US1978263A

US1978263A - Apparatus for sorting sheets

Info

Publication number: US1978263A
Application number: US591109A
Authority: US
Inventors: Percy E Hunter; Louis E Endsley
Original assignee: Hunter Co Inc
Current assignee: Hunter Co Inc
Priority date: 1932-02-05
Filing date: 1932-02-05
Publication date: 1934-10-23
Anticipated expiration: 1951-10-23

Description

Oct. 23, 1934.

Filed Feb. 5, 1952 INVENTORS Patented Oct. 23, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE APPARATUS FOR SOBTING SHEETS Percy a. Hunter and LouisE. Endsley, Pittsburgh, Pa. said Endsley assignor to said Hunter Application February 5, 1932, Serial No. 591,109

Claims.

5 other materials.

At one stage in tin mill operations, sheets are fed from stacks, one-by-onato flattening rolls or to some other destination, and it is of course necessary that defective sheets be sorted or thrown out. The defects j may consist in two sheets stuck together; front or rear edges of certain sheets being folded over; excessively thick sheets, etc.

, One object of our invention is to provide an improved method and apparatus for automatically discarding or separating defective sheets from those of uniform smoothness and. of proper thickness.

Another object of our invention is to provide a means and a method for sorting sheets that will efiectively sort out sheets of excessive thickness, or sort out sheets that are excessively thick in spots, whether such thicker spots are at the front or rear edges of the various sheets, or at any other location in the sheet.

One form which our invention may take is shown in the accompanying drawing wherein Figure 1 is a sectional elevational view of sortlng mechanism; Fig. 2 is a view taken on the line II--II of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the manner in which the sheetguiding mechanism of Fig. l is controlled.

The invention constitutes an improvement upon the apparatus shown in our application Serial No. 409,05L(n0w Patent No. 1,850,108), and may be employed in connection with the sheet-feeding mechanism of the said patent, or the sheets may be fed to the present apparatus in any other suitable manner.

The sheets to be sorted are fed one-by-one across a table 5 to rolls 6 and 7 by which they are advanced to-rolls 8 and 9, and across a movable table or deflector 10. The deflector 10 is tiltably mounted as hereinafter explained, in order to direct certain of the sheets to a discharge station at

rolls

12 and 13 and a conveyer 14 or to a discharge station at

rolls

15 and 16 and a conveyer 17, depending upon the thickness of the sheets and whether they contain thickened (Cl. zoo-es) of the sheets. The conveyer belt 14 carries the sheets to any suitablepoint separate from that to which the sheets that enter upon the conveyer 17 are carried.

The

rolls

6, 8, 12 and 15 idle on the rolls 7, 9, 1

13 and 16,v respectively, being driven through frictional contact therewith or through frictional contact with sheets passing between the rolls.

The deflecting table 10 is pivotally supported at its rear end upon the shaft or axle 18 of the roller 9, throughbars or sills 20 which are secured to the underside'of the table.

Links 21 depend from the bars 20 and at their lower ends are connected to levers 22 which at their rear ends are supported on fixed pivots 23. A rod 24 is pivotally connected at its ends to the levers,22, intermediate the ends' of said levers,

and carries at its mid portion a core or armature 25 whose lower end extends into a solenoid 26. Tension springs 27-tend to'normally raise the forward ends of the leversv 22 and consequently the table 10, but the table 10 is normally maintained in its lowermost position by the solenoid 26 acting upon the armature 25, against the ten-'- sion of the springs 27.

When the solenoid 26 is de-energized as hereinafter explained, the springs will raise the table ing de-energization of the solenoid 26 to permit the table 10 to rise and direct the sheet to rolls 12 and 13 and'the conveyer 14, as hereinafter more fully explained. The ends of the roll 6 have-connection with switch levers 32 and 33 that control the

switches

30 and 31 respectively, it-being understood that if the roll 6 is raised beyond a predetermined point, as in the case of an excessively thick sheet, or a sheet having a thick 10o spot, the range of movement of the

levers

32 and 33 will be such as to open the switches 30 and .31. These switches 'are electrically connected in series, as shown more clearly in Fig. 3, so that even if only one end of the roller 6 is lifted, the control circuit is broken.

