GB706478A - Improvements in or relating to machines for collating cards and the like - Google Patents

Abstract

706,478. Endless conveyers. WILSON BROS., Ltd., and MUENDE, P. Nov. 16, 1951 [Aug. 17, 1950], No. 20445/50. Class 78 (1) [Also in Groups XVI and XVII] In a packaging machine (see Group XVII), greetings cards or the like are fed simultaneously from twelve delivery heads 5-16 on to a continuously-driven, endless belt conveyer 2, the speed of the conveyer being so related to the period of delivery of the heads that an successive delivery operations the cards fall substantially one upon another, whereby stacks of cards, each comprising a card from each head, may be obtained from the conveyer. The latter is driven from. an electric motor 3 which also drives the mechanism associated with each head through a main shaft 19 and chain 18. Each head comprises a shoot 17 formed by a bottom wall 23, Figs. 3 and 4, and side walls 26 adjustable laterally to suit cards of different widths. The pile of cards 25 is urged downwardly by a weight 33 on rollers 34 and the lower end card is retained by adjustable' spring strips 39, adjustable rollers 36 and a spring strip 21 which extends upwardly through a recess in an upwardly-curved plate 35 secured to the wall 23. Suction cups 42 are carried by tubes 43 connected by unions 44 to pipes 45 which are connected by flexible pipes 46 and a camoperated control valve to a suction pump 22, the pipes 45 being slidable in a support 47, secured to a shaft 50, and fixed to a block 48 having a pin and slot connection 51, 52 with an arm 53 on a shaft 54. The shafts 50 and 54 are periodically rocked through linkage by cams 58 and 66 on a shaft 59 driven by the chain 18, whereby the suction cups are first moved in the direction of arrow B to remove the end card and then in the direction of arrow E to lower the card between a roller 66A, driven through gearing from the shaft, and laterally-adjustable rollers 68 carried by a mounting 69 which is periodically rocked by a cam 75 on the shaft to move the rollers into co-acting relationships. After the card has been released by the suction cups, the rollers feed it downwardly over a guide 77 into the bight between wooden rollers 79 and a fabric belt 78 driven through gearing from the shaft 59, whereby it is fed to the conveyer 2. Boxes for the reception of the cards are placed on the conveyer between laterally-adjustable side guides 108, Fig. 9, and are released in succession for movement through the machine by a cam 120 on the shaft 19 which operates a push-rod 118 to rock a shaft 114 carrying adjustable pins 121, 122 arranged to engage in front of the rear wall of each box in turn.