GB973639A - Improvements in or relating to arrangements for transporting and depositing printed copies in piles - Google Patents

Abstract

973,639. Delivery sheets. J. FUNK. Feb. 10, 1961 [Feb. 13, 1960], No. 5042/61. Headings B6B and B6H. In a signature stacking device comprising a main conveyer 1, an auxiliary conveyer 10 and a counting device 65, a part of the main conveyer being adjacent to a part of the auxiliary conveyer, grippers 12 on the main conveyer grip signatures 5 supplied by the auxiliary conveyer and remove them therefrom, the signatures 5 being suspended, while gripped, from the main conveyer and transported by the main conveyer past the counting device to a stacking station where the grippers are opened and the signatures stacked. After a gripper 12 has passed the stacking station it picks up an insert 26 from a second auxiliary conveyer 29, to which the inserts are fed by a sheet separator 28 from storage means 25, and carries it along the upper run of the conveyer 1 until it deposits it in an opened signature 5 on the conveyer 10, the signature being then closed and transferred complete with insert to the conveyer 1 for stacking. Opening folded signatures; signature gatherers. -The conveyer 10, to which signatures are fed from a printing machine, comprises an endless chain on which is mounted a series of tubes 56 perpendicular thereto and supported by struts 55. The tubes 56 are perforated at 57 and can communicate at their inner ends with chambers 60, 61 successively, the chamber 60 being connected to a source of suction and the chamber 61 to a source of compressed air. A signature is fed in a flat, folded condition from a conveyer 6 on to the perforated face of one of the tubes 56. As the tube is carried round to the upper run of the conveyer 10 it communicates with the chamber 60 whereby one leaf of the signature is sucked firmly against the tube while the other leaf falls against the adjacent strut 55. In this position the signature is ready to receive an insert 26 from a gripper 12 when the latter is opened by a cam plate 16d. After insertion of the insert the tube 56 is brought into communication with the chamber 61 whereby compressed air is blown through the holes 57 and the signature 5 is closed upon the insert. When the closed signature has passed beyond the range of the chamber 61 it is engaged by another gripper 12, actuated by a cam plate 16e and removed from the conveyer 10 thereby. The construction of the conveyer 29 is similar to that of the conveyer 10 but there is no provision for suction or compressed air. The grippers 12 when adjacent to the conveyer 29 are actuated by a cam plate 16c. Gripper mechanism.-Each gripper 12 has two pairs of jaws 40, 41, Fig. 8, which are keyed to shafts 43, 44 journalled in the links of an endless chain which forms part of the conveyer 1. The jaws have meshing gear teeth 45 formed on them and are spring biased towards a closed position. The shaft 43 has a pair of levers 50 rigidly mounted thereon which are engaged successively by cam plates 16a-16e whereby the jaws are opened. Delivery in counted batches; receivers.-Signatures are carried from the conveyer 10, past the counting device 65, which is photo-electrically operated, and upon the corresponding grippers being opened by the cam plate 16a are dropped between guide plates 18 into a stacking area 20a. When a given number of signatures has passed the counting device the latter emits an impulse which causes the cam plate 16a to be lifted out of the path of the levers 50 so that the grippers 12 are not opened until the levers engage a fixed cam plate 16b. The signatures are then dropped in a second stacking area 20b whereby a second pile is formed while the first pile is removed from the area 20a. When a given number of signatures has been stacked in the area 20b the counting device emits a further impulse which restores the cam plate 16a to its lever-engaging position. More than two stacking areas may be provided and the piles at the several areas may contain different numbers of signatures.