Conveyor sorting and orienting system

Claim 1

A high speed sorter for sorting packages comprising: a plurality of infeed conveyors; a plurality of induction conveyor means coupled with said infeed conveyors for receiving packages from said infeed conveyors; a merge conveyor means coupled with said induction conveyor means for receiving packages from said induction conveyor means and biasing said packages deposited thereon toward a generally centrally located discharge point, said induction conveyor means discharging packages on said merge conveyor means in a spaced relationship said merge conveyor means comprising: a support frame including a longitudinally extending central rail and longitudinally extending spaced side rails; a first set of power driven rollers rotatably mounted between one of said side rails and said central rail, said rollers being generally parallel to one another and skewed at an angle relative to a line extending perpendicular to said central rail so that said rollers bias articles to converge toward said central rail in the direction of package movement; and a second set of power driven rollers rotatably mounted between the other of said side rails and said central rail, said rollers being generally parallel to one another and positioned at an angle relative to a line extending perpendicular to said central rail so that said rollers converge toward said central rail in the direction of package movement, whereby packages inducted onto said merge conveyor at transversely spaced points are biased toward the center of said merge conveyor; alignment conveyor means coupled with said merge conveyor means for receiving packages from said merge conveyor means and biasing each package toward one edge thereof, said alignment conveyor means including longitudinally extending, spaced, parallel, lateral sides and further comprising: a plurality of longitudinally spaced, coplanar, parallel rollers, said rollers being skewed at an angle relative to a line extending perpendicular to the sides of said alignment conveyor means; and a longitudinally extending guard rail extending along one lateral side of said alignment conveyor, said rollers converging toward said guard rail in the direction of conveyor movement; a plurality of destination conveyors; and a main discharge conveyor means coupled with said alignment conveyor means, said discharge conveyor means including at longitudinally spaced points adjacent the destination conveyors, a plurality of diverter means for selectively diverting preselected packages to a predetermined one of said destination conveyor.