GB1271433A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus suitable for use in transferring plies of fabric material from a stack thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

1,271,433. Feeding sheets. USM CORP. 16 June, 1969 [17 June, 1968], No. 30362/69. Heading B8R. A device for separating a plurality of fabric plies from a stack S thereof comprises transfer means 60 for removing the plies from the stack, displacement means 288, 296 for successively engaging the surfaces of the face and adjacent plies and displacing them relative to the remainder of the stack and clamping means 320 for clampingly engaging the remainder of the stack whilst the displaced plies are removed by the transfer means. Pile tables.-Stack S is supported on a pallet 34 carried on a vertically movable table 12. The table may be raised or lowered on a chain 26 and is guided by rollers 18 and 20 engaging track 22. Separators.-The transfer means 60, the displacement means 288, 296, and the clamping means 320 are all carried on a work head 16 slidably mounted on a carrier arm 14 and movable therealong by a double acting fluid pressure cylinder 42. The displacement means comprises presser foot 310 pivotally movable into engagement with the uppermost ply and pusher members 296, 288 engageable with the first and second plies of the stack respectively and operable under the control of pneumatic cylinders 280, 282 to buckle the first ply against foot 310 and the second ply against member 296. Subsequently clamping plate 320 is brought into engagement with the remainder of the stack by pneumatic cylinder 316 and the buckled plies are removed by pick-off means 60. The pile table may be momentarily lowered to ease removal. A finger may be provided to retain the buckled plies whilst the pusher members 288, 296 are operative to buckle further plies thus enabling more than two plies to be simultaneously removed.