FR2808789A1 - Forming stack of exercise books, stationery, other flat flexible articles by stopping part of each article as moves along conveyor so rest of article forms loop and forms part of stack - Google Patents

Abstract

Forming flat flexible articles supplied via conveyor belt into a stack includes stopping the movement of part of each article so the rest of the article bends and then is received on stack forming on a fixed surface. An Independent claim is included for the following: (a) A stacking device as above includes a continuously moving conveyor belt, the articles, a device for changing the direction of the articles on the belt, a stop located near this device, a device for entraining the stopped articles to form loops and a device for receiving the stopped articles as they form the stack. Preferred Features: The articles may be of paper, metal, plastic, cloth or leather. The articles separate from and slides off the conveyor under gravity. The height of the receiving surface is adjusted according to the height of the stack. The loops are formed between the surface and the underside of the conveyor belt that are parallel.

Description

The invention relates to a method of stacking flat articles, and to a device designed for the implementation of such a method. For the purposes of the present invention, the term "flat articles" means any type of object consisting of flat material, having a certain flexibility on the part of their structure. It may be sheets, blanks, envelopes, sachets, notebooks or others, made from paper, and / or cardboard, and / or fabric, and / or metal, and / or leather, and / or plastic material.

In various industries, be it the printing industry or, more generally, the transformation of articles, it is customary to use stacking of articles to either facilitate storage or allow feeding of the processing machines.

In this field, it is known stacking machines in which the latter operates by sliding an article on the other to increase the height of the stack.

For example, there are methods of stacking flat articles in which there is provided a line of such articles in continuous motion at a conveyor surface, composed of a succession of conveyors whose speed is varied to allow the overlapping items in the queue on top of each other.

If such processes are satisfactory in the case of flat articles of reduced surface or certain rigidity, it is not the same when the articles are large and have a flexibility such that a slip is likely to crease the surface. item to stack or crumple.

The object of the present invention is to propose a method of stacking flat articles, such as in particular sheets or the like, in a format of flexible material, and a device for stacking such flat articles, which allow to overcome the disadvantages of known systems implementing the sliding of one with respect to the other.

One of the aims of the present invention is therefore to propose a method of stacking flat articles which makes it possible to overcome the sliding on one another of the latter, notably allowing stacking of articles of large size. dimension, and which, in addition, may have a holding such that traditional devices do not allow their stacking.

In this regard, one of the advantages of the present invention is to propose a method for stacking flat articles structurally made of flexible material, that is to say in all materials that can be stored in coil form, or even with very small winding diameters.

In particular, the present invention will be directed to the stacking of articles made of paper or cardboard, but also to the stacking of articles made of plastic or textile.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device for stacking such flat articles which, due to its structure, allows space saving, the various positions can be superimposed.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is however given for information only and which is not intended to limit it.

According to the invention, the method of stacking flat articles, such as in particular sheets or the like, being in a flexible material format, in which a succession of such articles is provided in continuous movement, at a conveying surface, is characterized in that successively - the flat articles are deflected from said conveyor surface, - is blocked, with respect to said continuous movement, at least one zone of said deflected flat article, downstream of the deflection, - it continues driving the remainder of said article thus blocked, to allow the formation of a loop with said article, and the unwinding of said loop, - said article is received, on a laying plane, fixed at least during said unwinding and said stacking, to make up the pile.

The device for stacking flat articles, designed for implementing the method of the invention, comprising at least one continuous moving conveyor surface capable of moving a succession of flat articles to be stacked, is characterized by the fact that it furthermore presents - means for deflecting said articles successively, - means for blocking, with respect to said continuous movement, at least one zone of said deviated flat article, disposed downstream of the deflection, - means for driving the remainder of said article thus blocked, to form a loop with said article, then unwind said loop, - means for receiving said article during at least said unfolding and said stacking, to form the stack.

The present invention will be better understood on reading the following description, accompanied by the appended drawings, which is however given for information only, and which is not intended to limit it.

FIG. 1 represents a schematic side view of a device for stacking flat articles according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 schematically shows the various steps of the stacking method of the present invention implemented in a device such as that illustrated in FIG.

