Adjustable coding reflector

(74) Agent

Tandbergs Patentkontor AS, Oslo.

(56) Cited publications

US Patent No. 3560073, 2043293

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to an adjustable coding reflector for light-electronically targeted transport, sorting or storage systems with a bottom plate having at least two parallel, adjustable rows of reflector positions in the transport direction, each of which can be optionally set to reflection or non-reflection, and transversely these are arranged in sliding movable sliders, by means of whose linear setting the corresponding reflector positions are adjusted.

Light electronic code readers are known. They are able to capture and electronically process commands, for control or monitoring purposes, etc., possibly emitted by themselves, reflected light. For reflection, in this case, coded reflection surfaces, e.g. prints on boxes that walk past the code reader.

It is also known to use these light electronic code147010 readers in transport, sorting, storage or similar systems for targeted controlled transport, sorting, monitoring and so on. In this case, for example, a purpose-controlled transport facility has a large number of branched tracks, intermediate bearings, etc., on which the transported goods find their way independently. This is done by providing the transported goods with coded reflectors, for example coded, printed strips which are read by code readers arranged on the side of the conveyor lanes, whereupon the associated units for utilization of the readings set or adjust track switches, drive devices and similar controllers in the conveyor system. in accordance with the purpose for which the goods in question are to be carried.

There is also already known an adjustable coding reflector which can be attached to transport containers for the goods to be transported and which, in the same way as a clock, has ten different reflector positions on a circle and is adjustable, for example, at the exit point of the target controlled transport system in accordance with that target. as intended, by turning a pointer to one of ten targets that can be selected. The code reader arranged along the conveyor system then feeds the container according to its pointer setting to one of ten targets. By sequentially arranging two such clock-like adjustable coding reflectors on the transport containers and corresponding doubling of the code readers, one can automatically control a hundred different paths with this known coding reflector, but the investment required for this is very large and correspondingly great is also the danger of errors in malfunctions. .

Finally, there is also known an adjustable coding reflector which consists of an elongate base plate having a number of adjacent reflector positions, one or two sliders being displaceable along the base plate to reveal one and / or another reflector position in the series. Even with this known coding reflector, you can only automatically control a limited number of paths.

The object of the invention lies in the provision of an adjustable coding reflector, where it is possible to set a very large number of different coding data with a few simple handles, so that, for example, at a target controlled transport system with such a coding reflector which can be attached to a transport container or also detachable on the transported cargo itself, can set a very large number of targets with few handles. In this case, the coding reflector of the invention should not only be easy to operate, but could also be manufactured very simply and reasonably and preferably be used with conventional marketed code readers.

To solve this problem, a coding reflector of the kind described above according to the invention is characterized in that the bottom of the cloud transfers is designed as a reflector and that in each row a corresponding reflector position is arranged for each row.

Thus, at the coding reflector, only one or more adjacent reflector position rows with reflector positions can be arranged, each reflector position having a handle can be set reflective or non-reflective, so that a number of different codes potential for the known coding reflectors is obtained. that is, an exceedingly large number of different lanes are automatically controllable, for example in a purpose controlled transport facility.

It is preferably arranged that the individual reflector positions in a plurality of parallel reflector position rows across the direction of movement of the goods or the containers of the goods lie in alignment with each other and that a slider (or flap, stop or the like) is arranged for each reflector position in the reflector position rows, when changing it one and / or other of the reflector positions in line with each other can be set to reflection.

In a coding reflector with two adjacent reflector position rows having ten reflector position ions, respectively, by correspondingly adjusting the ten sliders, flaps, stops or the like in such a way that one and / or other of the reflector positions superposed reflect or none of these reflector positions reflect, automatically set or control respectively a number of different commands compared to known coding reflectors, for example, also different roads.

The operator must, therefore, only set a maximum of ten sliders with few handles in order to control hundreds of different paths. By extending the reflector position rows or by arranging a third and more reflector position rows, the number of possible code settings can be multiplied beyond this virtually indefinitely. The coding reflector itself consists only of a base plate which can be manufactured as a single piece of spray-stoppered plastic and of a similar number of similarly plastic spray-tested sliders, flaps, stoppers or the like.

In this case, the sliders, flaps, stops or the like may have a reflector-shaped front, the reflector-designed surface only having to have the dimensions of a reflector position.

The coding reflector can either be screwed or stuck to a transport container or it can be provided with a detachable fastening device on the goods, for example with a clamp, a suction cup and so on.

Further objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of some embodiments which serve as an explanation and not to possibly delineate the basic idea of ​​the invention, with reference to the drawings, in which fig. 1 is a perspective view of a runway having a container provided with a coding reflector according to the invention, a code reader being arranged on the side of the runway; 2 shows a front view of a first embodiment of a coding reflector according to the invention with only one reflector position row; 3 shows, on a larger scale, another embodiment of the coding reflector according to the invention; FIG. 4 shows a slider for use with a coding reflector according to FIG. 3, FIG. 5 is a variant of the slider of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a further embodiment of the coding reflector; FIG. 7 shows a detail of a slider for the coding reflector of FIG. 6, FIG. 8 is a further variant of the coding reflector of the invention; 9 and 10 are two embodiments of sliders for use in the embodiment of FIG. 8 and FIG. 11 shows, schematically, a possible way of placing the coding reflector according to the invention, for example, on a package.

