US 11,666,945 B2
Sorting system for luggage as well as method for sorting luggage
Philipp Pfeifer, Constance (DE); and Eberhard Mandler, Reichenau (DE)
Assigned to Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co. KG, Munich (DE)
Appl. No. 17/765,119
Filed by Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co. KG, Munich (DE)
PCT Filed Sep. 16, 2020, PCT No. PCT/EP2020/075807
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Mar. 30, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/063676, PCT Pub. Date Apr. 8, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 19200712 (EP), filed on Oct. 1, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0339672 A1, Oct. 27, 2022
Int. Cl. B07C 3/08 (2006.01); B07C 3/00 (2006.01); B64F 1/32 (2006.01); B65G 67/08 (2006.01)
CPC B07C 3/08 (2013.01) [B07C 3/008 (2013.01); B64F 1/32 (2013.01); B65G 67/08 (2013.01); B65G 2201/0264 (2013.01); B65G 2203/0258 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sorting system for luggage, the sorting system comprising:
a transport mechanism arranged to transport pieces of luggage to be sorted into a sorting area of the sorting system; and
a controller system adapted to receive at least one item of luggage-related sorting information for each piece of luggage;
wherein the sorting area includes:
at least one make-up-place with two or more loading stations connected to said transport mechanism and configured to sort the piece of luggage according to the at least one item of luggage-related sorting information;
a plurality of movable load devices configured to receive at least one piece of luggage sorted by the at least one make-up-place in accordance with the at least one item of luggage-related sorting information;
said controller system being configured to assign each piece of luggage according to the at least one item of luggage-related sorting information to a particular one of said movable load devices;
said controller system being configured to select a loading station of a make-up-place for each piece of luggage and to send the piece of luggage to the selected loading station of the selected make-up-place to be loaded into a respectively assigned said movable load device;
said particular movable load device being configured to wait at said at least one make-up-place until moving or being moved to an output area;
wherein, while said particular movable load device waits at said at least one make-up-place, said particular movable load device waits at the selected loading station of the selected make-up-place and is routed to a waiting storage in the sorting area by said controller system if the sorting system does not currently expect a further piece of luggage for said particular movable load device and a number of free loading stations at said at least one make-up-place is low or zero.