty carriages available upstream of the stacker This information can be provided for example by passing a cleat of the carriages on a pedal correctly

_ 12 -

  placed upstream of the stacker For example, the passage of a ta-

  quet 12 3 of a rear carriage on a pedal 33 2 stops the function-

  Chain motor 24 In this way, the chain 24 permanently maintains, upstream of the stacking head 1, a couple of rear carriage, front carriage, available for creating a

new package.

  The removal of the front transfer chain has no effect on the operation of the dynamic storage device of the invention. It simply reduces the mechanical comfort thus obtained for carrying out the jogging operation. In the same spirit, the stacking chain can be removed, then instructs the stacker to be powerful enough to push on the package being built up to allow stacking of all the objects to be stacked Finally, the rear transfer chain and the return chain can be combined into a single operating chain identical to chain 17 of the simplified variant seen above In this case, the control logic is simplified and the unstacking chain allows regular unstacking of objects

contained in the packages.

  Details relating to the infill means before and

  rear are going to be examined now by the description of

  following figures Figures 3 A, 3 B, 3 C, represent a first type of these intermediate means We distinguish in Figure 3 At the jogging edge 19, as well as the bottom 7 of the magazine 2 seen in section The intermediate means 6 which is shown comprises a carriage 16 and a set of retaining fingers 14 The carriage 16 circulates on the circuit II materialized by the raceways 34, 35 and 36 which extend throughout the magazine and on which the carriage 16 is supported by means of rollers 37 The arrangement of paths 34, 35 and 36 made, for example, of heavy plate, makes it possible to prevent the rolling of the carriage on itself during its evolution while

along the store.

  In FIG. 3C, showing a section in a plane A seen from above of the carriage 16, it is noted that the carriage has a length,

_ 13 -

  measured in the direction of movement indicated by the arrow, of the order of three or four times the diameter of the rollers 37 In order to avoid the pitching of the carriage during transfer, sets of

  rollers 37 are mounted both at the front and at the rear of this carriage.

  The carriage described in Figures 3 thus has 12 rollers. The fingers 14 rising vertically above the carriage

  advantageously pass through slits made longitu-

  dinalically in the bottom 7 of the magazine 2 They are linked to the carriage 16 by a vertical fork 38 held in a hole 39 made in this carriage Due to the thickness of this carriage, the

  fork 38 can neither tilt back and forth nor to the sides.

  In order to avoid rotation on itself of the fork 38, a pivot 40 integral with the carriage is plugged into a hole 41 made in the horizontal return 54 of the fork 38 All along the store the fork 38 rests by the intermediate of a roller 42 on a raceway 43 The roller 42 is brought into contact with the raceway 43 by means of a spring 44 bearing, on the one hand on the carriage 16, and on the other hand on a rim formed in the lower part of the fork 38 In a preferred manner in the invention, this spring is a helical spring sleeved on the fork 38 To illuminate what has been said previously, the raceway 43 disappears in the vicinity of the unstacking head This allows the spring 44 to cause the fingers to retract by its relaxation 14 During this operation the pivot 40 slides in the

hole 41 of the horizontal return 54.

  When fitting such a pair of rear carriage -

  front carriage downstream of the stacker we see that the fingers of these

  trolleys are parallel to the objects to be stacked To prevent them

  these do not come between them an annex mechanisne plate a pallet against these fingers during the stacking of the first objects, about ten Then this annex mechanism removes the pallet, the rigidity of the objects already in place is then sufficient to guide the new objects stackable This pallet can consist of a set of two fingers oriented perpendicular to the fingers 13

and 14.

  14 - There are, under the carriage 16, two tabs corresponding respectively to the tabs 12 1 and 12 2 which can find their utility in the solution o the transfer means comprise only two chains These two chains numbered 20 and 23 appear in FIG. 3 A supported by raceways 45 and 46 These chains are provided with retractable lugs 26 or 27 of a type indicated in FIG. 3 B In this figure, a lug 27 in the form of a bar is mounted by a hinge 47 on a link in the

  chain 23 This lug is presented in the retracted position The slack

  vement of the lug 27 is limited on the one hand in one direction by a stop 48, and on the other hand by a spring 49 whose flexibility is calculated This lug 27 constitutes for this example the

  retractable locking means of the invention.

