Mobile Sorting Vehicle with Foldable Conveyors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current logistic sorting systems are inflexible and prone to significant delays and costs due to disruptions from incidents like natural disasters or socio-political events, as they require substantial financial and temporal efforts for capacity expansion and are not easily adaptable for temporary use at different locations.
Innovation Solution
A mobile transportation vehicle equipped with foldable infeed and outfeed conveyers, a scanning device, and a sorting system that can be used to sort shipments dynamically, allowing for flexible deployment and integration with existing facilities, enabling efficient sorting of shipments at various geographical locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a high degree of automation is implemented in sorting systems, then sorting efficiency and productivity are improved, but the system becomes inflexible and vulnerable to disruptions from incidents
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a mobile sorting system mounted on transportable vehicles that can be dynamically deployed and relocated. The sorting system includes conveyors, scanning devices, and sorting mechanisms that are mounted on wheeled platforms or trailers, allowing the system to move to different locations as needed. This dynamic configuration provides both automated sorting capability and operational flexibility to respond to incidents or capacity requirements at various facilities.
Solution Approach 2:
The sorting system is divided into modular components including separate infeed conveyors, scanning stations, sorting mechanisms, and outfeed conveyors that can be independently configured and deployed. Each module is designed as a discrete unit that can be assembled in different configurations depending on the specific operational requirements at each location, enabling both automated efficiency and adaptability.
2Productivity
If specialized automated sorting machinery is deployed, then sorting capacity is increased, but the cost and time required for capacity expansion becomes exorbitant
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile sorting system is designed as a universal platform that can be deployed at multiple different locations and integrated with various existing facility infrastructures. The standardized modular design allows the same basic system configuration to serve different sorting needs at different sites, eliminating the need to design and manufacture custom systems for each location, thereby reducing overall expansion costs and time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses transportable, non-permanent infrastructure that can be deployed temporarily at various locations rather than building permanent fixed installations. The mobile vehicles and modular components can be relocated or repurposed as needs change, providing cost-effective capacity expansion without the significant financial and temporal investment required for permanent facility construction.
3Reliability
If fixed sorting facilities are built, then sorting operations can be performed, but the system cannot be easily relocated to different geographical locations
Solution Approach 1:
The sorting system is mounted on mobile platforms with wheels, trailers, or other transport mechanisms that enable relocation to different geographical locations. The system maintains operational stability at each location through standardized mounting configurations and stable platform designs, while simultaneously providing the flexibility to be moved and redeployed as operational needs or incidents require.
4Adaptability or versatility
If foldable conveyors are used, then the system becomes mobile and relocatable, but the complexity of the conveyor mechanism increases
Solution Approach 1:
The conveyors are designed with foldable sections that can be collapsed for transport and deployed for operation. The folding mechanism uses simple hinge joints and support structures that allow the conveyor belts to be bent into compact configurations for moving the vehicles, while maintaining full functionality when deployed at sorting locations.
Data Source
AI summary
Example aspects relate to at least one transportation vehicle for mobile sorting of shipments, the transportation vehicle comprising a loading area arranged on the transportation vehicle, at least one infeed conveyer foldable attached to the loading area for loading an incoming shipment onto the transportation vehicle, at least two outfeed conveyers foldable attached to the loading area for unloading an outgoing shipment from the transportation vehicle, a scanning device arranged on the loading area adjacent to the at least one infeed conveyer and configured to scan the incoming shipment for obtaining a scanning information, a main conveyer arranged on the loading area and configured to convey the incoming shipment past the scanning device towards a sorting device, and the sorting device configured to sort the scanned incoming shipment according to the scanning information towards one of the outfeed conveyers for unloading the incoming shipment as outgoing shipment.