JPS597612B2 - Automatic sheet stacking device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention automatically stacks sheets of paper used in a sheet-fed printing machine or the like in the process of stacking them to a desired height on a skid at a predetermined position. This invention relates to an automatic sheet stacking device configured so that the edges of stacked sheets can be neatly aligned without sideways shifting.

Conventionally, a device for stacking sheets of paper one by one on a skid, consisting of a suitable number of sheets, has been constructed by transporting each pile of paper to the top of the skid using a moving table parallel to the top of the skid. When a stack of paper reaches the top of the skid, the paper is usually stacked on top of the skid, so the edges of the paper often become uneven when stacking. I felt bad that I couldn't do it.

In view of the prior art as described above, the present invention aims to provide an automatic sheet stacking device that does not cause unevenness of paper edges during stacking, and the gist of the present invention is to A traveling pedestal having a frame structure consisting of both side frames is placed on the trestle in the front-rear direction, and a traveling table having an air blow table configuration is also placed on the trestle so as to be freely movable in the front-rear direction. A falling groove is formed in the front of the upper surface of the traveling table for the traveling table to move backward with its leading end lowered when the traveling table retreats from the forward position, and the upper surface of the paper stacked on this falling groove is formed. A switching cam is installed at the front of the guide rail to keep the front end of the groove open at all times by a spring, and a switching cam is installed at the rear of the guide rail to keep the front end of the groove open at all times. is provided with a switching cam that is resiliently held downward so as to always close the rear end of the groove, and a guide roller that rolls along the groove is installed on the lower surface of the tip of the traveling table. Equipped with a paper holding mechanism on the side,
This paper holding mechanism uses a paper holding finger which pinches and holds the front part of stacking conveyance paper, which has been placed on a traveling table by dividing the sheets into piles of an appropriate number of sheets, on both upper and lower surfaces, through a bracket. It is configured to be operated by one drive of the pressurizing part by the cylinder, and there is a sheet number calculator at the rear of the traveling table, and the sheets can be sorted into piles of appropriate number of sheets and sent out by hand. a table lifter is appropriately arranged, and a table lifter for stacking conveyed paper is arranged in a position in front of the traveling pedestal so that the height can be adjusted so that the top surface of the stacked paper is lower than the top surface of the traveling pedestal under the floor surface;
The paper holding mechanism that holds the front part of the conveyed paper moves forward together with the traveling table and the traveling pedestal, and a limit switch is activated to stop the advancing of the traveling pedestal at a position where both side frames of the traveling pedestal sandwich the stacked paper of the table lifter from both sides. is set at the front end of the fixed pedestal, and after the traveling pedestal stops advancing, the traveling table is moved forward along with the paper holding mechanism along both side frames of the traveling pedestal, and a limit switch is installed on the traveling pedestal to stop it at the forward position. The paper presser mechanism is equipped with a finger for preventing sideways shifting of the stacked paper, which is operated by another cylinder-type pressurizing section for the paper presser via another bracket. A squeeze roller is installed on the lower surface of the front end of the traveling table for squeezing the top surface of the stacked paper when the traveling table moves backward, and a limit switch that operates at the end position when only the traveling table moves backward is installed at the rear end of the traveling base. At the same time, the pressure by the finger is released in synchronization with this limit switch, and a limit switch that operates when the paper presser mechanism is at the forward stop position is installed at the front end of the traveling frame, thereby transporting the stacked paper. It shall be lowered by one stack of paper,
Furthermore, a phototube for optically detecting the top surface of the stacked sheets in the table lifter at that time is installed at the front end of the fixed pedestal, and the pressure section of the cylinder mechanism is operated in conjunction with the operation of the limit switch. The bracket is moved upward along the guide by a height that allows each finger to pass over the top surface of the stacked paper, and as the guide retreats along the guide rod, the rollers attached to the bracket are moved upward. The table lifter shall be pushed up to a position above the cam surface at the tip of the traveling table, and the retreat of the guide and the stop of the table lifter's descent shall be synchronized, and a limit switch shall be provided to stop the retreat of the guide. A limit switch is installed at the rear end of the guide rod and at the rear end of the fixed pedestal for the traveling pedestal to return to the retracted position together with the traveling table and stop. This consists in the structure of an automatic sheet stacking device which is configured to perform this by removing the air from the bracket and making it into a free state, and at the same time lowering the bracket until its rollers come into contact with the cam surface at the front end of the traveling table. be. Next, to further explain the present invention with reference to the embodiment shown in the drawings, reference numeral 1 denotes both side frames 1 placed on a fixed frame 2 in a horizontal position.
A traveling table 3 consisting of an air blow table is further placed on top of the traveling table 1.

