GB1340427A - Device for transporting plates having smooth surfaces - Google Patents

Abstract

1340427 Feeding and delivering sheets; endless conveyers NIPPON YAKIN KOGYO KK 8 April 1971 9151/71 Headings B8A and B8R A device for transporting plates comprises endless conveyer means 2, a plurality of flexible disc-like cups 17 secured to the conveyer, each cup having a pair of feeler rods 38 secured thereto and suction breaking means for breaking the vacuum pressure of the cups at one or more selected positions for releasing the plates. The suction breaking means consists of a plurality of paired bars 40, Fig. 2, which are so disposed that they are engaged by the feeler rods 38 and cause the cup to be flexed, so releasing the vacuum. For picking up the plates from a pile, urging means, such as piston and cylinder pusher devices 29, Fig. 4, may be provided to urge a portion of the conveyer 2, against the restoring tension thereof towards a plate to be picked up. The plates may be interleaved with sheets of paper which are removed, as the plates are separated from the pile, by a bladed friction wheel 41 intermittently lowered into contact with the pile. The invention may be applied to a sorter, Fig. 9, wherein plates separated from a pile at location D are selectively deposited at locations R1 and R2. In this case sets of suction breaking bars 40<1>, Fig. 11, are selectively movable into the path of the projections 38 for depositing the plate at a required stacking location. The pile may be supported on a plate p resting on a roller table t which is vertically movable by a pusher 31 in response to sensing of the level of the top of the pile.