US2752152A - Sheet-transporting apparatus - Google Patents

Description

June 26, 1956 P. G. SCHLEMMER SHEET-TRANSPORTING APPARATUS 4 Shets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 12, 1954 I INVENTOR p a scmemw ORNEY June 6, 1956 P. G. SCHLEMMER SHEET-TRANSPORTING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 12, 1954 INVENTOR 7 B61 Jc zlemmer ATT EY June 26, 1956 P. G. SCHLEMMER SHEET-TRANSPORTING APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Feb. 12, 1954 INVENTOR R, $AZmmer BY ATTORNE/ r a :85 K: s 3 .3 .5 :3 5 .9 R: 5 m m P. e. SCHLEMMER 2,752,152

SHEET-TRANSPORTING APPARATUS June 26, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed Feb. 12, 1954 INVENTOR 7 h3g1 A RNEY r v 2,752,152 [Ce Patented June 26, 1956 SHEET-TRANSPORTING APPARATUS Philip G. Schlemmer, Nanuet, N. Y., assignor to National Equipment Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application February 12, 1954, Serial No. 409,983

6 Claims. (Cl. 271-50) This invention relates to sheet-feeding or transporting devices, and more particularly to a device in which sheet material sections, as are usually severed from a roll of sheet material, are successively conveyed to a position where the same are to be wrapped about boxes or other objects intended to be enclosed by the sheet material sections.

In certain types of box-wrapping machines, and particularly those in which sheets of cellophane or other sheet material of thin paper or of materials of similar characteristics, are wrapped about boxes, the sheet material is usually drawn from a supply roll; is out 011 into lengths or sheets of a required size to fit the boxes to be wrapped, and the sheets are successively moved or conveyed to a point above the boxes, which are carried upward on elevating means to enable the sheets to be folded about them. In my copending application Serial No. 404,430,

filed January 18, 1954, is shown a mechanism by which sheet material drawn from a supply roll is severed into sheets of required size. The present invention contemplates the provision of transport means by which such sheets are successively carried away from the cutting means and are brought to the wrapping station.

It is an object of the present invention to provide sheettransport means which will positively move each sheet to wrapping position after the sheet is cut off from its supply roll. It is another object of the invention to provide transport means which will retain the sheets flatly and smoothly during transport and present the sheets in such flat formation to the boxes as the boxes are elevated into the initial wrapping position.

It is another object of the invention to provide means by which sheets of various lengths can be accurately carried to wrapping position, and to provide simple adjustment means compensating for sheets of different widths.

It is another object of the invention to provide simplified means by which sheets of different length will be transported for the required distance to properly position such sheets relatively to the boxes to be wrapped, and to provide means by which the sheet-transporting mechanism can be adjusted to thereby enable the difierentlysized sheets to be moved for the required distance to enable them to be properly wrapped about the boxes. It is a further object of the invention to provide a simplified adjustment means by which the transporting means will receive and convey sheets of diiferent widths.

With these objects, and other objects to be hereinafter set forth in view, I have devised the arrangement of parts to be described and more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein an illustrative embodiment of the invention is disclosed,

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of portions of a boxwrapping machine, which portions are those to which the present invention relates;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view, taken substantially on the line 22 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view, taken substantially on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, and

Fig. 4 is a top plan view of that portion of the boxwrapping machine to which the present invention relates.

Referring to the drawings, the side members of the frame of the machine are respectively generally indicated at 1 and 2, it being understood that these frame members are suitably connected and braced in the known manner, one of such braces being indicated at 110 in Figs. 2 and 3. Rotatably mounted in suitable hearings in the frame memhers I and 2 is a cam shaft 12 which carries a sprocket 9 driven by a chain 7 extending from a sprocket on the shaft of an electric motor not shown but suitably supported in the lower or base portion of the machine.

Secured on the shaft 12 is a cam 13 upon which is mounted an adjustable segment 14, arranged by its rotation and setting relatively to the cam 13, to alter the peripheral cam surface that is presented to a cam roller 16 rotatively carried on a lever 17 and held against the cam by the spring 25, attached at one end to the pin 26 and at the other end to the pin 27. An arcuate slot 15 formed in the cam segment 14 co-operates with a setting knob 15 to enable the segment 14 to be suitably shifted to secure the desired effects to be shortly described.