If two sheets are stuck together, orif a sheet has a thick spot on it, through some imperfection such as a turned-back edge or foreign matter adhered thereto, one of the switches 30-31,

until energized in a manner hereinafter explained.

The opening of the switch 38 breaks the circuit through the solenoid 26 which is energized from a line 39. Simultaneous with the opening of the switches 37 and 38, a switch 40 of the relay 35 is closed to close a portion of the circuit through the solenoid of a timing device 41.

After a thickened sheet has passed from between the rolls 6 and 7, the

switches

30 and 31 are permitted to close, thereby completing the circuit for the solenoid of a timing device 41. Energization of the solenoid 41 sets in operation an armature 42 which has connection with the piston of a dash pot 43, and carries a switch member 44. A spring-tensioned lever 45 has connection with the armature 42, a spring 46 tending to return the armature to its lowermost position.

The dash pot retards or delays upward movement of the armature under the influence of the solenoid 41, thereby also delaying closing of the 'switch 44. This period of delay is suilicient to permit the forward edge of a sheet to enter between the

rolls

12 and 13, so that even though downward movement of the table 10 then occurs, the deflected sheet nevertheless will be carried to the conveyer 14, even though it has not completelypassed from the table.

After the predetermined period of delay, the switch 44 is closed to complete the energizing circuit through the solenoid of the relay 35. Switch 37 of the relay 35 'is thereby closed to complete a holding circuit for the solenoid 35; switch 38 is closed to complete the circuit through solenoid 26, and to cause lowering of the table; and switch 40 opens the energizing circuit of the timing device 41, which is restored to normal position under the influence of the spring-tensioned lever 45, thereby opening the energizing circuit for the relay 35 at switch 44.

The distance between the rolls 6-7, and 12-13 is greater than the lengths of the longest sheets to be sorted, while the distance between the rolls 8-9 and 12-13 is shorter than the shortest sheets, so that sheets when they enter either the rolls 12-13, or the rolls 15-16 will have passed completely from between the rolls 6-7, but not entirely from the rolls 8-9.

Since, as above-stated, the period of delay in closing of the switch 44 is sumcient to permit a sheet which has passed from between the rolls 6-7 to enter the rolls 12-13, and these pairs of rolls are farther apart than the length of the longest sheets to be sorted, the period of delay is greater than that required for a sheet to travel a distance equal to its length.

As will be clear from the above description, A. sheet that is thickened somewhere near its forward edge will be directed between the rolls 12- 13, by reason of the fact that the time element 41 will prevent energization of the solenoid 26 to retract the table until after the forward edge of the sheet has had time to enter between the rolls 12-13. If the sheet is of normal thickness in its forward portion and excessively thick only adjacent to its rear portion, it will nevertheless be directed to the rolls 12-13, because the thickened rear portion of the sheet will operate the switches 30-31 in the manner described, and the circuit through the solenoid 26 immediately broken, to effect instant upward movement of the table 10. Therefore, no matter at what point throughout its surface a sheet is thickened, the table 10 will be permitted to move upward with such rapidity and be retained in its upper position a sufiicient length of time to permit the forward edge of the sheet to be caught between the rolls 12-13.

If the table 10 has been elevated by reason of a thick spot near the rear edge of a sheet as heretofore described, and the front edge of a succeeding sheet is thickened, it would cause opening of the switches 30-31 quite soon after they had been closed through passing of the rear edge of the preceding sheet from between the rolls, and while the solenoid 26 is still de-energized. However, the circuit through the coil of the timing device 41 extends through the switches 30-31, and by reason of the opening of the switches by the thickened leading edge of the succeeding sheet, such circuit for the timing device 41 is broken, thereby permitting the spring 46 to quickly return the armature 42 to its lowermost position, thus preventing premature closing of the switch 44 with resultant energization of the solenoid 26, and return of the table 10, before the forward edge of said succeeding sheet has entered the rolls 12-13.