Fig. 1 shows a short section of a runway 10 with rollers 11 which is intended to indicate part of an extensive transport facility provided with numerous track exchanges, intermediate bearings, collectors, sorters, etc., which transport facility is traversed by the targeted transported goods units. In the exemplary embodiment shown, the 14-marked goods units are in transport containers 12 and for target control, code readers 15 are provided on the side of the transport paths, which code readers contain an electronic unit for processing or

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they belong to such a processing unit, which in turn sets the direction of transport (arrow 13) with the resulting track switches, drive devices, etc. in accordance with the code read. The known code reader 15, by means of a rbr.16, throws a light beam against a coding reflector 20 according to the invention, from which the light beam is reflected back to the code reader by means of correspondingly set reflectors and processed into a corresponding command.

FIG. 2 shows a first embodiment of the coding reflector 20a in accordance with the invention. An elongate base plate 21a has on its front side a reflector position row A which, e.g. consists of ten reflective reflector positions 24. Reflector positions The ions 24 are thus simple round or angular reflective surfaces. In two bearings 23, a shaft 25 is stored above the reflector position row A,_/ to which each reflector position 24 is pivotally attached. ; flap 27c. in FIG. 2 is the second and third as the last flap. in

27c swings down in front of their reflector positions 24 and covers them, while the other flaps 2.7c are swung up and consequently their reflector positions 24 are free. It will be readily apparent that, by corresponding oscillation up or down of the flaps 27c, each reflector position 24 can be made reflective or non-reflective, which is then read by the code reader 15 in a similar manner as indicated in FIG. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a further embodiment of, a coding reflector 20 according to the invention. This consists of a base plate 21 which is preferably spray-pressed plastic and with screws 22, with glue or in any other way can be attached to the side of a container

12. The base plate 21 has two parallel to the conveying direction 13 for continuous reflector position rows A, B, whose individual reflector positions 1, 2, 3 ..... 9, 0 are formed by windows or openings 24. Behind the openings 24, cross-cut grooves 26 are formed across the reflector position rows A, B, in which sliders 27 can be displaced, which can also be made of injection-stoppered plastic. The sliders 27 suitably each have a door and a lower stop plate 28, 29 for final positioning. its front side (see Fig. 4) is provided with a reflector 30 which is known in a manner known in the art to throw back an incoming light beam always in the direction of the angle of incidence, ie. that it is harmless when the coding reflector 20 does not run exactly at right angles past the code reader 15.

IN

The reflector 30 is arranged on the slider 27 in such a way that when the slider is pushed to the final position upwards' (slider # 1 in Fig. 3) this reflector 30 is behind the upper window 2L ±, while the reflector 30 is behind the lower window when the slider 27 is pushed to the lower end position (e.g., position 2 in Fig. 3). For better overview, the position numbers 1-0 can also be applied to the upper side of the impact plates 28.

On the delivery side of the target controlled conveyor, the operator sets the sliders 27 according to the path or path that the containers 12 are to traverse, the number of controllable paths or paths in the reflector position ranges respectively doubling from reflector position to reflector position (2-4-8-16-32- 64 ...... 1024).

Thus, by means of each additional reflector position (in accordance with the individual windows 24) in the reflector position rows A and B, the number of possible paths can again be doubled.

Thus, it will be seen that the extremely simple / adjustable single-handle coding reflector 20 is adjustable by an operator on an extremely large majority of roads. The^:It has already been mentioned that additional reflector position rows can of course also be arranged, but in this case it is necessary with other than the usual known code readers or the arrangement of several code readers one after the other.

While the slider of FIG. 4 is designed in such a way that its reflector in the upper end position will lie behind the upper window 24 and in the lower end position behind the lower window 24 in the base plate 21, the slider 27 can also be designed according to FIG. 5 that it has four settings together: First and foremost, the two end positions of the slider 27 are possible as shown in FIG. 4; that is, the reflector 30 is either behind the upper or lower window 24, and then the slider of FIG. 5 however, the enlarged reflector surface is also brought behind both windows and as a fourth position, the slider 27 can be arranged so that no part of the reflector surface 30 lies in the windows 2 /.

In the embodiment of FIG. 6, the coding reflector 20 'has a baseplate 21' with face-cut grooves 26 'arranged on the front, in which corresponding sliders 27' are displaceable, which according to the embodiment of FIG. 6 and 7 have a window 32 which in the upper end position of the slider 27 'lies in height with the reflector positions in the upper reflector position row A and in the lower end position of the slider 2y lies in height with the reflector positions in the lower reflector position row B. In this case, the bottom of the groove 26 'is provided with a reflector 33 ·

Of course, however, the reflector 33 with its large surface shown in FIG. 6 fall away and instead use a slider according to FIG. 4 or FIG. 5 (with corresponding reverse cut) for the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, if reflector 30 corresponding to a reflector position is substantially smaller.

In the embodiment of FIG. 8, the coding reflector 20 has a base surface 21, on the front of which is formed undercut ribs 34 which have near end ends 37 at its two ends. By such a coding reflector 20 one can place through reflectors 35 on the front of the rib 34 and cover the dissection with a slider 27a shown. in FIG. 9 respectively. in the upper or lower half, or a slider 27b shown in FIG. 10 which carries on its front a reflector 36 having the dimensions of the reflector position.

Of course, it is possible to carry out a large number of additional variants of the coding reflector according to the invention within the scope of one of ordinary skill in the art, wherein the reflector positions are optionally set reflective or non-reflective by means of flaps, sliders, plugs or the like.

In the embodiment of FIG. 1, the coding reflector 20 is arranged on a container 12 containing the goods 14 to be transported. Of course, one can also place the coding reflector according to the invention detachable immediately on a freight unit to be transported. Thus, in FIG. 11 shown how to attach a coding reflector 20 to a freight unit 14 'by means of a buyle 40 which, for example, engages behind a metal band 42 enclosing the freight unit 14'. for the coding reflector.

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