US1976601A - Sheet registering mechanism - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 9, 1934. F. l.. cRoss 1,976,601

'SHEET REGISTERING MECHANISM l A Filed Feb. 13, 19.53 2 sheets-shea l1 I Patented Oct. 9, 1934 PATENT oFFicE SHEET REGISTERING MECHANISM Frank L. Cross, Port Washington, N. Y., assignor to Cross Paper Feeder Company, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application February 13, 1933, Serial No. 656,518 15 Claims. (Cl. 271-59) 'Ihe object of the present invention is to produce a sheet moving device, particularly useful for side registering sheets upon -a conveyor frame, which will be delicate in its action so as to leave no mark upon printed sheets `and which will be upon.

In its preferred form of an improved sheet registering mechanism the invention comprises relatively movable sheet engaging rollers supported in the path of sheets `with means for moving one of the rollers toward and away from the other, into and out of engagement with a sheet, suitable cam controlled stored power, such as an adjustable torsional spring, -arranged to rotate one of said rollers-and a sheet registering gage which arrests the action of the rollers when the sheet reaches its registered position.l It is desirable to provide upper and lower paper conning guide surfaces between the sheet moving instrument and the registering gage to restrict to a minimum'the buckling or Wrinkling'of the sheet as it is registered. One of these guide surfaces is preferably adjustable toward the other, and it has been found convenient to mount the adjustable guide surface upon the support of the movable sheet engaging roller, although this specie arrangement is not essential to the practical oper-ation of -my invention.

In order that the invention may be fully understood, it will first be described with reference to the laccompanying drawings and the novelty afterwards pointed out more particularly in the vannexed claims.

In said drawings vFigure 1 is a plan View of a preferred form of the invention embodied in an improved sheet registering mechanism;

Figure 2 is a Vertical longitudinal sectional view of the same taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a rear view of the same;

Figure 4 is a detail horizontal sectional view taken on the line 4 4 of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a detail perspective View illustrating the elements of the mechanism in operation.

The improved sheet moving mechanism is illustrated in a form in which it'will be used as a side registering mechanism upon a sheet conveyor between an automatic feeder and a press, but it will be understood that the specific arrangement and details of construction Iare not essential but may abe varied to meet the requirements of different applications of the invention. Y In the mechanism as shown in the drawings, 1 represents part of a side frame of a usual form of conveyor in which the sheet conveying tapes, sheet guides and sheet registering devices are mounted in a manner well understood. The only parts of this usual mechanism necessary for illustrating the present invention are the transverse frame bar 2 and the transverse cam shaft 3 which extend transversely vof and are mounted in the conveyor frame; the frame bar 2 being rigidly mounted in the sideframe, while the shaft 3 is suitably journalled in the side frame, one of the bearings being indicated at 4.

The frame bar 2 carries a main lower bracket 5 which is adjustable transversely of the conveyor frame by means of 'set screws, one of which is indicated at 6. This lower bracket 5 carries a base plate 7 forming a lower guide surface in the plane of feed of sheets on the conveyor, the side portion of sheetsprojecting over said plate 7 to be acted upon by the sheet moving registering devices presently to be described. Base plate 7 has a downwardly curved lip 8 at its sheet receiving end and a bearing 9 for the shaft 3 adjacent its rear edge. Y

Extending atright angles to and beneath supporting bar 2 and shaft 3 is a stub shaft 10 rigidly secured in the bracket. 5 by pins 11 and having freely journalled upon it adjacent to bracket 5 the lower Vfrictional feed wheel 12, which projects through the slot 7a of base plate 7 with the highest part of its periphery in the plane of feed of sheets. 'Ihis feed wheel 12 is confined upon the fixed shaft 10 by means of a collar 13 secured by pin 14, and a torsion spring encircles the collar 13 and shaft 10 and has its inner end secured by screw 16 to the face of the main feed wheel 12. The outerend of fixed stub shaft 10 is of reduced diameter as shown at 17 and freely mounted upon this reduced shaft end is a knurled collar 18 having. the outer end of torsion spring 15 secured to it as shown at 19. The collar 18 has an outwardly presented circular iiange 20 formed with a series of radial notches 21 in which is adapted to engage the pin 22 passing diametrically through the outer end of reduced portion 17 of shaft 10. By pressing collar 18 inwardly upon the reduced shaft end 17 the fiange 20 is disengaged from the projecting vends ofy pin 22 so the collar 18 can be turned upon the shaft for increasing or decreasing the tension of the spring 15. When the desired adjustment has been made, the collar 18 is again allowed to move outwardly to cause notches of flange 2O to again lock with the pin 22.

