EP0103589A1

EP0103589A1 - A method and apparatus for separating a plurality of closely adjacent piles of sheets

Info

Publication number: EP0103589A1
Application number: EP19830900781
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mogens Geert Andreasen; John Svend Jensen
Original assignee: Axel Andreasen & Sonner Leasing Ved Mogens Geert Andreasen
Current assignee: Axel Andreasen & Sonner Leasing Ved Mogens Geert Andreasen
Priority date: 1982-02-26
Filing date: 1983-02-28
Publication date: 1984-03-28
Also published as: WO1983002928A1; FI833903A0; DK149508B; DK149508C; FI833903A; DK86282A

Abstract

Un agencement (13) de piles de feuilles très proches les unes des autres (15), obtenues en coupant une pile unique de feuilles plus grandes à l'aide d'une machine de coupe est amené dans un appareil (10) dans lequel les piles de feuilles (15) sont séparées et amenées dans un appareil de mise en liasse (11) des paquets, suivant un nombre désiré de piles à la fois. Dans l'appareil (10) utilisé pour alimenter l'appareil de mise en liasse (11), l'agencement des piles (13) est déplacé le long d'un chemin (18) se composant de longueurs (25, 26, 27) le long desquelles les piles de feuilles (15) se déplacent suivant des directions faisant des angles droits les unes par rapport aux autres. L'agencement de piles est poussé le long de la première longueur de chemin (25) dans sa totalité à l'aide d'une plaque de poussée (28), tandis qu'une ou quelques-unes seulement des rangées parallèles de piles dans l'agencement de pile est/sont poussée(s) le long de la seconde longueur de chemin (26) en une fois à l'aide d'un chariot de poussée (36). Le chariot de poussée (36) est déplacé pas à pas étant donné que le long de la troisième longueur de chemin (27) uniquement une seule rangée de piles est poussée dans l'appareil de mise en liasse (11) à la fois. A l'aide de ce procédé, l'agencement de pile est divisé en ensembles désirés de piles. La séparation le long d'une coupe (53) entre deux rangées de piles adjacentes (54, 55) peut être facilitée de sorte que les surfaces en appui sur les plaques de poussée (28, 36) associées à la première (25) et à la seconde (26) longueurs de chemin, respectivement, peuvent définir un angle légèrement supérieur à 90o. En outre, une rangée de piles (54) peut être retenue par un dispositif de retenue (50) de manière à faciliter davantage la séparation des piles. On obtient ainsi une alimentation mécanique avantageuse de l'appareil de mise en liasse (11).An arrangement (13) of stacks of sheets very close to each other (15), obtained by cutting a single stack of larger sheets using a cutting machine is brought into an apparatus (10) in which the stacks of sheets (15) are separated and fed into a bundle wrapper (11) according to a desired number of stacks at a time. In the apparatus (10) used to power the bundling apparatus (11), the arrangement of stacks (13) is moved along a path (18) consisting of lengths (25, 26, 27 ) along which the stacks of sheets (15) move in directions making right angles to each other. The stack arrangement is pushed along the entire first length of path (25) using a push plate (28), while only one or a few of the parallel rows of stacks in the stack arrangement is / are pushed along the second path length (26) at one time using a push carriage (36). The push carriage (36) is moved step by step since along the third path length (27) only one row of batteries is pushed into the bundling apparatus (11) at a time. Using this method, the stack arrangement is divided into desired sets of stacks. The separation along a section (53) between two adjacent rows of stacks (54, 55) can be facilitated so that the surfaces bearing on the push plates (28, 36) associated with the first (25) and at the second (26) path lengths, respectively, can define an angle slightly greater than 90o. Additionally, a row of batteries (54) can be retained by a retainer (50) to further facilitate separation of the batteries. An advantageous mechanical supply is thus obtained from the bundling apparatus (11).

Description

A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEPARATI NG A PLU RALITY OF CLOSELY ADJACENT P I LES OF SHEETS

The present invention relates to a method for separating a plurality of closely adjacent piles of sheets forming together a pile arrangement having a substantially rectangular contou r and including two sets of pile rows, the pile rows in each set extending substantially parallel to a respective side of the rectangular contour.