Both the traveling frame 1 and the traveling table 3 are configured to be able to move forward and backward in the front and rear directions (in the left and right directions in the figure). A groove 7 is formed in the front of the upper surface of the traveling frame 1 in a depressed shape so that the tip of the traveling table 3 moves backward in a downwardly inclined state when the traveling table 3 retreats from its forward position. A guide rail 4 for squeezing the top surface of the stacked paper is mounted above the groove 7.

Switching cams 5, 5 are resiliently supported at the front and rear ends of the guide rail 4 by attached springs, respectively! One of the switching cams 5 is installed at the front of the guide rail 4 and is supported upward so that the front end of the groove 7 is always open. The other attached switching cam 5' is provided so as to be resiliently pushed downward so as to always close the rear end of the groove 7. Also, on the lower surface of the tip of the traveling table 3, the upper surface of the guide rail 4 and the groove 7 are provided. By installing a guide roller 6 that rolls along the guide rail 6, when the traveling table 3 moves forward, it moves forward along the upper surface of the guide rail 4, but when the traveling table 3 moves backward, The guide roller 6 falls into the groove 7 whose front end is opened by the switching cam 5 at the front position of the side rail 4, tilts the front part of the traveling table 3, and runs along the groove 7 in that state. The table 3 is moved backward while remaining tilted, and when the guide roller 6 reaches the rear part of the groove 7, the switching cam 5' is pushed up into the groove 7.
By opening the rear end, the traveling table 3 can be floated above the traveling frame 1 from an inclined position and retreated.

a is a conveyor sheet for stacking paper which is divided into stacks of appropriate number of sheets and placed on the traveling table 3; A paper holding mechanism 8 that moves forward is mounted by a bracket 9.

This paper presser mechanism 8 has upper and lower paper presser fingers 8' and 8f provided on the lower surface of the bracket 9.
, 8', the forward portion of the stacking paper sheet a is held under pressure from above and below. In order to press and hold the front part of the stacking conveyance sheet a loaded on the traveling table 3 by the fingers 8' and 8'', a cylinder pressure device 11 is disposed on the bracket 9.
The pressurizers 11 are driven by switch operations to operate the fingers 8', 8' to hold the forward portion of the conveyed sheet a under pressure. Attached to the paper holding mechanism 8 are a front ruler 10 for aligning the leading edge of the conveyed paper a and a horizontal ruler 10' for aligning the lateral sides of the paper a,
These allow the leading edge and the lateral sides of the paper a to be aligned.

At the rear position of the traveling table 3, sheets of an arbitrary number from sheets A are sorted and fed one pile at a time, and a sheet number calculator 12 and a sheet number calculator 12 that can calculate the weight by converting it into a pile are loaded. A table lifter 13 is appropriately arranged in the table lifter 12 so that the sheets A can be sequentially sorted into piles and fed out manually.

In addition, a table lifter 14 is disposed in front of the traveling frame 1, and is located below the floor surface FL, and the table lifter 14 is configured to sequentially stack the conveyed paper sheets a, one by one, sent by the traveling table 3.
That is, the stacked sheets b are sequentially fed onto the skid of the table lifter 14, and the table lifter 1
4 is adjustable so that the top surface of the stacked sheets b is kept at a slightly lower height than the top surface of the traveling frame 1.

The paper holding mechanism 8 holds the front part of the paper a as described above.
is pushed forward by the traveling table 3 as the traveling table 3 and the traveling pedestal 1 move forward, and is positioned so that both side frames of the traveling pedestal 1 are sandwiching the stacked paper b of the table lifter 14 from both sides. Stop at .

