GB946975A - Collating machine - Google Patents

Abstract

946,975. Collating sheets. R. G. LOWE, and B. S. FORNELL. Sept. 25, 1961 [Nov. 18, 1960], No. 34169/61. Heading B6H. Sheets delivered from a printing machine are collated directly in a plurality of pockets 57 in a rotatable drum 32. The sheets are fed by means of endless tapes such as 55 over guide plates 46, 47 and 48 or 49 depending upon the position of a deflector 50. The pockets 57 are moved step-by-step past the end of the guide plate 49, the drum 32 being alternately driven in an anti-clockwise direction by intermittent drive means and braked. A sheet leaving the plate 49 and entering a pocket 57 engages a feeler which actuates a switch S and the switch initiates rotation of the drum. The rotation is arrested by the engagement of a detent on the drum with a further switch, such engagement occurring when the next pocket 57 is aligned with the plate 49. In the event of a crumpled sheet keeping the switch S closed the drum is automatically prevented from rotating through more than one step until the crumpled sheet is removed. A counter on the printing machine is set so that the printing machine stops after printing a given number of identical sheets, e.g. sixty. The drum has fifty pockets all of which need not be used. A second counter is set to the number of collated sets of sheets required, e.g. forty. After forty identical printed sheets have been delivered into forty individual pockets of the drum the second counter moves the deflector 50 to its broken line position and the remaining twenty sheets are deflected over the guide plate 49 into a removable tray 33. The deflector can also be controlled independently of the counter, being pivoted to the broken-line position when the operator presses a " reject " button. When all sixty sheets have been printed the operator changes the plate on the printing machine and prints a further sixty sheets from the new plate, of which sheets the first forty are deposited in the forty pockets 57 previously used. This process is repeated until the complete book or the like has been printed. The collated sheets in the pockets 57 are removed therefrom by hand and placed as shown at 99, 100 in Fig. 3, in a trough mounted on the collating machine. The trough has sides 96, 97 and is inclined so that the sheets abut against a base 98. Sheets are retained in the pockets 57 as the latter are inverted during rotation of the drum by an arcuate retaining strip passing round the lower portion of the drum. If no spare copies are required the tray 33 need not be used. The apparatus may be used as a simple, non-collating sheet receiving device by fixing the deflector 50 in its broken line position.