When printing labels or other printing sheet material of relatively small sizes in very big numbers, it is often more rational to print a plurality of such labels or printed matter simultaneously on a relatively large sheet of paper or on another base material . After printing these large sheets are stacked or piled on a supporting plate or cutting plate. After vertical alignment of the piled sheets , this pile of large-sized sheets is cut in a cutting machine along a plurality of vertical, virtually pa rallel planes, which are also parallel to one pair of vertical side su rfaces of the pile, and thereafter the pile is cut along a plurality of vertical planes forming right angles with the first, mentioned cutting planes and being parallel to the other pair of the vertical side su rfaces of the pile. I n this manner the pile of large- sized sheets is divided into an arrangement of closely adjacent, iden¬ tical piles of smaller-sized sheets, which are supported by the sup¬ porting or cutting plate and arranged in rows or lines extending parallel to the respective sides of the supporting or cutting plate. Before the printed sheets arranged on the supporting plate may be shipped to a customer, each of the pl urality of piles of sheets ar¬ ranged on the supporting plate must be tied up/or wrapped.

A machine for tying up the sheets in such piles by wrapping a plastic band around each pile, is known . This known machine comprises a number, for example th ree, bundling mechanisms positioned side by side for simultaneously bundling or tying up a row of sheet piles . The machine is fed by manually positioning three rows or piles of sheet piles in front of a pushing ca rriage, which is movable in the longitudinal di rection of the pile rows or lines, and which is provided with a plane, vertical abutment su rface. A pushing member, which is

OM movable in a direction forming rights angles with the direction of movement of the carriage, i . e. transversely to the longitudinal direction of the three rows of sheet piles , is adapted to push th ree piles of sheet to the bundling mechanisms at a time. Thus, in 5 operation of the machine, the carriage pushes the three rows of piles, one pile width forward each time the transverse pushing member has pushed three piles of sheets to the bundling mechanisms.

This known machine requires a rather big amount of manual working power for aligning the sheets in the piles vertically and for feeding 0 the piles into the machine, the operation of which must be stopped each time three new rows of sheet piles is to be positioned in front of the pushing carriage.

The present invention provides a method by means of which a desired separation of sheet piles in an arrangement of closely adjacent rows 5 or lines of sheet piles may be obtained in a more rational manner, whereafter the sheet piles from such a pile arrangement may be supplied to a bundling or packing machine or any other treating or transporting device in a desired manner.

\_

The method according to the invention is of the type comprising 0 pushing by means of pushing means with substantially vertical, plane pile abutment surfaces, the pile arrangement along a path composed of a plurality of path lengths which extend at substantially right angles to one another and parallel to the respective pile rows, and the method according to the invention is characterized in that along at 5 least two of the path lenghts being at right angles to each other only part of the pile rows of the pile arrangement parallel with the respective path length is pushed at a time. Despite the number of sheet piles positioned along each side of the rectangular pile arrangement, the method according to the invention makes it possible 0 to have the original pile arrangement divided in such a manner that a desired part of the pile arrangement leaves the last length of the path at a time. This means that all of the piles of sheets which are arran¬ ged on the supporting or cutting plate may be supplied to the first length of the path simultaneously, whether it is desired that the piles should pass the last path length one by one, in a row formed by two or more piles, or as two or more adjacent rows of piles of sheets . Because the piles of sheets are exposed to pushing in two directions forming right angles to one another when passing along the path of movement, the sheets in each pile are automatically maintained vertically aligned during movement along the path .

As mentioned above, the piles of sheets are normally supplied to bundling or packing devices, or to other kinds of treating devices . As more such devices may be positioned side by side parallel to the last length of the path of movement, preferably only one pile row is pushed along this last path length at a time.

