FI79282C - Process for the treatment of loose printing articles and apparatus for applying the method - Google Patents

Description

METHOD OF HANDLING LOOSE PRINTED STACKS AND

APPARATUS FOR THE APPLICATION OF THE METHOD

1 79282

The invention relates to a method for handling loose printed product stacks, in which the printed product stacks are stacked on a pallet in substantially equal stacks by a gripping device by guiding the lower supports 5 of the gripping device stack into the grooves of the printed product stack. The invention further relates to an apparatus for applying the method.

10

In the manufacture of printed products, in the post-printing work steps, i.e. post-processing, intermediate products, such as folded sheets, bound blocks or stapled sheets, often have to be temporarily stored before the next 15 processing steps. Generally, either a conventional pallet type or special pallets specifically designed for the printed products in question are used and the products are palletized or removed from the pallet by stack one by one so that the stacks form layers between which a simple, usually cardboard spacer is placed. There are some solutions for palletizing and palletizing automatically, most of which are based on tying product stacks to facilitate handling.

25 When tying products, they are usually formed into pounds, ie product stacks which are firmly tied together and provided with supporting end plates. Automatic handling of bound points is substantially easier than unbound stacks and there are devices for automatically palletizing them. The problem with handling tied points is the extra work required to tie them and untie them. In addition, the automation of untying in particular has proved difficult. Similarly, with short production runs, setting up and tuning equipment for a new product and product size takes an unreasonable amount of time relative to production time.

5 An industrial robot has been used to palletize mainly printed products, such as magazines and books, which transfers a stack of loose products to the pallet at a time. In this case, the stack is placed on the pallet, e.g. by moving the stack by means of a movable belt 10 in the robot gripper, while the gripper retracts during delivery. The movement of the belt compensates for the movement of the gripper and the stack settles in place, leaving it in place. In such an automatic palletizing, the method of palletizing is similar to that of manual palletizing, i.e. the stacks are layered on a standard pallet and there is a simple spacer between the layers. Such a method is somewhat well suited for palletizing some products, but the whole of palletizing and feeding from a pallet cannot be handled by such a method.

DE-A-3221351 discloses an apparatus comprising a gripping device consisting of a body, a gripping device and mutually movable supports connected to the body, between which a stack of printed products is arranged to be pressed during transfers.

The method and apparatus disclosed in the publication are intended for stacking large-sized products and are not suitable for stacking printed product stacks in layers and / or for stacking stacks in stages.

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The object of the invention is to provide a method for treating loose printed product stacks, which eliminates the disadvantages of previously known methods. In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a handling method which, when utilized, can automatically palletize and remove pallets in layers and provide a solution to the material handling problems of both ends of intermediate storage. It is a further object of the invention to provide an apparatus for applying the method, which apparatus is reliable and easily applicable in practice.

5

The object of the invention is achieved by a method and an apparatus which are mainly characterized by what is stated in the claims.

According to the invention, grooves are formed in the spacer plate and the stack is moved by the gripping device on top of the spacer plate and off the spacer plate by squeezing the stack between the supports of the gripping device during the transfer. The stack is placed on top of the spacer so that the gripper with its stacks is moved to the desired location next to the spacer, the lower supports of the gripper are guided into the grooves of the spacer, the stack is released by pressing the supports relative to each other and the gripper is moved away from the spacer. The stack is taken from the spacer by moving the gripper to the desired location relative to the spacer, guiding the gripper lower supports into the spacer grooves, squeezing the stack between the gripper supports by moving the supports toward each other, and moving the gripper and stack away from the spacer. The method is therefore suitable for all irral-25 printed products without the need for additional binding equipment. In addition, the method allows the stacked product stacks to be automatically discharged from the pallet for the next step.

Next, the method according to the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 shows an application for loading loose stacks obliquely from the side, Fig. 2 shows an embodiment of the apparatus insert according to the invention. seen obliquely from the side, Fig. A shows placing or removing a stack of printed matter on top of the spacer, and Fig. 5 shows the positioning of the spacer with sensors.

In Fig. 1, the loose stacks of printed products are placed in layers on a spacer A placed on a conventional pallet 1, so that the stacks 10 forming each layer 2, 3 are substantially the same height. Between each layer is placed a spacer plate A, which in this application is a shaped plate substantially the size of a load plate.

