GB1229540A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,229,540. Feeding and delivering sheets. SINGER CO. 17 July, 1969 [22 July, 1968], No. 36052/69. Heading B8R. Apparatus for operating upon successive fabric workpieces 21 on a continuous conveyer 11 to automatically orient the workpieces with a predetermined side uppermost, comprises photo-electric detector means 60 responsive only to a workpiece disposed with the predetermined side facing the conveyer, and gripper means operated under control of the detector to grip and lift the leading edge of such a piece so that the conveyer carries forward the remainder of the piece, the gripper being subsequently opened so that the piece is now moved forward by the conveyer with the predetermined side uppermost. The pieces may be fed one by one from a stack and after being correctly orientated proceed to a delivery area 22 where any desired operation may be performed thereon or they may be stacked. The detector 60 includes a photoelectric cell 64 which, when a wrong-side up workpiece is detected, produces a signal causing a valve to be opened and pressure air to be admitted to a cylinder 53 to move downwardly a normally-spring raised piston-rod 52. The rod 52 is connected to a link 50 fixed to a shaft 32 to which arms 34 also are fixed. Bosses 35 on the arms 34 support an air cylinder 37 with an air supply line 38 and the piston rod 39 of which is normally spring-retracted. Connected to the piston-rod 39 is a bell-crank 41 pivoted to the arms 34 at 42. A clamping-plate 44 on one of the arms of the bell-crank 41 can co-operate with the arms 34 to constitute a gripper. Normally, the parts 34, 50, 52 are in the position shown in Fig. 5, but the gripper 44 is open. When a piece 21 with its wrong side uppermost is sensed, the signal generated causes the cylinder 53 to be operated to move the arms 34 and the open gripper 44 into the path of the piece so that the leading edge of the piece enters the gripper. A valve is now opened to cause pressure air to enter the cylinder 37, the valve being controlled by the detector signal via a delay device. Operation of the cylinder 37 closes the gripper 44 so that the leading edge of the piece is held by the gripper. Pressure in the cylinder 53 is now released so that the parts 34, 52 rise to their uppermost position and the conveyer 11 carries the trailing part of the piece 21 beyond the gripper as shown in Fig. 5 until its predetermined side is uppermost. The gripper 44 is now released to allow the re-orientation to be completed by the forward movement of the piece.