The pushing of only part of the pile rows of the pile arrangement along said at least two path lenghts involves a mutual displacement between two closely adjacent pile rows . I n order to avoid that the friction between the two adjacent pile rows deforms the piles of loosely stacked sheets to an unacceptable degree, or disturbs the mutual arrangement of the sheet piles , the vertical plane abutment surface which is used for pushing along one of said at least two path lengths may be positioned so as to define an angle with the abutment surface used for pushing the sheet piles along the immediately pre- ceeding path length , slightly exceeding 90 . This means that the cut or joint defined between the said part of the pile rows being pushed and the adjacent stationary part of the pile rows will open a small angle so that the friction between the moving and the adjacent stationary sheet piles is eliminated or substantially reduced .

In order to prevent that the said friction between the pile rows moved in relation to each other causes an undesired disturbance of the pile arrangement the row of piles adjacent to the part of the pile rows being pushed is, alternatively or additionally, retained by pressing it against its supporting su rface from above. The said friction may be further reduced or eliminated by also pressing the retained row of piles a small distance away from and at substantially right angles to the pile row part to be moved , whereby the cut or joint defined between the moved and the stationary pile rows is further opened . The path along which the pile arrangement is moved may be formed in any suitable manner. Thus, for example, it may be constituted by a simple, smooth, substantially horizontal surface. Alternatively, the path may be formed by the upper sides of a plurality of rollers positioned closely side by side. I n the preferred embodiment, how¬ ever, the pile arrangement is at least partly supported by an air cushion when moved along at least some of the path lengths. This may be obtained by the provision of a plu rality of nozzles arranged in the plane_ surface forming the path of movement and communicating with a source of pressurized gas or air. Each of these nozzles may, for example, be closed by means of a valve member, for example in the form of a ball , which extends slightly above the said surface, and which is automatically activated or depressed by the sheet piles, when they are moved across the nozzles.

The invention also relates to an apparatus for separating a plu rality of closely adjacent piles of sheets forming together a pile arrangement having a substantially rectangular contour, said apparatus comprising a path of movement for said pile arrangement, said path being formed by a substantially horizontal supporting surface and being composed

. -1 by a plurality of path lengths, which extend at substantially at right angles to one another, and pushing means which are associated with each of said path lengths and adapted to push the pile arrangement along the respective path length by means of a substantially plane, vertical abutment surface extending at right angles to the direction of movement of the pushing means, and the apparatus according to the invention is characterized in that the effective length of the abutment surface of each of the pushing means associated with at least two of the path lengths being at right angles to one another constitutes only a fraction of the length of the corresponding side of the rectangular contour of the pile arrangement, whereby each of the said pushing means is adapted to move the pile arrangement along the respective path length at more times . As explained above such an apparatus may separate a rectangular pile arrangement and feed a desired arrange¬ ment of a desired number of piles at a time to another device or to another station of treatment. The invention will now be further described with reference to the drawings, wherein

Fig . 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention which is used for feeding an associated pile bundling apparatus,

Fig . 2 is a plan view and partially sectional view diagrammatically illustrating separation of a rectangular pile arrangement moving along a path of movement defined in the apparatus, and

Figs . 3 and 4 are perspective views of an end portion of the apparatus shown in Fig . 1 and the associated pile bundling apparatus, the movable parts of the apparatus being shown in different operational positions .

Fig. 1 shows an embodiment of the pile separating apparatus 10 according to the invention, which is used as a feeding apparatus for a pile bundling apparatus 11 . Rectangular pile a rrangements 13 which are supported by a rectangular supporting plate or cutting plate 14, are supplied to the feeding apparatus 10 via a supply path 12. The pile arrangement 13 may be formed by cutting a pile of rectangular printed sheets having a size corresponding to the size of the sup- porting plate 14 and being vertically aligned, in a conventional cut¬ ting machine (not shown) along a network of cutting lines forming right angles with one another, whereby the pile has been divided into a plurality of closely adjacent piles 15 of smaller sheets, such as labels .

Before the smaller piles 15 may be packed and made ready for ship¬ ment to a customer, each single pile 15 of printed sheets must be wrapped with a band 16 in the bundling apparatus 11 in order to hold the sheets in the respective piles together.