  We can still see in Figure 3 A a set of wheels.

  leaux 50, 51 and 52, inserted slightly projecting into the bottom 7 of the

  tray 2, so that their generator is lightly exposed

  rement above this bottom These rollers are arranged longitu-

  directly at magazine 2 and used for jogging Indeed, animated by a movement in the figure in a counterclockwise direction, they have the effect of pushing the stored objects towards the jogging bank 19 To make this operation more efficient by preferably the rollers 50, 51 and 52 are covered with a layer of

  rubber or any other material having frictional effects

very comparable.

  FIG. 3C shows that the carriage 16 shown is a front carriage Indeed, for reasons of space, the structure of the carriages considered extends judiciously under the package they are driving Thus, in this figure, the carriage moving in the direction of the arrow, it comes into contact with a rear carriage whose pushing fingers 13 are drawn in dashes The semicircular sections of these fingers are exactly completed when they meet This arrangement is made possible by an offset 53 of the fingers, this offset being perpendicular to the horizontal return 54 of the fork 38 The offset 53 of the carriages - front is of orientation opposite to that of the rear carriages When the hole 39 is in the middle of the length of the carriage 16, the length of this offset is equal to the half-length of the carriage The length of the carriage is the dimension of the latter measured in the direction of longitudinal movement. FIGS. 4 A * and 4 B represent another exemplary embodiment of a trolley The essential characteristic of this example resides in the fact that on the circuit 11 traversed by the trolleys, the raceway taken by the front trolleys is different from the path of bearing taken on the rear carriages In FIG. 4B, the front carriages 16 take in the direction of the arrow the raceway 56 situated to the left of the figure, while the rear carriages 15 take the raceway in the same direction 55 located to the right of the figure The raceways 55 and 56 supporting the carriages, essentially each each have two solid raceways 57 and 58 extending in a plane parallel to the plane of the bottom 7 of the magazine The two raceways 57 and 58 of a raceway are connected to each other by a

  hoop 59 ensuring their joining.

  In the example shown, the carriages are provided with a bracket 60 rising vertically above them and nesting exactly in the space reserved between the tracks 57 and 58 and the arch 59 The ends of the branches horizontal of this stem are provided with rollers or needle bearings 61 These bearings 61 bear on the tracks 57 and 58 during

  the evolution of the trolley during the transfer of a package These rolls

  needle elements ensure the lift of the carriage 16 In a comparable manner, the central mast of the bracket 60 is situated between two needle bearings 62 bearing on the vertical edges

opposite runways 55 and 57.

  It will be seen on examining FIG. 4B that the bearings 61 and 62 are doubled in two sets situated respectively at the front and at the rear of the carriage in question The bearings 61 are intended to prevent the carriage from pitching or to undergo a rolling movement, 16 - the bearings 62 are intended to prevent the carriage from advancing in crab with respect to their direction of advance in the magazine 2 Indeed, their bearing clearance inside the space contained in

  raceways 55 or 56 is minimized.

  The carriages 15 and 16 thus circulating on tracks 55 and 56 respectively located side by side, are each provided with beams, respectively 63 and 66 horizontal extending over a part of the channel which separates these paths They are used for fixing hollow posts respectively -64, 65 and 67, 68 These hollow posts are oriented perpendicular to the bottom 7 of the store The holes which pass through these posts according to their height are intended to serve as a slide respectively for the fingers 13 or 14 of the aforementioned carriages The profile noted in a plane parallel to the plane of the support 7 of these beams 63 and 66 and of the posts 64, 65 and 67, 68 indicate that by a nesting effect the plane of the fingers 14 will be the same as the plane of the fingers 13 (FIG. 4B ) In this way, the interval between two lockers joined in the queue

  storage will be equal only to the diameter of these fingers 13 or 14.

