CLIAMS:A method for regulating delivery of articles among a plurality of lanes in a packaging machine, the method comprising:
determining a queue length of the articles in a lane from amongst the plurality of lanes, wherein the queue length corresponds to a space occupied by the articles in the lane;
preparing to divert the delivery of the articles from an article dispenser to another lane from amongst the plurality of lanes, based on the queue length indicating unavailability of space in the lane, wherein the preparing comprises ascertaining presence of at least one article at an exit of the article dispenser; and
delivering the articles from the article dispenser to the other lane, based on an absence of the at least one article at the exit.
2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the preparing comprises halting the delivery of the articles from the article dispenser for a predetermined time period based on a presence of the at least one article at the exit.
3. The method as claimed in claim 2 further comprising:
determining the queue length of the articles in the lane upon expiry of the predetermined time period; and
delivering the articles to the other lane, upon ascertaining the absence of the at least one article at the exit.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined time period is about 100 milliseconds (ms).
5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the delivering comprises delivering the articles to the lane based on the queue length indicating availability of the space in the lane.
6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the preparing comprises determining the queue length of the articles in the other lane, and wherein the delivering comprises delivering the articles to the other lane when the queue length of the articles in the other lane indicates availability of the space in the other lane.
7. An article dispenser (106) for a packaging machine (100), the article dispenser (106) comprising:
an inlet (200) to receive articles from a first unit (102);
an outlet (202) coupled to a plurality of lanes to deliver the articles to the plurality of lanes, wherein each lane is associated with a second unit (104), the outlet (202) comprising:
a diverting unit (112) to divert delivery of the articles among the plurality of lanes; and
a sensor unit (108) provided at an exit of the article dispenser (106) to determine presence of at least one article at the exit during operation; and
a control unit (110) coupled to the diverting unit (112) and to the sensor unit (108) to:
ascertain a queue length of the articles in one lane from amongst the plurality of lanes, wherein the queue length corresponds to a space occupied by the articles in the lane; and
operate the diverting unit (112) to regulate the delivery of the articles to another lane from amongst the plurality of lanes, when the queue length indicates unavailability of space in the one lane, and wherein the sensor unit (108) determines an absence of the at least one article at the exit.
8. The article dispenser (106) as claimed in claim 7 further comprising a stopper (210) to prevent the diverting unit (112) from diverting the delivery of the articles from the one lane to the other lane when the sensor unit (108) determines the presence of the at least one article at the exit.
9. The article dispenser (106) as claimed in claim 7, wherein the control unit (110) is to:
ascertain the queue length of the articles in the other lane; and
divert the delivery of the articles to the other lane when the queue length of the articles in the other lane indicates availability of space in the other lane.
10. A packaging machine (100) comprising:
a first unit (102) to dispense articles;
a second unit (104) to receive the articles from the first unit (102); and
an article dispenser (106) provided between the first unit (102) and the second unit (104), wherein the article dispenser (106) is coupled to the first unit (102) by one lane and wherein the article dispenser (106) is coupled to the second unit (104) by a plurality of lanes, the article dispenser (106) comprising:
an inlet (200) to receive the articles from the first unit (102);
an outlet (202) coupled to the plurality of lanes to deliver the articles to the plurality of lanes, wherein each lane is associated with the second unit (104), the outlet (202) comprising:
a diverting unit (112) to divert delivery of the articles among the plurality of lanes; and
a sensor unit (108) provided at an exit of the outlet (202) to determine presence of at least one article at the exit during operation; and
a control unit (110) coupled to the diverting unit (112) and to the sensor unit (108) to:
ascertain a queue length of the articles in one lane from amongst the plurality of lanes, wherein the queue length corresponds to a space occupied by the articles in the lane; and
operate the diverting unit (112) to regulate the delivery of the articles to another lane from amongst the plurality of lanes, when the queue length indicates unavailability of space in the one lane, and wherein the sensor unit (108) determines an absence of the at least one article at the exit.
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