The feeding apparatus or pile separating apparatus 10 comprises a frame 17 supporting a substantially horizontal table 18, which has a substantially plane upper su rface forming a path of movement for the sheet piles 15 ,to be supplied to the bundling apparatus 11 . The bundling apparatus 1 1 also comprises a table 19, which is supported by a frame 20, and which has a plane upper su rface substantially flushing with the upper surface of the table 18. The upper surface of the supply path 12, which is supported by a frame 21 , also flushes with the upper surface of the table 18. A plane, vertical abutment plate or stopping plate 22 is stationarily mounted at the end of the supply path 12, and the path of movement formed by the table 18 may be separated from the supply path 12 by means of a vertical, plane entrance plate or gate 23 defining right angles with the stopping plate 22. The entrance plate 23 may be moved vertically by means of pneumatic cylinders 24 or similar moving means, between an upper position shown in Fig. 1 , in which the. entrance plate separates the paths 12 and 18, and a lower position, in which the entrance plate does not extend above the plane upper surfaces of the tables 12 and 18.

The path of movement formed by the table 18 is divided into first, second, and third path lengths, which are designated by 25, 26, and 27, respectively, and as indicated by arrows the sheet piles 15 are pushed along these path lengths in directions which define right angles with one another.

The pushing movement along the first path length 25 may be generated by means of a pushing plate 28, which is swingable about a horizontal axis 29, and which is mounted on slide members 30, which are displaceable along horizontally extending guiding rods 31 . The pushing plate 28 may be moved along the guiding rods 31 , and, consequently, along the first length 25 of the path of movement by means of a driving chain 32, which may be driven by an electric motor 33 via a chain drive 34 and a sprocket shaft 35.

A pushing plate or carriage 36 may be moved forwards and backwards in directions at substantially right angles to the direction of movement of the pushing plate 28 by means of a screw spindle (not shown) , or other suitable power transmitting means arranged within a housing 37. The screw spindle or power transmitting means of the carriage 36 is/are driven by means of an electric motor 38 via a gear train, a belt drive, a chain drive, or other suitable power transmitting means arranged within a housing 39. A third pushing plate or carriage 40 may be moved forwards and backwards along the third path length 27 in a direction substantially at right angles to the di rection of movement of the carriage 36 and, consequently, substantially pa rallel with the direction of movement of the pushing plate 28, by means of an electric motor 41 via a reduction gear 42 and a screw spindle 43.

The embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention show in the drawings operates as follows :

When a pile arrangement 13 positioned on a supporting or cutting plate 14 has been formed in the manner described above by cutting in a cutting machine, the pile arrangement is pushed along the supply path 12 to the position shown in Fig . 1 , in which one of the shorter side surfaces of the rectangular pile arrangement is in engagement with the stopping plate 22, while one of the longer side su rfaces of the pile arrangement is in engagement with the entrance plate or gate

23. The supply path 12 may be of a conventional type provided with a plurality of ai r nozzles communicating with a source of pressu rized air, so that a pile arrangement moved along the supply path 12 is at least partly supported by the ai r discharged through the nozzles .