Since the timing device 41 is restored to its original, that is, to its initial timing position, by the said succeeding sheet, the table will be maintained in deflected position for the additional period of time (which is its full timing interval) necessary for the said succeeding sheet to reach. the rolls 12-13.

In other words, if the circuit of the timing device 41 is broken by the operation of switches 30-31 during the timing interval of the device, the device is restored to its original position, thus wiping out the portion of the timing interval that has elapsed, and again being actuated for its full time interval before the table is returned.

We claim as our invention:-

1. Sheet-sorting apparatus comprising a pair of sheet-advancing rolls, one of which is radially movable by sheets of abnormal thickness, a sec= ond pair of rolls following the first-named rolls,

a third pair of rolls, a sheet deflector pivotally supported at one end adjacent to the second pair of rolls and operable transversely of the path of travel of the sheets, to direct certain sheets to the third pair of rolls, a feeler device operated through radial movement of said movable rolls, means controlled by the feeler device for actuating the deflector, and a timing device con-=- trolled by operation of the feeler in the opposite direction. for delaying movement of the deflector in one direction for a period of time required for a sheet to travel from said first pair of rolls to the third pair of rolls, the distance between the first and the third pair of rolls being greater than the length of the sheets.

2. Sheet-sorting apparatus comprising a pair of sheet-advancing rolls, one of which is radially movable by sheets of abnormal thickness, 9. second pair of rolls following the first-named rolls. a third pair of rolls, a sheet deflector pivotally supported at one end adjacent to the second pair of rolls, and operable transversely of the path of travel of the sheets, to direct certain sheets to the third pair of rolls, a feeler device operated through radial movement of said movable rolls, means controlled by the feeler device for actuating the deflector, and a timing device controlled by operation of the feeler, for delaying movement of the deflector in one direction for a period of time required for a sheet to travel from the first pair of rolls to the third pair of rolls, the distance between the first pair of rolls and the third pair of rolls being greater than the length of the sheets to be sorted, and the distance between the first and second pair of rolls and the second and third pair of rolls each being less than the length of the sheetsto be sorted.

3-. Sheet-sorting apparatus comprising a tiltable deflector having one end movable trans versely of a given path of travel for sheets, means for advancing the sheets to be sorted across said deflector toward the movable end thereof, a pair of sheet-receiving rolls for receiving deflected sheets from said deflector,a feeler device actuated during movement of an abnormal sheet past a point spaced from said rolls a distance greater than the length of the sheet, for actuating the deflector, and a timing device initiated by actuation of said feeler device for maintaining said deflector in sheet-deflecting position until the leading edge of said abnormal sheet enters between said rolls.

4. Sheet-sorting apparatus comprising a tiltable deflector having one end movable transversely of a given path of travel for sheets, means for advancing sheets to be sorted across said deflector toward the movable end thereof, a pair until the leading edge of said abnormalsheet.

enters between said rolls, and means controlled by said timing device, for moving said deflector in the opposite direction during movement of said abnormal sheet betwen said rolls.

5. Sheet-sorting apparatus comprising a tiltable deflector having one end movable transversely of a given path of travel for sheets, means for advancing sheets to be sorted across said deflector toward the movable end thereof, means for receiving sheets of abnormal thickness from said deflector in its sheet-deflecting position, for continued movement in another path of travel, a feeler device spaced from said sheet-receiving means a distance greater than the length of the sheets, and actuated by abnormal thickness of a sheet at any point thereof, means operable immediately upon actuation of said feeler device for tilting said deflector to sheet-deflecting position, means for moving said deflector in the opposite direction, and means controlled by said feeler device for rendering said moving means ineffective to move said deflector until said abnormal sheet reaches said sheet-receiving means.

' PERCY E. HUNTER. LOUIS E. ENDsLEY.