GB1117262A - Apparatus for aligning sheet material blanks - Google Patents

Abstract

1,117,262. Feeding sheets. R. WINKLER, and K. DUNNEBIER. 28 June, 1966 [11 Dec., 1965], No. 28959/66. Heading B6B. Apparatus for aligning sheet blanks such as envelope blanks during e.g. their passage from a blank-making machine to a folding machine, comprises guide means forming an arcuate path 38, Fig. 1, for the blanks, a front pair of pins 18 and a rear pair of pins 22 moved along the path 38 with a blank between them, and means for moving the pins of each pair towards and then away from one another during their travel so as to align the blanks. The pins 18 are carried by levers 16 pivoted at 17 to discs 7 rotatable with a shaft 3 driven in synchronism with the blankforming machine. The pins 22 are carried by levers 20 pivoted at 21 to discs 10 mounted on the discs 7 by means providing for circumferential adjustment so that the distance between one pair of pins and the other pair can be varied. Cams 26 fixed against rotation engage rollers 24 on the levers 16, 20 to cause the relative movement of the pins of each pair as the discs 7, 10 rotate. The pins 18, 22 project through slots 19, 23 in the peripheries of the discs 7 and fixed but adjustable guides 36 co-operate with the peripheries to form the path 38. The periphery of a central disc 9 fixed to the shaft 3 co-operates with a guide 37 carrying apring- urged rollers 40, 40<SP>1</SP>, Fig. 1, and brushes 39 carried by the guides 36 co-operate with guides 35 secured to the cams 26. In operation, a blank B<SP>1</SP> separated from a stream of blanks B by extractor discs 51 passes into the path 38, the timing being such that the blank is in the position shown in Fig. 1, and is not touching the pins. As rotation of the discs 7 continues, the blank is slowed down by friction with the guides, and the brushes 39, and drops back into engagement with the pins 22. The cams 26 now operate the levers 16, 20 so that the pins of each pair move towards one another to align the blank. Before the front edge of the blank reaches the spring-pressed rollers 40<SP>1</SP>, the pins move apart, whereupon the blank passes along guides 63 to rollers 66, 67 conveying the blank to the folding machine. The pivots 17, 21 of the levers 16, 20 may be arranged slightly obliquely instead of being perpendicular to the shaft 3 so that as the pins of each pair move towards one another, the pins 18 move nearer the pins 22. The discs 7 with their cams 26 can be adjusted axially along the shaft by rotating a hand wheel (34, Fig. 3), the shaft (30) of which is coupled by chain-and-sprocket gearing to two chain wheels 12, Fig. 2, which are rotatably coupled to the discs 7. The wheels 12 have right- and left-hand threads engaging similarly threaded fixed sleeves 5, 6.