When the pile arrangement is in the position shown in Fig . 1 the exposed side surface may be manually pushed, if desi red, in order to exactly align the sheets of the piles vertically before the pile arrangen.snt is fed into the pile separating apparatus 10. The operator may now depress a pedal -44, whereby the cylinders 24 are actuated so as to displace the entrance plate or gate 23 vertically to its lower position , and thereafter the pile arrangement 13 may together with the supporting plate 14 be manually or mechanically pushed on to the table 18 in the di rection of the abutting plate 22 and along a rail 45, which is aligned with the abutting plate 22 and extends transversely across the table 18. The height or thickness of the rail 45 does not exceed the thickness of the supporting plate or cutting plate 14. When the pile arrangement 13 has been moved on to the path length 25 the gate 13 is closed again by means of the pneumatic cylinders 24, and another pile a rrangement may be supplied from the cutting machine along the supply path 12. When a pile arrangement 13 has been moved on to the first path length 25 as described, and the gate 23 has been closed, a photo¬ electric cell 46 or a similar detector ascertains the presence of the pile arrangement in the said position and causes starting of the electromotor 33. The pushing plate 28 will then move from its position shown in Fig . 1 behind the pile arrangement in the direction indicated by the arrow, whereby the pile arrangement is pushed along the first length 25 of the path of movement (from the left to the right in Fig. 1 ) . However, the supporting or cutting plate 14 is retained by the rail 45 so that only the piles of sheets which have been supported thereby, are pushed along the first path length 25, which may be provided with air nozzles like the supply path 12. When the pile arrangement 13 has been displaced to a position in which the forward side surface of the pile arrangement comes into engagement with a vertical abutment surface 47 formed on the housing 37, the forward movement of the pushing plate 28 is stopped .

A rod-like hold-down member 50 extending transversely to and above the first length 25 of the path of movement is mounted by means of a pair of substantially vertically extending mounting rods 48 and a pair of arms 49 pivotally connected to the mountthg rods . The bottom surface of the hold-down member 50 is preferably provided with a layer of an elastic material, for example foamed rubber or plastic. The hold-down member 50 may be moved upwardly and downwardly by means of a pneumatic cylinder 51 , and the rods 48 are biased in a direction towards the pushing plate 28 by means of spring members 52.

When the pile arrangement 13 has been moved to a position in which it is in engagement with the vertical abutment surface 47 as described above, the cylinder 51 is activated, whereby the hold-down member 50 is moved downwardly into engagement with the upper surface of

_____ the pile row located therebelow. Thereafter, the pushing plate 28 is swung in a backward direction to a substantially horizontal position indicated by solid lines in Fig . 3. This allows the spring members 52 to move the hold-down member 50 a small distance backwards towards to the pushing plate 28, while being in engagement with the said pile

O row, whereby atransverse cut or joint 53 between a pile row 54, which is in engagement with the hold-down member 50, and an adjacent pile row 55 is somewhat opened . The electric motor 38 is now energized so as to cause the pushing carriage 36 which is shorter than the pushing plate 28, to move the pile rows positioned to the right of the cut or joint 53 in Figs . 2 and 3 of the drawings, in a direction which is substantially at right angles to the direction of movement of the pushing plate 28, and along the second length 26 of the path of movement till the leading end su rfaces of these pile rows come into engagement with an abutment su rface 56. Thereafter, the forward movement of the carriage 36 is stopped, and the electric motor is now caused to move the carriage 40 in a di rection substan¬ tially at right angles to the direction of movement of the carriage 36, whereby the forwardly positioned piles of sheets are pushed into the bundling apparatus 11 , vide especially Fig . 3. Thereafter, the carriage 40 is retu rned to its starting position , and the carriage 36 pushes a fu rther set of piles of sheets to a position in front of the carriage 40, which is thereafter again activated . The pile rows which are pushed into the bundling apparatus 11 by the carriage 40 may be pushed to a position below the respective pile bundling devices by a further pushing plate 57. These bundling devices are adapted to wrap a band 16 around each pile of sheets so that they are ready for possible fu rther packing o>- for shipment.

When by its intermittent movement the pushing carriage 36 has been moved to such an advanced position that the last piles 15 have been moved on to the thi rd length 27 of the path of movement in front of the pushing carriage 40, the carriage 36 is retu rned to its starting position shown in Fig . 1 , and the pneumatic cylinders 51 move the hold-down member 50 back to its upper position , whereafter the pushing plate 28 is swung back to its vertical position and then again moved forward along the first path length 25 by the motor 33 till the position shown in Fig . 4, in which the last pile row of the pile arrangement is moved on to the second length 26 of the path of movement in front of the pushing carriage 36. A forward stepwise movement is now again imparted to the ca rriage 36 by the driving motor 38, so as to successively push pile rows on to the third path length 27 in front of the carriage 40 pushing the piles of sheet into the bundling apparatus 11 as previously described .