The main feed wheel 12 carries upon its face adjacent to itsperiphery an anti-friction roller 23 journalled upon a stud 24. This anti-friction roller 23 is engaged by the inner end of a slide 25 which is preferably of dovetail cross-section and supported in the dovetail guideway 26 of the guide plate 27 supported beneath the base plate 7 parallel with the vertical plane of operation of the main feed wheel 12. ,f

The slide bar 25 carries at its outer end a freely journalled anti-friction roller 28 journalled upon stud 29 and operating normally in the cam groove 3() of the barrel cam 3l mounted upon the shaft 3 above referred to. The cam 31 is adjustably splined upon the shaft 3 and to tie the cam and its operated mechanism together in operative relation a plate 32 engages an annular groove 33 and is secured to the end of the guide plate 27 by means of set screw 34. In this way it will be observed that the cam 31 will be caused to slide upon its shaft when the mechanism is adjusted upon the supporting bar 2.

An upper bracket 35 has its supporting flange 36 screwed to the base plate 7 by means of screws 37. This bracket 35 is formed with a rearwardly presented vertical guideway 38 in which reciprocates a sliding block 39 engaged by machine screws 40 passing through a slide plate 41 operating upon the forwardly presented vertical base of bracket 35. These machine screws 40 operate in a vertical slot or guideway r42 of bracket 35. The inner edge of the guideway 38 carries a wear piece or shim 43 held against the guide block 39 by machine screws 44 and lock nuts 45.

'Ihe sliding block 39 is formed with a downwardly presented yoke 46 open transversely of the conveyor frame and supporting an upper guide plate and an upper feed roller as will now be explained. 47 is the upper guide plate having the upwardly curved lipv 48 at its receiving end'and the integral perforated upwardly presented ears or lugs 49 which are engaged by a machine screw 50 passing through the lower perforated wallsl of the yoke 46 and the ears 49 of guide plate 47. The machine screw 50 has a shouldered reduced end passing through the rear ear 49 and wall of yoke 46, said parts being clamped against the screw shoulder by the. nut 51 threaded thereon. The upper guide plate 47 is formed with a vertical slot or opening 52 in registry with the slot 7a of the base plate 7 and operating in the slot 52v of upper plate 47 is an upper feed roll 53 which is freely journalled upon the screw 50 between the ears 49 of the upper guide plate and is periodically lowered into peripheral engagement with spring actuated roller 12. Any suitable means may be provided for adjusting the upper plate 47 upon its support. The openings through which bolt 50 passes may be slightly larger than the external diameter of the bolt to permit. slight vertical adjustment. The parts may be clamped securely in adjusted position by screws such as 65 passing through the walls of yoke 46 into engagement with ears 49. Plate 47 must be parallel with base plate 7 with their surfaces close enough together to properly support the sheet against buckling or wrinkling.

The slide block 39 is also formed with a transverse guideway 54 in its rear face nearv its upper end in which operates an anti-friction roller 55 journalled on the inner end of a rock arm 56 of a bell crank lever 57 journalled upon the bolt 58 threaded into the bracket frame 35. The vertical arm 59 of bell crank lever 57 carries on its lower end a freely journalled anti-friction roller 60 which operates upon the cam 61 cut in the inner face of the barrel cam above referred to.

The spring 62 connects the'arm 56 of bell crank lever 57 with arm 63 adjustably secured to the bracket 35 for maintaining the bell crank lever operation upon cam 61 and permitting the vertical reciprocation of the sliding block 39 with the parts attached thereto.

A suitable side registering gage is provided, preferably in the form of a gage plate secured to the upper face of base plate 7 by means of countersunk screws 71. The gage plate may be formed with vertical notches in its gaging face indicated at 72 into which project the tongues 47a of the top guide plate 47, to prevent the registry edge of a sheet accidentally passing between the guide plate 47 and the gage. y y

