736,086. Sheet - desivery apparatus. BRITISH UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CO., Ltd., (United Shoe Machinery Corporation.) Aug. 10, 1953 [Aug. 9, 1952], No. 20094/52. Class 100 (1). A machine for stacking hides or skins comprises a conveyer for delivering the hides or skins onto a support, a delivery end portion of the conveyer being arranged to move to and fro across the support at convenient times to cause successive workpieces to be laid one upon another. The machine comprises a frame having two upright members 12, 14 (Figs. 1, 2, 3) a main frame 16, a conveyer frame 18 and two supporting rods 20, 22. The frame 16 is provided with side members 40, 42 joined by a steel plate 44 having depending flanges 46, 48 and supported above the plate 44 is a second plate 50 of, for example, plywood. At the top of the machine a metal plate 54 is attached to the underside of the plywood 50. The side members 40, 42 serve to support a roller 78 by means of two rods 80, 82, a detector rod 88 upon which are mounted arms 92 projecting into recesses 93, 94 in the plywood 150, and a second detector rod 100 supporting ten fingers 102. At the lower ends of the members 40, 42 are supported a roller 124, pulley 126 and swingable arms, as 128 supporting a further roller 138. The pulley 126 is provided with a belt 132 driven by a motor 136 and the rollers 138 and 78 are provided with five endless belts 144. The belts 144 co-operate with thirteen endless belts 270 which run around the roller 124, a roller 170 at the upper end of the conveyer 16, a roller 210 on the swingable conveyer 18, and a roller 180. The conveyer 18 comprises two side members 182, 184 and is swing- able about the axis of the roller 170. The side members 182, 184 support rollers 206, 210 and 212 and a further thirteen belts 271 are provided running around the rollers 206, 170, 212 and a tensioning rod 196. These belts are driven by the roller 212, the shaft of which is provided with gearing 216 meshing with gearing 214 on the shaft of the roller 210. The conveyer is swung under the action of a power cylinder 242 having a piston 244 connected to rods 250, 252, 254 the rods 252, 254 being pivoted at 260 and 262 to the side members 182, 184. Also pivoted to the member 184 is a bar 274 the lower end of which is mounted in adjustable and pivoted relation with an arm 276. The control mechanism includes a bracket 278 (Fig. 12) attached to the side member 42, to which is attached a motor 281 arranged to drive a power unit 284 (Figs. 10, 11) which includes a fourway valve operated by a plunger 286 connected by links 288, 290 and 296 to a control arm 300. The arm 300 is journalled on a shaft 302 supported in depending portion 306 of the bracket 278. The arm 300 is movable into three positions A, B, C corresponding to outward movement of the conveyer 18, no movement and inward movement respectively. By-pass valves 312, 314 are provided for the fluid in the cylinder 242. Two opposed latches 342, 344 (Fig. 13) are pivoted on pins 346, 348 respectively and urged downwardly by springs 350, 352. The latches are provided with recesses 354, 358 to co-operate with the head 460 of the control arm 300. Rollers 362, 363 are provided on the latch 342 and a similar pair 364, 365 on the latch 344. A stroke-selecting cam 370 (Figs. 20, 22) is journalled on the shaft 302 and is provided with a cam surface 572 with two raised portions 374, 376. The cam is integral with a hub 378 to which is joined an arm 380. The cam also carries a block 382 having three detents corresponding with the positions A, B and C of the arm 300 and co-operating with a plunger 384, the land portions 374, 376 of the cam being such that when properly positioned one will engage the roller 363 or the other the roller 365 to lift the corresponding latch 342, 344. For positioning the cam the end of the arm 380 is connected to a rod 390 by a link 392 and is manually operated by a cable 395 in a conduit 396. Also mounted about the shaft 302 is a stroke-starting cam 400 having land portions 402, 404 for co-operating with rollers 362, 364. The cam 400 is rigidly connected to an arm 406 carrying a pin 408 to which is connected a spring 410 the other end of which is connected by a fixed pin 412 so as to urge the cam 400 in a clockwise direction. A solenoidoperated rod 420 is connected to a trigger member 422 having a hook at its end for engaging the pin 408 so as to pull the cam 400 in an anticlockwise direction. An adjustable bolt 426 is provided for releasing the hook from the pin 408. A stroke-reversing cam 432 is also provided on shaft 302 and is rigidly connected to the arm 276. It is provided with land portions 438, 440 for engaging the rollers 362, 364. Blocks 442, 444 are provided in which slide rods 446, 452 pivoted to the arm 30a. The rods are surrounded by compressed coil springs so that the arm 300 is urged to a central position with respect to the cam 432. According to the position in which the cam 370 is initially set so the machine will deliver hides to a support 10 with either the grain or the flesh side up, or with adjacent pieces in grain side to grain side or flesh side to flesh side, or in the case of long pieces of hide each piece may be doubled on itself. The solenoid controlling the rod 420 is energized through a control circuit (Fig. 23, not shown) initiation of which is effected by switches 96, 105 controlled by the detector fingers 92 and 102 respectively. Assuming that, for example, the machine is to stack hides with like sides facing each other the cam 370 is centrally positioned as shown in Fig. 13, the conveyer frame 18 being in the position shown in Fig. 1. The motois 136 and 281 are started and a workpiece fed between the belts 144 and 270. When the leading edge passes beneath the fingers 92 the switch 96 is closed so that, after a suitable time delay, the solenoid controlling rod 420 is energized so that the cam 400 is rotated anti-clockwise causing the land 402 to lift the latch 342, and the spring 456 throws the pump control arm 300 to the left to position A with the end 460 locked within the latch recess 354. The pump unit 284 then causes the delivery system 18 to swing inwardly. During the final portion of the downward movement of the rod 420 the hook 422 becomes disengaged from the pin 408 owing to the action of the bolt 426 and the cam 400 returns to its normal posi-, tion. When the conveyer 18 nears the end of its stroke the rod 274 causes rotation of the cam 432, through the arm 276, in a clockwise direction so that the land 438 lifts the latch 342 (Fig. 17) and the spring 450 returns the pump control arm 300 to position B. When the next workpiece operates the fingers.92 the land 404 on the cam 400 lifts the latch 344 causing spring 450 to throw the arm 300 into position C and the frame 18 is swung outwardly. The control circuit is such that the conveyer starts its swinging movement when the centre of the workpiece arrives along the line X (Fig. 3). The purpose of the detector fingers 102 is to initiate a longer delay in the event of a long workpiece, the length of which is greater than the distance Y (Fig. 1). A rod (Fig. 7, not shown) is mounted across the lower end of the conveyer 18 so that in the event of the workpieces piling up on the support 10 to such an extent that the rod is touched, it will operate a switch to stop the machine.