When the pushing plate 28 has pushed the last piles of sheets on to the second path length 26 in front of the pushing carriage 36, the plate 28 is returned to its starting position shown in Fig . 1 . There¬ after, another pile arrangement 13 may be pushed on to the table 18 in the matter previously described. When this pile arrangement is pushed on to the table 18 the supporting plate 14, which supported the pile arrangement previously fed into the apparatus, but was retained by the rail 45, is pushed in a transverse direction out from the apparatus and on to a declining roller conveyor 59 extending below the table 18 and the supply path 12 for returning the empty supporting plates 14 to a position immediately below the supply path 12 as shown in Fig. 1 . When the pushing carriage 36 has been returned to its starting position shown in Fig. 1 , and the photo¬ electric cell 46 has ascertained that another pile arrangement 13 has been fed to the first length 25 of the path of movement, the eiectric motor 33 is again energized so that the pushing plate 28 is moved forward together with the pile arrangement 13, whereafter the proce- dure described above is repeated. The operational steps described above may be controlled in a manner known per se by means of a suitable electronic control device which may be arranged in a control box 60.

As explained above the pile arrangement 13 is moved along the path length 25 in its entirety, while the pile arrangement is divided into two or more parts, when the arrangement is fed onto the second path length 26, and each of these parts is again divided into two or more further subparts when fed onto the third path length 27. By these divisions, one or more pile rows are displaced in relation to adjacent pile rows, which remain stationary, and this displacement is made along a cut or joint, for example along the cut or joint 53, mentioned above. If no specific measures are taken, the relative movement between adjacent pile rows along such a cut or joint could give rise to such frϊctional forces that the mutual arrangement of the piles and/or of the sheets in the single piles could be undesirably dis- turbed which could give rise to frequent stops and malfu nction of the apparatus and to excessive waste. This friction du ring mutual dis^¬ placement of adjacent pile rows may to some extent be reduced by the backward movement of the hold-down member 50 when in engagement a*- 5 with a pile row 54 as described above. However, in a preferred embodiment a further reduction of the frictional forces is obtained thereby that the vertical , plane abutment su rface on the pushing carriage 36 does not define completely right angles with the vertical , plane abutment surface on the pushing plate 28, but the two abutment

10 surfaces preferably define an angle slightly exceeding 90 . As indicated in Fig . 2, it is thereby obtained that the cut or joint 53 between the. two part assemblies of piles, which are to be moved in relation to each other, will open somewhat when the pushing movement of the carriage 36 is initiated . Similarly, the abutment su rface of the

15 pushing carriage 36 and the abutment su rface of the carriage 40 may define an angle slightly exceeding 90 , whereby a similar effect may be obtained . A widening of the joint or cut may alternatively or additionally be obtained thereby that sepa rating fingers or tabs are moved into the cut or joint from below th rough slots 61 formed in the

20 table 18 and extending along the border line between the second and third lengths 26 and 27, respectively, of the path of movement, immediately prior to each forward movement of the carriage 40.

I n the embodiment shown in the drawings, the pile arrangement 13 consists of 6 x 6 pile rows , and when fed from the first to the

25 second length of the path of movement this arrangement is divided into two halves, each consisting of 3 x 6 pile rows, and at the transition between the second and third lengths of the path of movement, each of these halves is divided into single pile rows , each containing three piles 15, which a re simultaneously fed to the bund-

30 ling apparatus 11 .

It should be understood that the apparatus according to the invention could be used for separating pile arrangements consisting of other pile row combinations , and that the piles 15 could be fed to the bundling appa ratus 11 one by one or in rows containing any desired 35 number of piles .