The operation of the improved sheet registering mechanism will be clear from the following explanation. With the registering mechanism mounted upon the conveyor frame at one side of the path of sheets it will be understood that the sheet indicated at S passes forwardly upon the conveyor with one lateral edge between the base plate 7 and the top guide plate 47, the sliding block 39 supporting .the drop roller 53 and upper guide plate 47 raised above the base plate 7 sufi-lciently to allow the sheet to pass freely between these plates. Whenthe sheet reaches the front gages of the press the cam 61 lowers roller 53 and plate 47 upon the sheet, the'lower springy driven feed roll 12 being held in its spring restrained position by the cam controlled bar 25. Immediately followingthis position of parts the cam 30 allows bar 25l to move outwardly permitting the stored spring power 15 to rotate roller 12 `and move the sheet outwardly tofthe'registering gage 70 because of the frictional engagement induced by pressure upon the sheet by drop roller 53. lWhen the edge of the sheet reaches the gage 70 its movement will stop and also further movement of roller.12 will be arrested, the sheet being confined between the guide surfaces 7 and 47 so closely that'there will be no material buckling or wrinkling of the sheet between rollers 53" and 12 and the gage and the sheet having sufficient strengthwto restrain the spring powers/The tension of the spring power 15 will be nicely adjusted to suit the strength of the sheet projecting between the rollers and the gage. The sheet is maintained in this registered position momentarily when the drop roller 53 and plate k47 are elevated'and the cam controlled bar 25 forces the lower roller 12 back to its former position, and thereby restoresthe spring power to its normal working tension, the registered sheet being, in the meantime, taken from the conveyor frame by the press grippers.

Thenormal spring-induced rotary stroke of the roller 12 will be sufficient to move a sheet the maximum distance found necessary in practice for registering, and, it will be understood, that registering gage and holding the roller against motion for the unused part of the possible maximum stroke. 1

In the operation of this improved mechanism there is no slippage of the feed rollers upon the sheet and the peripheries ofthe upper and lower rollers can be so shaped as to provide an enlarged point contact between the rollers and the sheet with the result that there is no objectionable marking of even the finest printed sheet at the point of engagement of the registry mechanism. This result is further ensured by the simplicity of the mechanism permitting the parts to be made of a minimum weight which reduces the inertia to a minimum in the registering operation.

I claim:-

1. The combination of a sheet moving instrument, resilient means normally urging said instrument to act, upon a sheet to move it, means normally restraining said instrument, means releasing said restraining means, and means eiecting engagement of said instrument with a sheet.

2. A sheet moving instrument, an actuating spring, means normally restraining said springactuated instrument, means periodically releasing said restraining means, and means timing the action of said instrument upon a sheet.

3. The combination with a sheet registering gage, a spring actuated sheet moving instrument, controlling means normally restraining said instrument and periodically permitting it to act, and means periodically eiecting engagement of said instrument with a sheet.

4. The combination of upper and lower feed rollers movable relatively toward and away from each other to engage and release a sheet, yielding driving means acting upon and imparting the feed movement to one of said rollers, a gage, means controlling said yielding means, and means controlling the sheet engagement between said rollers.

5. A spring actuated sheet moving instrument, in combination with automatically controlled restraining means, sheet confining guiding surfaces, and means effecting engagement of said instrument with a sheet.

6. A spring actuated sheet moving instrument, in combination with automatically controlled restraining means, a sheet arresting gage, sheet conning guiding surfaces, and means for initiating the action of said instrument.

7. The combination with a sheet moving instrument, of stored actuating power, means normally restraining said stored power, means periodically releasing said restraining means, and means timing the action of said instrument upon a sheet.

8. The combination with a sheet moving instrument, of stored actuating power, means normally restraining said power, means periodically releasing said restraining means, means timing the action of said instrument upon a sheet, and a sheet registering gage.

9. The combination with a sheet registering gage, a spring actuated rotary sheet moving roller, controlling means normally restraining said roller and periodically permitting it to act, and means periodically effecting engagement between said roller and a sheet.

10. The combination of upper and lower feed rollers movable relatively toward and away from each other to engage and release a sheet, spring means acting upon and imparting the feed stroke to one of said rollers, a gage, cam means controlling said spring means, and means controlling the sheet engagement between said rollers.

11. The combination of upper and lower feed rollers movable relatively toward and away from each other to engage and release a sheet, adjustable spring means acting upon one of said rollers, a gage, a cam actuated slide controlling said spring means, a crank pin on said actuated roller engaged by said slide, and means controlling the sheet engagement between said rollers.

12. A sheet moving instrument having stored spring power adapted to normally impart sheet moving motion to it, in combination with automatically controlled restraining means, and means effecting engagement of said instrument With a sheet.

13. A sheet moving instrument having stored spring power adapted to normally impart sheet 110 moving motion to it, in combination with means for initiating the action of said instrument upon a sheet.

14. A sheet moving instrument having stored spring power adapted to normally impart sheet 115 moving motion to it, in combination with a sheet arresting gage and means for initiating the action of said instrument.

15. A sheet moving roller having stored spring power adapted to normally impart sheet moving 120 motion to it, in combination with a gage, and a sheet engaging drop roller for initiating the action upon a sheet.

FRANK L. CROSS.

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