  The justification for the existence of these two roadways-

  55 and 56 lie in the need to oppose a good resistance

  pitching of the carriages This resistance, by

  mechanical movement is directly related to the length of these

  ci For a given packet length we see that the length of the carriages in Figure 4 A can thus be double that of the 'carriages in Figure 3 A Indeed, the length of each of these carriages can be equal to the length total of the package, while

  in the previous case it could only be equal to half.

  Finally, under the carriages 15 and 16, there are sets of toothed wheels 68 1, 68 3 for the rear carriages 15, and 68 1, 68 2 for the front carriages 16 These toothed wheels are such that by a

  ratchet device they can rotate freely only in one-

  only one direction with respect to their axis, the other direction of rotation being prohibited In this application, the chains 20, 21, 22 and 23 provided with retractable lugs will be replaced by notched chains or 17 notched belts These notched chains cooperate with the

  corresponding toothed wheels according to the pre-

  cédente The "freewheel" movement of these cogwheels is indicated by assuming that the carriages move away from the observer looking at FIG. 4 A During the transfer phase, the cogwheels 68 1 roll on the double chain notched 20 of unstacking Consequently, the top of this wheel moves away from the observer while the center of rolling is fixed. This arrangement is materialized by a cross contained in a circle symbolically representing the empennage of an arrow which s away from the observer We also show that under the effect of the return of the transfer chains 22 and 23, the toothed wheels 68. 2, 68 3 have a degree of freedom in the same direction as the

cogwheels 68 1.

  The return chain 24 is also replaced by a

  toothed belt The position of this toothed belt is such.

  that it comes, for example, to cooperate with the toothed wheel 68 2 of the

  front carriage 16 In doing so it pushes a rear carriage couple -

  front carriage during the operations of placing a new couple of trolleys at stacking or during the recycling of a couple of

carts after unstacking.

  The fingers 14 and 13 sliding respectively in the holes 67, 68 or 64, 65 are provided at their base with shoes respectively 70

  or 69 These clogs advantageously slide in a path of.

  bearing 71 hollowed out by two bowls 72 and 73 The upper edges of these bowls are curved towards the inside of these

  bowls so as to constitute shoulders 74 These shoulders

  Lements 74 by pressing on the shoes 69 or 70 have the effect of maintaining the latter at the bottom of the bowls 72 or 73 so as to cause the retraction of the fingers 13 or 14 near the unstacking head 2, the raceway 71 undergone a dropout by

  compared to the floor plan 7 of the store The amplitude of this decrease

  chement is slightly larger than the apparent height of the fingers 13 or 14 above the bottom 7 Due to the presence of 18 - shoulders 74 during the advance of the carriage 15, or of the carriage 16, these shoulders press on the hooves 69 or 70 and thus cause the

  lowering of the fingers The off-hook position of the road

  Lement 71 appears drawn in dashes in FIG. 4 A. In FIG. 5, there is another example of embodiment of the retractable fingers. The carriage represented in this figure is

  identical to the carriage of figure 3 A In this example of reali-

  sation, the fingers are in the general shape of a scythe comprising a handle 75 rising with a certain inclination of the carriage 15 towards the bottom 7 of the magazine, and two flat pallets 76 and 77 forming segments of circular crown whose center coincides with the articulation point O of the handle 75 The two pallets 76 and 77, penetrate inside the magazine by two slots respectively

  78 and 79 made longitudinally in the jogging edge 19.

  When the carriage moves the objects placed on the support 7 against the jogging edge 19 are thus pushed in one direction

  perpendicular to the plane of the figure by the pallets 76 and 77.

  These fingers are held in place throughout the magazine by the sliding of the handle 75 on a guide ramp 80 The contact between the guide ramp 80 and the handle 75 is ensured by a bearing 81 crimped around the handle 75 and coming to roll- on the guide ramp 80 By its weight, this bearing also contributes to maintaining the inclination of the handle 75 Close to the unstacking head, the guide ramp 80 is cut at this point, under the action of their weight, the handle 75 and the pallets 76 and 77 pivot around an axis perpendicular to the plane of the figure and passing through the point O. It is noted in this configuration as in the previous configurations that the retraction of the fingers is carried out

  always parallel to themselves.