FIG. 3 schematically shows an alternative embodiment of a device for stacking flat articles according to the present invention. The invention relates to a method of stacking flat articles, such as in particular sheets or the like, in a flexible material format, and a device for carrying out said method.

By flat articles, it is understood any type of objects in a format of flexible material, that is to say rollable coil, or even with a very small winding diameter. For example, it may be sheets or blanks of paper, cardboard, fabric, metal, leather, plastic, but also multi-sheet articles such as envelopes, notebooks, sachets or the like.

Similarly, it is conceivable to use the present invention to stack piles of flat articles previously stacked. Like many known stacking methods, that of the present invention provides a succession of articles to stack, in continuous motion, at a conveyor surface.

This is, for example, schematically illustrated in Figure 1 which shows a device comprising at least one continuous moving conveyor surface 4 adapted to move a succession of flat articles 1, 2 to stack.

That being so, according to the method of the invention, from the successive feeding of the flat articles 1, 2 arranged in a row, one will intervene to form the stack by implementing the following different steps.

First, the flat articles 1 of said conveyor surface 3 are deflected successively.

In this respect, the deflection is advantageously effected by gravity, as illustrated in the figures. More specifically, the device has, in addition to the aforementioned means, means for deflecting said articles successively, in particular constituted at least by a diverting pulley 5 of the conveyor surface 3 downwards.

Also, when the article 1, which one wants to place in the pile, arrives at the end of the surface 3, because of the weight of the article, it is directed downwards, while being supported by said diverting pulley 5.

Then, according to the stacking method of the invention, is blocked, with respect to said continuous movement 4, at least one zone 6 of said deflected flat article 1, downstream of the deflection.

For this, a blocking stopper 7 is provided on the receiving plane 8 of the device, in the deflection zone 9.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the locking means, with respect to said continuous movement 4, of at least one zone 6 of said deflected flat article 1, and the receiving means 10 of said article, consist of a receiving plate 8 disposed under said conveyor surface 3, that is to say at a lower level with respect to the latter, at least in the deflection zone 9.

According to the stacking method of the invention, after deviating and blocking at least one zone 6 of said article 1, the remainder of said article 1, thus blocked, is continued to allow the formation of a loop, schematized in FIG. <B> 11, </ B> 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 in Figure 2.

In addition, the fact of continuing to drive the remainder of said article thus blocked, will allow to authorize, after the formation of said loop, its course as shown schematically in the figure.

In this regard, the dashed lines represent different intermediate phases of realization of the loop and its unfolding, of the same and only flat article 1.

During this phase of loop formation and unwinding of the latter, said article 1 is received on the laying plane 8, fixed at least during said unfolding and said stacking, to constitute the stack.

According to the device shown, the drive means of the remainder of said article 1, blocked at 6, are constituted at least by the portion 11 of said conveyor surface 3 deflected around the diverting pulley 5.

In addition, it is possible to maintain, at least partially, the deviated flat article 1 with respect to said conveyor surface 3, in order to prevent it from sliding. In the device illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the holding means 12 of the deviated flat article consist of a flow and orientation roller 13 disposed opposite the diverting pulley 5.

Thus, the flat article 1, brought by the bearing surface 3, is then introduced between the pulley 5 and the roller 13, then directed towards the stop 7 provided at the level of the receiving plate 8.

By the conveying surface 3, in continuous movement 4, and in particular by means of the roller 13, the article is pushed towards the stop. Also the article is obliged to perform a loop, as shown particularly in Figure 2, which then goes between the return band 14 of the conveyor surface 3, and the receiving plate 8.

In this respect, the receiving plate 8 and the conveying surface 3 form a space 15 defining two surfaces, in this case 14 and 8, that are substantially parallel, one mobile 14, the other fixed 8, permitting the unfolding of said loop, according to the different phases marked 1 <B> 1 </ B> to 16.

