The vibration feeder has a drive unit (4) comprising a vibration drive (10), a carrier arrangement (5) comprising a feeding element for the material to be conveyed and a control (26) for the vibration drive (10), wherein an acceleration sensor (27) is arranged on the drive unit (10), which when the vibration feeder (25) is operating, detects the actual acceleration of the drive unit (4), and wherein the control (26) is configured to use the actual acceleration signal of the acceleration sensor (26) for generating a regulating variable for the vibration drive (10) such that the carrier arrangement (5) vibrates essentially within its resonance frequency (f.sub.res). This makes it possible, during operation, to detect the acceleration of a drive unit (4) of the vibration feeder (25) and to generate therefrom a regulating variable for a vibration drive (10) such that a carrier arrangement (5) of the vibration feeder (25) vibrates closer to its resonance frequency (f.sub.res) or is brought back again to the same. In addition the inventive control (28) may be used to also regulate the amplitude of the carrier arrangement (4) and the associated mass flow {dot over (m)} to a required value.

A cart alignment device of the present disclosure is used in a delivery system that delivers an article using a cart including a loading section for loading articles and a caster disposed in the loading section and having wheels capable of changing a movement direction of the loading section. The cart alignment device includes a rail member configured to guide the caster of the cart in a predetermined arrangement direction, and a disposition section configured to dispose and fix the rail member in a collection chamber for accommodating one or more carts.

A feeder that feeds objects to be picked up by a robot, includes an object container unit having a first planar portion including a first planar surface in which the objects are thrown, and a groove portion including a plurality of grooves extending in a first direction from the first planar portion as seen from a normal direction in which a normal of the first planar surface extends, and a vibrator unit that applies vibration to the object container unit, wherein the vibrator unit has a first vibration mode in which the objects are moved in the first direction.

Provided is an operation check device for a conveyer device, the operation check device being capable of reproducing and checking operation of the conveyer device. The operation check device includes: a log data creation unit that creates log data in which operation states of a drive motor and a load presence sensor of each of the conveyer units of a conveyer device are individually recorded; an operation reproduction unit that creates video data that schematically reproduces operation of the conveyer device and operation state data on the drive motor as well as the load presence sensor from moment to moment, based on the log data; and a display device that displays a video based on the video data created by the operation reproduction unit and an image based on the operation state data.

A storage device (1′) for storing transport units (3′) includes a number of transport units (3′), a number of storage lines (12a′-12g′) which are configured to store transport units (3′), a feeding line (11′) which is connected by a respective first switch point (111′) to the storage lines (12a′-12g′), a measuring device (15′) which is arranged on the feeding line (11′) and which is configured to determine a respective extent of a transport unit (3′), and a controller (16′) which is connected to the measuring device (15′) and to the first switch pointes (111′) and which is configured to select a storage line (12a′-12g′) for storing the transport unit (3′) on the basis of the extent of the transport unit (3′) determined by the measuring device (15′).

A sorting conveyor, which may be a cross-belt sorter, comprises a basic structure, a guide element arranged on the basic structure, and at least one conveying cart configured to be conveyed along the guide element of the sorting conveyor in a conveying direction. The sorting conveyor further includes a measuring device configured to monitor at least one operating state of the conveying cart and/or of the guide element.

A contactless monitoring system detects operating performance of movers in an independent cart system. A contactless sensor is provided on an actuator to automatically track a mover as it travels along the track. The sensor includes a transmitter configured to transmit a signal and a receiver configured to receive the signal after it is reflected off the mover. The actuator may be configured to mover the sensor in a single axis or in multiple axes of motion. As a mover travels along the track, the sensor transmits a signal towards the mover and detects the signal after it has been reflected off the mover. A controller may synchronize motion of the actuator with motion of the mover, such that the sensor may continually transmit the signal off the mover for at least a portion of the travel by the mover along the track.

Described herein is an optical fibre mounting structure (180) for fibre vibration sensing of a distributed system (100) of spaced apart vibration sources (112-131). Mounting structure (180) includes a base portion (200) having a two dimensional surface area defining a vibration surface (202). A mounting apparatus (236) is adapted to mount the base portion (200) to a support structure (e.g. 104) of the distributed system (100) adjacent one of the vibration sources. A fibre engagement structure (e.g. 210-215) is provided for supportively engaging a length (218) of optical fibre in contact with the vibration surface (202).

A linear motor/generator/transmission system includes a guideway with rails and a plurality of stator cores and coils evenly disposed along the length and in the center of the guideway. The system also includes a carriage configured to travel along the guideway having at least two magnet bars with alternating pole magnets, each successive magnet of each magnet bar mounted in front of the other in a direction of travel of the carriage. In embodiments, the magnet bars are mounted parallel to and on either side of a longitudinal centerline of the carriage such that, when adjacent to the center line and each other, the at least two magnet bars are positioned over the stator coils and are configured to be slidably translated away from the center line of the carriage to a position where the at least two magnet bars are not over the stator coils.

A conveyor system includes a first conveyor line to convey an article in a first direction, a second conveyor line parallel or substantially parallel with the first conveyor line to convey the article in a second direction that is a direction opposite to the first direction, a backup line parallel or substantially parallel with the first conveyor line and the second conveyor line and able to change states between a state of conveying the article in the first direction and a state of conveying the article in the second direction, first connecting lines to convey the article between the first conveyor line and the backup line, and second connecting lines to convey the article between the second conveyor line and the backup line.