The forward movement of the traveling frame 1 is stopped by a limit switch 15 set at the front end of the fixed frame 2 (FIG. 2). At this time, the upper surface of the stacked sheets b is adjusted so that the upper surface of the stacked sheets b is below the upper surface of the traveling frame 1 by a detection mechanism consisting of a phototube for detecting the upper surface, which will be described later. When the two-travel pedestal 1 stops at the predetermined forward position as described above, the traveling table 3 is moved together with the paper presser mechanism 8 on the tip side thereof.
Assume that the conveyed sheet a is continuously moved forward along both side frames 1' and 1' of the traveling frame 1 while holding the front side of the conveyed sheet a under pressure. During this forward movement, the traveling table 3
are switching cam 5, guide rail 4, switching cam 5'
It travels horizontally on the top of the traveling platform 1, and both side frames of the traveling platform 1 ``,
A limit switch 16 is set at the front end of the side frame 1' of the traveling frame 1 in order to move the traveling table 3 and paper holding mechanism 8 forward along the forward movement position 1' and stop the traveling table 3 and the paper holding mechanism 8 at the forward position. The forward movement of the traveling table 3 and the paper holding mechanism 8 is stopped (FIG. 3). Next, the paper presser mechanism 8 is configured so that when the traveling table 3 stops at the forward position as described in 3 above, the paper presser mechanism 8 is operated by another paper presser cylinder type pressurizing part 1 attached to the paper presser mechanism 8. Stacked paper BO) A finger 87 for preventing lateral slippage is attached to another bracket 9', and in this way, by the operation of the finger 8'', the paper b stacked on the table lifter 14 is
to prevent paper b from shifting laterally (Fig. 4).

It is assumed that the operations of each of the above-mentioned parts are carried out appropriately through the intervention of a timer, and after these operations are completed, the traveling table 3 is started to move backward. When the traveling table 3 moves backward, the front end of the groove 7 is opened by the flip-up of the switching cam 5 at the front end of the guide rail 4, the guide roller 6 is guided into the groove 7, and the front end of the traveling table 3 is lowered. Move backwards while maintaining the same slope. At the same time, the paper pressing mechanism 8 is left in the forward position while pressing and holding the front part of the stacking transport sheets a, so that only the traveling table 3 moves backward (FIG. 5). In this way, as the traveling table 3 moves backward, its front end tilts downward, which prevents the sheets a from falling randomly on the traveling table 3, and allows the sheets b to be placed on the table lifter 14 in an orderly manner.
can be stacked. A squeezing roller 17 is provided on the lower surface of the front end of the traveling table 3 for squeezing the top surface of the stacked sheets b when the traveling table 3 moves backward, thereby flattening and squeezing the top surface of the stacked sheets b as the traveling table 3 moves backward. It serves to align the upper surfaces of the sheets, prevent misalignment between sheets, and ensure that each sheet is in close contact with each other (FIG. 6).

As described above, when the traveling table 3 moves backward, the paper holding mechanism 8 remains at the forward position (FIG. 7), and in the stopped position of the paper holding mechanism 8, the front part of the conveyed sheet a is held by the finger. 8' and 82, when the traveling table 3 is at the end position of its backward movement, by operating the limit switch 18 installed at the rear end of the traveling base 1, the pressurized portion can be released. 11, the pressing and holding of the front part of the paper by the fingers 8' and 8'' is released, so that the paper a can be stacked on the table lifter 14 in an orderly manner without any lateral deviation (Fig. 8). .

Further, in synchronization with the operation of the limit switch 18, the pressure by the fingers 85 for preventing side shift of the stacked sheets b is released.
1'0) This is due to the release of air, whereby the fingers 85 are moved forward away from the stacked sheets b (FIG. 9).

As described above, the pressurizer 11 for operating the fingers 8', 8'' and the pressurizer 11'rl for operating the finger 85, and the bracket 9 as shown in FIG.
and brackets 9' at appropriate intervals, and when the paper presser mechanism 8 moves to the forward position as described above, it is fixed at the front end of the traveling frame 1 as shown in FIG. Activate the limit switch 19,
As a result, the advance of the paper holding mechanism 8 is stopped, and in synchronization with this, the table lifter 14 is lowered so that the height of the upper surface of the stacked paper b is lowered by one stack of the transported paper a. do.