Figure 2 shows an embodiment of a spacer according to the invention. Grooves 5 are formed on the surface of the spacer plate in two directions, i.e. longitudinally and transversely. The distance between the grooves is constant as well as the width and height of the grooves. The dimensioning of the grooves takes into account the different formats of the printed products to be processed, so that the lowest products in the pi-20 do not substantially bend into the grooves and the grooves do not leave marks on the printed products. The shape and dimensioning of the grooves and the size of the spacer can vary depending on the purpose in a known manner.

Figure 3 shows an embodiment of a gripping device according to the invention for moving stacks. The gripping device 6 comprises a frame 9 and supports 7 and 8. The lower supports 8 are fixedly connected to the frame so that they are substantially perpendicular to the frame. In this application, the gripper-30 has two lower supports, the distance between them, the height and width of both of which are dimensioned according to the size of the spacer grooves so that the lower supports can run in the spacer grooves below the top surface of the spacer without touching the groove bottom or walls. The upper support 7 is formed by a plate-like plane 35 movably attached to the projection 10 of the rungon so as to be moved either towards or away from the lower supports. The shape and structure of the supports may vary in other applications as appropriate.

5 79282 5 Figure A shows the setting and removal of a stack from a spacer by the method according to the invention. When moving the stack to or from the spacer, the stack is squeezed between the supports of the gripper. When placing the stack 11 on the pallet, the gripping device with the stacks 10 is moved to the desired position, the lower supports are driven into the grooves of the spacer at the desired position of the spacer, the upper support is moved away from the lower support, the compression ceases and the gripping device is pulled out of the spacer. When removing the stack from the pallet, the lower supports are driven along the grooves under the stack 15, and when the stack is in the right position between the upper and lower supports of the gripper, the upper support is moved towards the lower support, squeezing the stack between supports and moving the gripper and stacks away from the spacer.

20 In the palletizing method used, the position and position of the spacers often change somewhat during handling and storage. In order to successfully infect and align the stack and to transport the gripping device in the grooves, even in changing conditions, search sensors are used in the gripper and the search is performed using sensors with search algorithms. Sensors and search algorithms are used to correct possible errors in the position and position of the spacer in three steps. First, the spacer as a whole is located each time you start handling a new layer of stacks. Second, the position of the ends of the grooves at the edge of the spacer is ensured before the lower supports of the gripping device are driven into the grooves. In the third step, it is checked that the lower supports of the gripping device cannot push the spacer plate as it passes through the grooves.

6,79282

As shown in Fig. 5, the sensors and search algorithms search for the actual position 25 of the two corners of the spacer. The position of the corners can be used to calculate the difference 5 between the assumed position 20 of the spacer and the actual position 21. The position error to be calculated consists of a change of position 22, rotation of the spacer in the horizontal plane 24 and tilting of the spacer in the direction of the measured corner points 23. The sensors are placed e.g. in an automatic device carrying a gripping device, preferably an industrial robot.

10

The invention is not limited to the applications presented, but may vary within the scope of the inventive idea formed by the claims.

Il

Claims (3)

A process for loose pressure article stacks, in which method the pressure article stacks are stacked on a pallet (1) substantially in equal stacks with a gripping device (6) by guiding the lower support (8) of the gripping device into the dangers on the substrate pile substrate, by pressing the pressure article stack between the support (7, 8) of the gripper device (6), which are movable in relation to each other, and by moving on the pressure article stack with the aid of the gripping device, characterized in that the pressure article stacks are stacked layerwise, so that each pressurized article stack bearing is placed an intermediate disc (4) on which has been formed hazards (5) corresponding to the lower support (8) of the gripping device '' (6), and the stack is stacked on top of the intermediate disc by moving the gripping device with the stack at the side of the intermediate disc. , by controlling the gripping device's: lower support (8) into the dangers (5) of the intermediate disk (4), by releasing the pile from the pressure of moving the supports in relation to each other. second, and moving the gripper device away from the intermediate sheet, and removing the stack from the intermediate sheet by moving the gripping device at the side of the intermediate sheet, by guiding the lower support of the gripping device into the dangers of the intermediate sheet, by moving the gripping device along the dangers adjacent to the stack. pressing the stack between the support of the gripping device by moving the supports in relation to the warning and by moving the gripping device and the stack away from the intermediate disc. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the gripping device locates the position and position of the intermediate disk using search algorithms and detector transmission, with the aid of which the errors (22, 23, 24) in the position and position of the intermediate disk are corrected. to the assumed position and position (20).