The lever 17 has one end pivoted at 18 on a vertical member 19 of the frame, and the opposite end of the lever 17 is pivoted at 20 to a universal coupling 21 pivotally connected to the lower end of an adjustable rod 22 which has its upper end pivotally connected at 30 to the end of an arm 31 secured on and extending radially from a shaft 32 capable of rocking movement in bearings 33 and 34 fastened to the horizontal frame member 35. Secured on the shaft 12 is a hand-wheel 36, omitted from Fig. 1 to more clearly show the cams 13 and 14, but seen in Figs. 3 and 4. Said hand-wheel 36 permits manual rotative movement of the shaft 12 when desired to manually adjust the mechanism.

Secured adjacent to one end of the rocking shaft 32 is an arm 37 and secured at the opposite end of shaft 32 is another arm indicated at 38, these arms being connected at the top by a cross-rod 39. A link 40 (Fig. 2) extends from the cross-rod 39 and is pivotally connected at its opposite end at 45 to one of the transport racks indicated at 41. A second link shown at 42 (Fig. 3) and extending from a branch of arm 38, is pivotally connected at 44 to a second transport rack indicated at 43. Each of the racks is in the form of an elongated frame and consists of a pair of spaced bars 46 and 47, between which is mounted a plurality of freely-rotatable rollers 48. The rack shown at 43 is suspended adjacent to its opposite ends on links indicated respectively at 49 and 50, the link shown at 49 having its upper end pivotally attached at 51 to a bracket 52 (Fig. 1). The link 50 has its upper end pivotally attached to a bracket located adjacent to the opposite end of the rack 43. Both of these brackets are part of a carriage permitting the transport rack 43 to be adjusted to or from the transport rack shown at 41 to compensate for the different widths of the sheets to be transported by the apparatus.

The rack indicated at 41 is suspended on the links and 71 (Fig. 2), the link shown at 70 having its upper end pivoted at 72 in a bracket 73 fixedly mounted in the frame of the machine. Similarly, the link indicated at 71 has its upper end pivoted at 74 in a bracket 75 mounted on the frame. p 7

Located below each of the transport racks 41 and 43 is an endless, continuously-driven conveyor chain. That which is located below the rack 41 is indicated at 55, while that located below the transport rack 43 is indicated at 56. For simplicity in illustration, these chains and the sprockets over which the same travel are diagrammatically illustrated in dotted lines in Figs. 2 and 3. It will be therein notedthat each of the chains 55 and 56 extends at one end around a sprocket 57 secured on the shaft 58 which iseontinuously driven'by a chain 59 extending from a suitable drive shaft and extending over the sprocket 50 secured on the shaft 58. At the opposite end of its stretch each of the chains 55 and 56 extends about a sprocket 6-1 and between the sprockets 57 and 61 are located idlers 62 and 63 to maintain the chains taut.

, With the arrangement thus far described, the sheets of cellophane or the like to be transported, enter from the right, as viewed in Figs, 2, 3 and 4 to position on top of the chains 55 and 56 and below the transport racks 41 and 43 located above the chains. As long as the transport racks 41 and 43 are held in elevated or raised position by the action of the cams 13, 14 on the roller 16, there will be no conveying movement of the sheets toward the left since the continuously movable chains will freely move along beneath the sheets, leaving the sheets remaining stationary. When it is desired to transport the sheets, the racks 41 and 43 are lowered and when lowered, their rollers, 48 will exert sufficient pressure along the marginal edgeportions of the sheets to thereby force these portions of the sheets into firin contact with the chains so that the chains will then move the sheet thus held, toward the left, and will continue this feed or transport of the sheet as long as the sheet is held down on the chains by the pressure of the rollers 48 of the racks. When the racks areraised or elevated, it is apparent that the transporting of the sheet will cease and when this occurs, it is desirable that the sheet shall halt at the required predetermined position above the box to be wrapped. This halting effect is attained by means of stop members indicated respectively at 65 and 66 in Fig. 4.