Further, the lowering position of the stacked paper b at this time is determined by a phototube 20 set at the front end of the fixed pedestal 2 so that the position of the upper surface of the paper b can be detected optically, and thereby the table lifter 14 is lowered. It is assumed that the lowering position of the paper b can be regulated so that it is always at a fixed position lower than the top surface of the traveling frame 1 (FIG. 10). Next, when the limit switch 19 is activated as described above, the pressurizer 21 of the cylinder mechanism is activated in conjunction with it, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 13. 9' can be raised to a height that allows the fingers 8', 8'', 85 attached to the brackets 9, 9' along the guide 22 to freely pass over the top surface of the paper b. In addition, this rise is caused by the guide 22 being connected to the guide rod 23.
The roller 24 attached to the bracket 9 is pushed up to a position above the tip cam surface 3' of the traveling table 3 (FIG. 10).

In this case, the backward movement of the guide 22 along the guide rod 23 is performed in synchronization with the stoppage of the table lifter 14, and a limit switch 25 for stopping the backward movement of the guide 22 is placed at the rear end of the guide rod 23. setting (Fig. 11), and with the operation of this limit switch 25,
The traveling frame 1 moves backward together with the traveling table 3,
Limit switch 2 installed at the rear end of the fixed frame 2
6 is activated, and in this way, the traveling pedestal 1 and the traveling table 3 return to their old positions together with the paper holding mechanism 8, and are placed on standby for the next feeding of conveyed paper a. Figure 12).

In this case, the pressurizing part 21 is returned to its original position by removing the air from it and becoming free, and at the same time, the roller 24 attached to the bracket 9 is pressed against the cam surface of the front end of the traveling table 3. ) 3', the traveling frame 1 and the traveling table 3 return to their initial starting positions as described above.

The traveling movement of each part of the apparatus described above is carried out in appropriate association with a common drive mechanism.

Since the apparatus of the present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, the appropriate number of sheets A to be supplied to a sheet-fed printing machine, etc. is measured, and each pile of sheets A is transferred to the traveling table 3 on the traveling frame 1.
The front part of the sheet a is pressed and held by the fingers 8'' and 8' of the paper holding mechanism 8, and as the traveling table 3 moves forward, the sheet a is sent to the table lifter 14 located at the front. At that position, the pressure holding of the front part of the paper sheet by the paper presser mechanism 8 is released, and the stacked paper sheet b can be stacked.Moreover, at this time, the stacked paper surface can be moved onto the traveling table 3 without causing any shift in the paper sheet b during stacking. Since the paper is squeezed by moving backward, it is possible to automatically stack the paper in an orderly manner while preventing the stacked paper b from being misaligned or protruding.