  Objects 3, of height h, one of which is represented in the form of a letter in FIG. 5, during this retraction cannot be disturbed since they are always maintained by the jogging edge 19 and by the bottom 7 Indeed, these folds being arranged perpendicular to the direction of the longitudinal slots 78, 79, they

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  19 - it is impossible to pass through these slots This arrangement is an interesting characteristic of the carriages because it allows

  to avoid the risk of wrinkle removal.

  Figure 6 shows in section the preferred embodiment of the carts of the invention The intermediate means in this case include, as in the case of Figure 5, fingers composed of pallets 76 and 77 passing through slots 78 and 79 practiced in bank 19 and connected to a handle The handle has the appearance of two vertical segments 80 and 81 connected together by a part

  1 o horizontal 82 The carriage itself looks like a parallel

  the rectangular epipede of approximately square section As in the previous examples, a set of pawns rising perpendicular to the faces of this rectangular parallelepiped are

  crimped inside rollers or needle bearings 83 or 84.

  The raceway of this carriage thus constituted has a

  complex shape This shape consists of two horizontal parts

  zontals 86 and 87 parallel and facing each other in which is practiced, each time, a pair of grooves 88 and 89 serving as longitudinal housing for the rollers 83 The two horizontal parts 87 and 86 are connected on one side by a part vertical 90, perpendicular to the latter and in which is formed a groove 91 serving as a housing for the bearings 84 With respect to the part 90, relative to the parallelepipedic carriage is fixed a vertical part 92, in connection with the horizontal part 87, but not in connection with the horizontal part 86 In this vertical part 92 is made a groove 93 to serve as housing

  to a needle bearing located opposite the bearing 84.

  The guide rail thus formed for the raceway of the parallelepiped carriage has a longitudinal clearance 94 allowing permanent attachment of the vertical segment 81 on the parallelepiped carriage Over the length of this

  parallelepipedal carriage, measured in the direction of travel

  cement, as shown during the presentation of Figure 3 C, will be arranged two sets of rollers 83, 84, so as to prevent

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  - pitching, rolling and pivoting of the carriage The carriage is therefore

provided in this case with 8 rollers.

  The guide rail described ends slightly upstream of the unstacking head, on a barrel 95 constituted by a disc 96 on which are fixed perpendicularly several identical elements 97 of the same section as the guide rail. The length of these

  elements 97 fixed perpendicular to the disc is sufficient.

  It is slightly larger than twice the length of one of the parallelepipedic carriages. If the carriages can nest into each other, like beams 63 and 66, this length is less than double the length of one of the carriages The number of these guide rail elements in the example presented is 4, it can of course be different The operation of the barrel is as follows When a pair of rear carriage and front carriage thus arrives nearby the destacker, he comes to engage

  in a guide rail element 97 integral with the extended barrel

  managing the raceway A limit switch type detector or else the control logic causes, via a motor not shown, the rotation of the barrel 95 This rotation is by a predetermined angle so that a new empty guide rail element be placed in the extension of the

  bearing 86 to 94, in the example this angle is 90.

  At this time, the couple of turned carriages is located opposite a return raceway allowing recycling of the carriages towards the stacker. On examination of the figure, it can be seen that the roles of the rollers 83 and 84 have been swapped is

  now the rollers 83 which provide the lift for the carriages.

  It can be seen that the pallets 76 and 77 have been retracted from their position by rotation around its center O of the disc 96 and that in this way they no longer interfere with the unstacking operation of the objects from the next packet The carriage which has just been returned being taken up by the return chain 24, a barrel 95 can be produced

  with only one guide rail element 97 After removal

  of the couple of carriages returned, this barrel is reset to 21 -

  position in front of the raceway By extension, considering

  drifting that the radius of rotation of the barrel is very large the movement which it imposes on the carriage becomes a translation In this

  the pallets 76 and 77 are straight.

