GB584730A - Improvements in or relating to sheet conveying apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

584,730. Sheet-conveying apparatus. STEVENS, A. H. (Miller Printing Machinery Co.). May 3, 1943, No. 6965. [Class 100 (i)] Mechanism for raising and lowering a support such as a feed or delivery table used in connection with a printing or other processing- machine for acting upon sheets is constructed with carriers 5 which can be lowered by the delivery chains of the machine and can 1e transferred directly to the pile-raising chains b4 of the feeding mechanism in order to feed the sheets again through the machine. Each carrier 5 is formed with a supporting surface 6 and four legs 7 and a full carrier can be transported by a truck engaging the under surface of the support 6 and placed between four depending chains 14 so that the carriers can be raised by the engagement of bars 16 on the chains with registering bars 16a on the supports. The piles are raised automatically during the operation of the sheet-feeding mechanism, and when one pile is exhausted the chains can be operated quickly to bring the new pile into operative position. The shafts 12 from which the chains 14 are driven are operated in synchronism by means of pawl-and-ratchet gearing comprising a wide ratchet gear 54 engageable by means of a pawl 52 on a collar 45 freely mounted on the ratchet shaft, and also engaged by a pawl 57 on a freely mounted sprocket wheel geared to the shaft of an electric motor which is energized when the pile is to be raised quickly, the pawl 52 being then put out of action by means of a handle 53. When in action the pawl 52 is operated by lever-and-link mechanism comprising a cam-oscillated lever 35 which engages a lever 38 connected by a link 49 to an arm 46 on the collar 45. When the feeder frame is moved on tracks 10 away from the machine the lever 38 moves away from the lever 35 so that the automatic raising mechanism is put out of action. This mechanism may be automatically controlled by the height of the pile in a known way. A hand-wheel 64 may be connected to either the ratchet shaft 26 or the shaft 18 so as to move the chains 14 by hand if desired. The pawls permit adjustment to raise the piles but if lowering is desired the pawl 52 must be tripped. The other pawl need not be tripped as hand-lowering of the pile merely drives the motor 59 in reverse direction without harm. The sheet-feeding mechanism forms the subject-matter of Specification 584,782.