GB808816A - Improvements in or relating to sheet feed and registration apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

808,816. Feeding sheets. GOLDING. W. F. March 28, 1957 [March 28. 1956]. No. 9706/56. Class 100(1) In an endless chain sheet conveyer comprising a pair of endless chains 11, 12 which feed sheets intermittently through a machine, such as a guillotine, a sheet-gripping device 20 is so mounted on the chains that it can be adjusted relatively thereto to permit the sheets to be registered in the positions where a sheet is accepted by the gripper device and like sheet is operated thereon by the machine. The machine may be a cutting, creasing, or embossing press, and is shown as a guillotine comprising a fixed platen 4, and a movable platen 5 operated by toggles 6 and rods 9 from rotating crank shafts 7, 8, substantially as disclosed in Specification 807,760 [Group V]. The sheets 26 are fed between the platens by the chains 11, 12 having thereon a number of gripper devices 20, Fig. 4, each comprising a transverse bar 21 with gripper jaws 22 which are opened at the sheets receiving position 23, Fig. 2, by a vertically-reciprocating bar 27 having gripperopening members 29 and sheet-registration members 28 thereon, substantially as disclosed in Specification 791,559. Each bar 21 has at each end thereof a slide element 30 mounted on a pin 32 in a guide bracket 31 having a shoe 45 which slides along a track 42. The bracket 31 has three lugs 39 and the slide element 30 has two lugs 35, 36, and a spring 38 on the pin 32 urges the lug 35 against a stop on the forward lug 39. Each element 30 has an! abutment 41 which is engaged at the sheet-receiving position 23 and the sheet-working position 24 by operating members 52, 70, respectively, to move the element 30 and gripper bar 21, against the action of the springs 38, relatively to the chains 11, 12, and thus register the conveyed sheet 26. This relative movement may take place when the chains are at rest, or just prior to their stationary positions. There are two members 52 secured on a shaft 50 and each having an abutment 54 thereon. One member 52 has a gear quadrant meshing with a gear quadrant 53 mounted on a shaft 51 and rocked, in synchronism with the press 4, 5, by an adjustable link 56, a doubleended rocker 58, and two cams on the shaft 8. The mating surfaces of the abutments 41, 54 are inclined to the bar 21, and cause the bar to be pushed towards one side of the press until the face of the shoe 45 on the chain 12 is pressed against the face 44 of the track 42, thus registering the sheet 26 transversely. At the sheet-working position 24 the members 70 are bell-crank levers the lower arm 72 of each being connected by a link 73 pivoted an a fixed pin 74. Each lever 70 is pivoted to the top of a slide bar 75 seated in a guide 76 on the lower platen 5. This bar is also connected by links to the rocker 58. The lever 70 thus receives a compound movement giving a rapid change of position, and also a relatively large movement which is necessary since the gripper devices 20 are themselves raised by the lower platen 5 in the operative position. The operative faces of the levers 70 are shaped similarly to those of the members 52. A modification is described and shown! wherein the operating members 52, 70 are operated from the rotating shaft 7 of the press through a camactuated slider crank means, and both members are constructed and actuated similarly to the member 70 described above. In a further modification, the members 52, 70 are associated with a toggle mechanism which is adjustable by handwheels and eccentric mountings so that adjustments of the grippers and sheets may be effected in sheet receiving and working positions while the press is operating. Specification 795,623 [Group XXIV] also is referred to.