Importance

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Abstract

Device for controlling and regulating the spacing of parcels, packages or similar objects and, more particularly, of postal parcels, mounted at the outlet of a separation apparatus that includes a truncated cone-shaped rotating drum with its axis inclined towards the horizontal and having internal helical fins designed to deliver the packages one by one to the outlet of the drum. The device further includes a conveyor belt driven at constant speed and onto which the packages are tipped at the outlet of the drum, a barrier of detection cells, the beam of which extends in perpendicular to the line of travel of the conveyor in order to identify the moment of each package's passage into this beam and to measure, between two successive interruptions of the cells, the relative spacing of two consecutive packages intersecting, each in turn, the beam of the cells. The device further includes at least one instantaneous photographic camera to obtain an image illustrating the distribution in real time of the packages on the conveyor, a digital-processing circuit to process the image supplied by the camera to identify any superimposition or juxtaposition of two packages which have escaped detection by the cells, and a deviator mechanism actuated by the processing circuit to remove from the conveyor those packages which are not suitably spaced.

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First Claim