However, depending on the height of the stack that is desired, and types of flat articles, the height of said laying plane 8, 10 is adjusted by any known means, such as in particular by spring balancer, or by controlled cylinder device. In addition, for the constitution of the stack, these receiving means of said article are fixed relative to the rest of the device, during at least said unfolding and said stacking. Nevertheless, to evacuate the battery, it can be envisaged the motorization of this laying plane, or more precisely its translation by any appropriate means. The repetition of these different steps for each flat article 1, 2 of the queue allows stacking of said articles by the top of the stack.

FIG. 3 shows an alternative embodiment of the device of the present invention, which in this case also makes it possible to turn the flat article relative to its initial position on the conveyor surface 3. The operation is similar to that described herein. above, and the common areas are identically marked to facilitate understanding.

In this embodiment, rather than being blocked to the left of the stop 7, the flat article is directed and comes to block to the right of the stop 7. The principle of the formation of the loop and its course is identical however, this occurs between the fixed and movable surfaces 8 in the space 25 thus defined.

In this case, the roller 13 is substituted by a conveyor 23, in continuous movement, in a direction opposite to that 4 of the conveyor surface 3. Opposite the diverting pulley 5 is provided another pulley of diversion 26 for the conveyor 23.

The effect of the holding means 12 is similar to that of the mode described with respect to FIGS. 1 and 2. The orientation of the deployment of the flat article 1, in particular to the right, in FIG. 3, is given by the respective positioning of the conveyor surfaces 3 and 23. Due to the offset between them, the article 1, in the formation of the loop, is snapped towards the lower surface 24 of the second conveyor 23.

Naturally, other implementations of the present invention, within the reach of those skilled in the art, could have been envisaged, without departing from the present invention.

Claims (10)

<B> CLAIMS </ B> 1. A method of stacking flat articles, such as in particular sheets or the like, which is in a flexible material format, in which a succession of such articles (1, 2) in continuous movement (4) is provided at the level of a conveyor surface (3), characterized in that successively - the flat articles (1) are deflected from said conveyor surface - is blocked, with respect to said continuous movement (4), at least one zone (6) of said article plate (1) deviated, downstream of the deflection (9), - the remainder of said article (1), thus blocked, is continued to allow the formation of a loop (11 - 16) with said article (1); ) and the unwinding of said loop, - receiving said article (1), on a laying plane (8, 10), fixed, at least during said unwinding and said stack, to form the stack. 2. A stacking method according to claim 1, wherein the height of said laying plane (8) is adjusted according to the height of the pile reached. 3. Stacking method according to claim 1, wherein the deflection is carried out further by gravity. 4. Stacking method according to claim 1, wherein at least partially maintained the flat article (1) deviated from said conveyor surface (3), to prevent slippage. 5. Device for stacking flat articles, such as in particular sheets or the like, in a flexible material format, designed for carrying out the stacking method according to claim 1, comprising a conveyor surface (3). ) in continuous movement (4) able to move a succession of flat articles (1, 2) to stack, characterized in that it further comprises - means (5) for deflecting said articles successively, - means ( 7) blocking, with respect to said continuous movement (4), at least one zone (6) of said flat article (1) deviated, arranged downstream of the deflection, - means (11,13; 11,23) driving the remainder of said article (1) thus blocked, to form a loop with said article and then unrolling said loop <B> (11 </ B> - 16), - receiving means (10) of said article for at least said unfolding and said stacking, to constitute the stack. 6. Device according to claim 5, wherein the means for deflecting are constituted by a pulley (5) of diverting said conveyor surface (3) downwards. 7. Device according to claim 5, wherein the locking means (7) and the receiving means (10) are constituted by a receiving plate (8) disposed under said conveyor surface (3), at least in the area of deviation (9). 8. Device according to claim 5, wherein the drive means of said jammed article are constituted at least by the portion (11, 14; 11; 24) of said conveyor surface (3; 3, 23) deflected around the pulley. diversion (5; 26). 9. Device according to claim 5, further comprising means for holding (12) the deflected flat article, at least partially relative to said conveyor surface (3). Apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the receiving plate (8) and the conveying surface (3; 23) form a space (15; 25) defining two substantially parallel surfaces (14,8; 24,8). one mobile (14; 24), the other fixed (8) allowing the unwinding of said loop <B> (11 </ B> - 16).