  The drive means of the preferred variant of the invention comprise, as in the case of FIG. 1C, a set of five chains. FIG. 6 being drawn in section presents a couple of carriages near the unstacking head. A lug 29 of the unstacking chain 20 is supported on a first row cleat 121 of the carriage shown to force it to move towards the observer looking at the figure It is observed that the front transfer chains 22 and rear transfer 23 respectively next to the second row cleats 12 2 and 12 3 do not cooperate at this time with these cleats since they are then waiting at the stacking head, their lugs 28 and 27 are not visible The action of the chain back 24 is to push a couple of front and rear carriages that have just been turned over by pressing with its lug 26 on the cleat 122 in this case playing the role of third rank cleat 12 4 seen previously It would however have been possible to create , if the space requirements imposed it, a third row cleat 12 4 specifically installed to cooperate with the return chain 24 This return chain 24 causes movement of the carriages in a direction parallel but opposite to those of the other four chains well that the axis of rotation of the drive motors of this chain are in a plane parallel to the bottom 7 while the axes of rotation of the motors

  driving the other chains are perpendicular to this bottom 7.

  The barrel described being located near the unstacking head the invention provides for installing a barrel of the same type upstream of the active generator of the stacking head The sequence undergone by the pairs of rear carriage front carriage, is the even in the opposite direction to that just described Near the stacker I the unstacking chain 20 is replaced by the stacking chain 21 cooperating in any case with the first stopper

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  22 - row 12 1 The stacking barrel will be placed judiciously in such a way

  so that the pallets 76 and 77 are placed respectively

  above and below the active part of the stacking drum 1, but slightly behind the generator of this drum in contact with the package being stacked. Figures 7 A and 7 B show the flowchart of the transfer function governed by the control logic 32 The case presented is the preferred case of the invention, it relates to the case where there are barrels and o the return trolleys are organized on a so-called rectangular circuit In this circuit the trolleys undergo backward movements backwards as opposed to the carousel circuit where the trolleys go back and forth always going in the same direction.

  The flow diagram of FIG. 7 A relates to the stacking phase.

  The two tests present at the beginning of this flowchart are carried out

  cyclically killed by the control logic By these two tests is known the state of the active or non-active stacking drum and the thickness of the pack of objects in formation If the drum is active and if the thickness of the pack is there between a predetermined minimum length and a maximum length (for example 75 mm and 150 mm), it is necessary to close the pack in formation - by introducing a rear intermediate means and

  start a new locker by introducing an interca-

  front area This is achieved by rotating the stacking barrel

a notch.

  The barrel rotation will be controlled by a

  preferred way according to a motion law ensuring an appointment

  you correct between the retaining fingers and the letters reaching the stacker The initialization of this command is provided by a sensor detecting the passage of the rear edge of the last fold to be stacked The introduction of the new fingers is carried out with an advance calculated and constant duration compared to the arrival of the

next object.

* _ 23 -

  For the reasons mentioned above concerning the correct jogging of the folds contained in the magazine, the commissioning of the front transfer chain will take place for a determined time before the commissioning of the rear transfer chain This time will be determined experimentally The delay governing the start of the rear transfer chain with respect to the transfer chain

  front may depend on the thickness of the package made and the possibilities

  logical parts of the control logic Stopping the chains of

  transfer can be caused by a contact of the limit switch type.

  This limit switch may, for example, include a pedal, installed on the front transfer chain, and abutting in a suitable place on the structure of a rear transfer carriage during

  of the meeting of these two carts in the storage store.

  This pedal constituting a contactor usefully establishes contact between two flexible wires which also leads to the control unit. This limit switch contact can also be obtained by a

  device for measuring the overvoltage at the terminals of the drive motors

  nement of the front transfer chains and rear transfer chains when the rack transported on the existing stock stops Indeed, the variations in the current voltage characteristics of these motors can be exploited in this way The order developed at this time by the control logic causes the return of

  transfer chains upstream of the stacking head.

  FIG. 7B represents the flow diagram of the unstacking operation When the unstacking drum is active, when a pair of rear carriage and front carriage enters this barrel and when finally there is no carriage torque before rear carriage, in the low position of the barrel, awaiting recycling, a stop of the given advance of the magazine is then carried out This duration is used to inhibit the advance of the magazine during the disengagement time of the fingers of the carriages It is initialized by the control of the barrel rotation cylinder. Then the unstacking is resumed while, moreover, the return chain 24 takes charge of the pair of carriages thus put on the return path to direct it.

towards the stacker.