Furthermore, when using the apparatus of the present invention, sheets are stacked by dividing them into appropriate quantities, so it is easy to detect and remove any breakages or stains on the sheets during the stacking process. Furthermore, since paper can be stacked without having to choose the packaging style, there is versatility in terms of paper size.Therefore, uneven paper can be sorted into piles and aligned, and then fed one pile at a time to this device. The paper can be easily and conveniently reloaded into a pile of paper without any irregularities, and the paper can be efficiently and orderly fed to a sheet-fed printing machine, etc., which has the effect of contributing to eliminating problems in printing operations. There is.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory side view of the entire device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory side view of the traveling gantry of the device of the present invention when it starts moving forward, FIG. 3 is an explanatory side view of the traveling table when it moves forward, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is a side explanatory view showing another operating state when the traveling table is moving forward; FIG. 5 is a side explanatory view when the traveling table is starting to move backward; FIG. 6 is a side explanatory view when the traveling table is moving backward; FIG. 7 is a side explanatory view showing another operating state when the traveling table is retracted, FIG. 8 is a side explanatory view when the traveling table is retracting, and FIG. 9 is a side explanatory view showing another operation when the traveling table is retracting. FIG. 10 is a side view showing the state when the paper holding mechanism starts to move backward towards the traveling table. FIG. 11 is a side view when the paper holding mechanism is moving backward. FIG. Similarly, FIG. 13 is an explanatory side view of the traveling frame, the traveling table, and the paper holding mechanism at the time of returning and retracting, and FIG. 13 is a plan explanatory diagram of the essential parts of the apparatus of the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A traveling pedestal 1 having a frame structure consisting of both side frames 1' and 1' is placed on a fixed pedestal 2 so as to be freely movable in the front and rear direction, and a traveling table having an air blow table configuration is mounted on the traveling pedestal 1. 3 is similarly mounted so as to be freely movable in the front and back direction, and at the front of the upper surface of the traveling pedestal 1 there is provided a mechanism for moving the traveling table 3 backward with its tip portion lowered when the traveling table 3 retreats from the forward position. A drop groove 7 is formed, and a guide rail 4 for reducing the head when ironing the top surface of the paper and loading the paper is mounted on the groove 7, and the groove 7 is fixed by a spring at the front position of the guide rail 4. The switching cam 5 is provided so as to be supported upward so that the front end is always open, and
A switching cam 5' is provided at the rear of the guide rail 4 and is supported downward so as to always close the rear end of the groove 7, and a switching cam 5' is provided on the lower surface of the tip of the traveling table 3 to roll along the groove 7. A paper holding mechanism 8 is installed on the leading end side of the running table 3, and this paper holding mechanism 8 presses the sheets A onto the running table 3 in a suitable number of piles. A configuration in which paper press fingers 8' and 8'', which clamp and hold the front part of stacking transport sheets a placed in sections on both upper and lower surfaces, are operated by driving a pressure unit 11 by a cylinder via a bracket 9. At the rear of the traveling table 3, a sheet A number calculator 12 and a table lifter 14 that can manually separate and feed the sheet A into piles of appropriate number of sheets are appropriately arranged. In addition, a table lifter 14 for stacking conveyed sheets a is installed at the front position of the traveling frame 1 on the floor F.
The paper holding mechanism 8 that holds the leading edge of the paper sheet a, which is adjustable so that the upper surface of the stacked paper b is lower than the top surface of the traveling frame 1 under L, moves forward together with the traveling table 3 and the traveling frame 1, A limit switch 15 is provided at the front end of the fixed frame 2 to stop the forward movement of the traveling frame 1 at a position where both side frames 1', 1' of the traveling frame 1 sandwich the stacked paper b of the table lifter 14 from both sides. After the traveling platform 1 has stopped moving forward, the traveling table 3 is continuously moved forward along both side frames 1', 1' of the traveling platform 1 together with the paper holding mechanism 8, and a limit switch 16 is used to stop the traveling table 3 at the forward position. The side frame 1' of the traveling frame 1 is set at the front end, and the paper presser mechanism 8 has a finger 8'' for preventing the stacked paper from shifting laterally and is attached to another paper presser cylinder via another bracket 9'. A squeeze roller 17 is provided on the lower surface of the front end of the traveling table 3 for squeezing the upper surface of the stacked sheets when the traveling table 3 moves backward, and when only the traveling table 3 moves backward. A limit switch 18 that is activated at the end position during movement is set at the rear end of the traveling frame 1, and the pressure by the finger 8'' is released in synchronization with this limit switch 18. The limit switch 19, which operates when the mechanism 8 is in the forward stop position, is connected to the traveling frame 1.
is set at the front end of the table lifter 14, thereby lowering the stacked paper b by one stack of the conveyed paper a, and furthermore, optically detects the upper surface of the stacked paper b in the table lifter 14 at that time. 20 is set at the front end of the fixed frame 2, and the pressurizing part 21 of the cylinder mechanism is operated in conjunction with the operation of the limit switch 19, so that each bracket 9, 9' moves along the guide 22 and each finger 8. ', 8'', 8'''' can be raised and moved by a height that allows them to pass over the upper surface of the paper b, and the guide 22 is moved back along the guide rod 23 and attached to the bracket 9. A certain roller 24 is pushed up to a position above the tip cam surface 3' of the traveling table 3, and the retreat of the guide 22 and the stop of the descent of the table lifter 14 are performed in synchronization. A limit switch 25 is installed at the rear end of the guide rod 23 to stop the moving table 3 from moving backward, and a limit switch 26 is installed at the fixed frame 2 to stop the traveling frame 1 together with the traveling table 3 returning to the retreating position.
The pressurizing part 21 is set at the rear end, and the return of the pressurizing part 21 is performed by releasing the air from this part and becoming a free state. 3'.