US Patent 7021449 Method and apparatus for storing travel luggage

The invention relates a method and a device for storing baggage delivered early, so-called early baggage, in traffic facilities, in particular commercial airports, which baggage is delivered to a check-in point a period, for example >2 h before the departure time of the respective transport vehicle, whereby this early baggage is being taken into storage until the time when it will be loaded into the respective transport vehicle by placing the baggage into a conveying system and storing it in this system in such a way that it can be removed from storage at any time and is brought via a removal station to the loading, whereby the early baggage is conveyed from the check-in point via a conveyor section of the conveying system to a special intermediate storage place and is handled there item by item mechanically and stacked in a space-saving manner at assigned intermediate storage places, the respective intermediate storage place for the respective baggage is recorded in an electronic data processing system, and the baggage items stored at the intermediate storage place are mechanically removed from the storage place when a predefined time is reached and are transported via the conveyor section to the normal loading process.