GB804209A - Improvements in or relating to apparatus for counting and bundling envelopes or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

804,209. Endless conveyers. WINKLER, R., and DUNNEBIER, K. June 11, 1956 [Sept. 26, 1955], No. 17966/56. Class 78 (1). (Also in Group XVII] A machine for assembling envelopes in batches and wrapping a paper &c. strip round each batch includes a. continuously moving conveyer having pockets into which envelopes are fed to form the batches, the pockets have springy front and rear walls which are deflected during filling to facilitate separation of batches. The envelopes are fed from a stack 1 by a belt 40, or by rollers 41, to a feed wheel 2 for deposition in the pockets. As the pockets approach the filling position their rear walls 21a contact first a stop 23, under which they slip after bending to be arrested by a pawl 22. As the conveyer moves on, the mouth of the pocket at the filling position is thus widened and the front wall 21b of the following pocket contacts the rear wall held by the pawl and is likewise deflected. The walls 21b are additionally deflected by cam means 24a, Fig. 3, operating on their connections 20b with the conveyer chains. When the pocket has received its quota, the pawl 22 is moved permitting the arrested walls to spring forward, the front wall of the following pocket thus advancing sufficiently to ensure that the next envelope will be deposited in it. The pockets carry the batches over a settling and aligning agitator 4 to the wrapping position where dogs 11 on a conveyer 12 lift the batches out of the pockets into contact with paper strip for wrapping (see Group XVII). In order to ensure uniformity of numbers in each batch, the feed wheel 2 is scanned by a photo-electric device 25, Fig. 1, operating means 31 to eject a batch containing less than the prescribed number from the assembly table at a later stage. The front and rear pocket walls are carried on separate pairs of conveyer chains adjustable relative to each other to vary the capacity of the pockets.