Claims

1 . A method for separating a plurality of closely adjacent piles (15) of sheets forming together a pile arrangement (13) having a sub¬ stantially rectangular contou r and including two sets of pile rows, the pile rows in each set extending substantially parallel to a respective side of the rectangular contour, said method comprising pushing by means of pushing means (28,36,40) with substantially vertical, plane pile abutment surfaces the pile arrangement along a path, which is composed of a plurality of path lengths (25,26,27) extending at substantially right angles to one another and parallel to the respective pile rows, characterized in that along at least two (26,27) of the path lengths (25,26,27) being at right angles to one another only part of the pile rows of the pile arrangement (13) parallel with the respective path length is pushed at a time.

2. A method according to claim 1 , characterized in that only a single pile row is pushed at a time along the last (27) of said at least two path lengths (26,27) .

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the vertical, plane abutment su rface (36,40) which is used for pushing the pile arrangement (13) along a path length (26, 27) along which only part of the pile rows of the arrangement (13) parallel with this path length is pushed at a time, is arranged so as to define an angle slightly exceeding 90 with the abutment surface (28,36) used for pushing the piles of sheets along the immediately preceeding path length (25,26) .

4. A method according to any of the claims 1 -3, characterized in that during the pushing movement of the said part of the pile rows of the pile arrangement along a path length parallel with said rows, the row of piles (54) adjacent to the part of- the pile rows being pushed is retained by pressing it against its supporting surface from above.

5. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that the retained row of piles (54) is also pressed a small distance away from and at substantially right angles to the pile row or pile rows to be moved.

6. A method according to any of the claims 1 -5, characterized in that the pile arrangement (13) is fed on to the first path length (25) of the path of movement while supported by a sup¬ porting plate (14) , and that the supporting plate is retained, while the pile arrangement (13) is pushed along the said fi rst path length (25) .

7. A method according to any of the claims 1 -6, characterized in that the pile arrangement (13) is at least partly supported by an air cushin when moved along at least some of the path lenghts.

8. An apparatus for separating a plu rality of closely adjacent piles (15) of sheets forming together a pile arrangement (13) having a substantially rectangular contou r, said apparatus comprising a path of movement for said pile arrangement, said path being formed by a substantially horizontal supporting surface (18) and being composed by a plu rality of path lengths (25,26,27) , which extend at. substan¬ tially right angles to one another, and pushing means (28,36,40) , which are associated with each of said path lengths and adapted to push the pile arrangement along the respective path length by means of a substantially plane, vertical abutment surface extending at right angles to the di rection of movement of the pushing means, characterized in that the effective length of the abutment su rface of each of the pushing means (36,40) associated with at least two (26,27) of the path lengths (25,26, 27) being at right angles to one another constitutes only a fraction of the length of the corresponding side of the rectangular contour of the pile a rrangement (13) , whereby each of said pushing means is adapted to move the pile arrangement along the respective path length (26, 27) at more times .

OMPI

9. An apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that at least one (36) of the shortened abutment surfaces defines an angle slightly exceeding 90 with the abutment surface defined by the pushing means (28) associated with the immediately preceeding path length (25) .

10. An apparatus according to claim 8 or 9, characterized in a hold-down member (50) , which is adapted to press a pile row (54) of the arrangement (13) extending along the path length (26) associated with one of the shorter abutment su rfaces (36) and transversely to the immediately preceeding path length (25) , against its supporting surface (18) immediately before the pushing means (36) defining the shorter abutment surface is activated.

11 . An apparatus according to claim 10, characterized in that the hold-down member (50) is also adapted to be moved slightly in a direction away from the path length (26) associated with the shorter abutment surface, when in engagement with the said pile row (54) .

12. An apparatus according to any of the claims 8-11 , characterized in that at least part of the horizontal supporting surface (18) is provided with a plurality of air or gas nozzles.

13. An apparatus according to any of the claims 8-12, characterized in that the path of movement for the pile arrangement (13) further comprises a supply path (12) for feeding the pile arrangement (13) on to the first length (25) of the path of movement while supported by a supporting plate (14) , and that a vertical stop surface (45) having a height not exceeding the thickness of the supporting plate (14) , extends at substantially right angles to the first path length (25) and immediately adjacent to the position at which the pile arrangement is fed on to said first path length (25) .