  24 - It is obvious that all these mechanical operations

  are performed with experimentally adjusted timers.

  The position sensors necessary for the operation of the device of the invention are of a type known to those skilled in the art and may in particular include photoelectric cells. For example, the initiation of the unstacking procedure will only be ensured 'at

  the concealment of a cell controlling the advance of the store, the rotation

  tion of the stacking barrel is only permitted when a cell has

  verified the actual presence of a couple of trolleys in the barrel.

  The control logic is finally controlled by a clock whose

  frequency is greater than the pace of the stacker or destacker.

-

Claims (8)

  1 Dynamic storage device for flat objects (3) including   taking a stacker (1) to place all the objects to be stored on edge, against each other, and in a storage store (2)   provided with successive lockers (8) delimited by interchangeable means   laires (15, 6), said intermediate means being driven by means (9) of drive and a destacker (10) to take back the objects stored in the lockers, -characterized in that the destacker and   stacker are fixed, in that the intermediate means are independent   pendants of the drive means and cooperate two by two with them by means (12) of retractable locking to each time form the front (6) and the rear (5) of an aforementioned locker, and for carrying out the transport a package of objects corresponding to   along the store towards the stacker.   2 Storage device according to claim 1, characterized in that the intermediate means comprise carriages (15, 16) supported by a circuit (11) extending along the store next to the drive means, and in that the carts are fitted with   fingers (13, 14) for driving objects during transport.   3 Storage device according to claim 2, characterized in that the fingers of the carriages are retractable parallel to themselves through a face (19) of jogging during the operations of delivery of a package of objects to the destacker and in a prohibiting meaning any risk of pickling.   4 Storage device according to any one of the claims   cations 1 to 3, characterized in that the drive means comprise at least one chain (17) to cooperate in one direction   with a cleat (12) of the rear intermediate means of the lockers.   Storage device according to claim 4, characterized in that the drive means comprise at least two   chains, a transfer chain (17) conforming to that of the claim   cation 4 and a unstacking chain (20), said unstacking chain being speed-controlled at the speed of the destacker and comprising a plurality of retractable lugs (29), producing with fixed cleats (12 1) integral with each means insert a way to retractable lock.   6 Storage device according to any one of the claims.   cations 1 to 5, characterized in that the drive means comprise at least four chains (20, 21, 22, 23) which cooperate with a set of cleats (12 1, 12 2, 12 3) juxtaposed with each other and fixed to the intermediate means, preferably a set of ratchet wheels (68 1, 68 2, 68 3), to form at least three separate retractable locking means and comprising: a first chain (21) of stack cooperating with a stacking cleat (12 1), a second chain (22) forward transfer cooperating with a front transfer cleat (12 2) a third chain (23) rear transfer cooperating with a rear transfer cleat ( 12 3), a fourth unstacking chain (20) cooperating with the cleat stacking (12 1).   7 Storage device according to claim 2 and the res-   dication 6, characterized in that the circuit (11) is closed and in that a fifth return chain (24) cooperates with one of the cleats (12 4) to allow recycling in the device of a   couple of front and rear intermediate means.   8 Storage device according to claim 2 and claim 6, characterized in that the circuit (11) comprises two   sections ending at their opposite ends on two barrels   lets (95) allowing the carriages to pass from one section to the other by sliding and in that the fifth chain (24) cooperates with one   cleats (12 2) for recycling ripped carriages.   9 Device according to any one of claims 2 to 8,   characterized in that the circuit has two roadways   (55 and 56) allocated respectively to the circulation of   front carriages or rear carts. 27 -   Device according to any one of Claims 1 to 9,   characterized in that the retractable locking means comprise mechanical lugs (25 to 29) held by an elastic means (49) against a stop (48) to impose an action in a given direction and to slide without catching in another direction.   Device according to any one of Claims 1 to 9,   characterized in that the retractable locking means comprise toothed wheels (681) with pawls which cooperate with toothed belts.