To insure the halt of sheets of various lengths at the required wrapping position, it is desirable that these stops 65 and 66 be easily adjustable to thereby locate them at the required position to engage against the forward edge of each sheet and halt that sheet. The means for adjusting the stops will now be described. At 24 32 pivotally joined at 83 to one end of a link 84 secured on shaft 85. A bar 36 extends from the shaft 85, and is connected at 87'to'the sheet-stop 66. This arrangement is such that by rotation of the crank 24, the stop 66 can be moved to position it in the selected position to cause halt of each sheet at the required point. At its opposite end, the shaft 85 is attached to a bar 88 that attaches to the sheet=stop 65, so that this stop is adjusted simultaneously and coextensively with the adjustment of the stop 66.

It will be obvious from the structure just described that by turning the crank 24 in the required direction the sheet- stops 65 and 66 can be moved toward or away from the sheet-entering end of the transporting means and thus, upon the elevation of the transport racks and the cessation of frictional pressure by the rollers 43 upon the sheet then disposed between said rollers and the chains 55 and 56, the stops will halt the forward travel of the 'sheet and locate it at the'pr'ecise point desired to enclose a box of given size.

In order to compensate for differences in widths of the sheets to be transported, the transport rack 41 and parts associated therewith are arranged for adjusting movement toward or away from the companion rack 43. This adjusting movement (if the rack 41 is attained 'by means of the handwheel indicated at 10, and having the projecting handle 11. The wheel 10 is secured on a cross-shaft 90 mounted for rotation in suitable bearings 91 and '92 in the frame members 1 and 2 respectively. Shaft 90 carries gears 93 and 94 meshing with toothed racks 95 and 96 carried by a carriage 97 guided upon guide rods indicated at 93 and 99. This carriage includes the supporting brackets for the transport rack 41 and elements associated therewith, such as the conveyor chain 55 and the sprockets and idlers over which the same extends. The arrangement is such that by manual rotative movement of the Wheel 10 the transport rack 41 and chain 55 co-operating therewith will be moved toward or away from the rack 43 and thus the sheets of varying widths can be accommodated.

From the foregoing the operation of the sheet-feeding apparatus will be understood. The boxes or other articles to be wrapped are moved along in a direction trans verse to the direction of feed of the sheets, said boxes being transported by a suitable belt shown at the position diagrammatically illustrated at 100 in Fig. 2, until each box reaches an elevator, not shown herein, but which raises the box to bring it against the sheet that has been positioned above it by the herein-described sheetfeeding means, to begin the folding operation. As the boxes proceed toward the Wrapping station they are held down on the belt 100 by an adjustable pressure plate indicated at 101, which is adjustable to accommodate plates of varying heights by means of the adjustment means shown at 102 and 103. a

The sheets to be wrapped about the boxes as the boxes are successively raised by the elevating means, are received from cutting means, and enter at the right in Figs. 2 and 3, to position on top of the conveyor chains 55 and 56, and beneath the rollers 48 of the transport racks .41 and 43. At the entrance point above described, each of the racks is provided with a roller 165 (Fig. 2) carried on a pivoted plate 106, and these rollers 105 engage the end of the sheet before it is cut from the roll and keep it on the chains in proper alignment before the rollers 48 of the racks contact with the sheet. The rollers 105 may be under spring tension if found desirable.

As long as the racks 4-1 and 43 are in their lowered positions, the rollers 48 thereof will press the sheet firmly against the chains 55 and 56 and the sheet will be transported toward the left and to the point where it will con tact the stops 65 and 66. Just prior to this pointthe cam 13, 14 willcause the racks 41 and 43 to be elevated; pressure of the rollers 38 thereof on the sheet Will be ceased and the sheet will be stopped at the stops 65 and 66 and in the correct position to be wrapped about the box when the box isielevated from below the positioned'sheet. By means of the mechanism described, the sheets are accurately fed to wrapping position, while held smooth and Wrinklefree between the racks and will be thus presented flatly and without sag to the box as the box is carried upwardly in the first wrapping step. The adjusting means described permits adjustment for the length and width of the transported sheets and thus by the simple adjustment means described the apparatus may be quickly arranged for the transport of sheets of the required size to fit the boxes to be wrapped. I

Having described a single embodiment of the invention, it is obvious that the same is not to be restricted thereto, but is broad enough to cover all structures coming within the scope of the annexed claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an apparatus for moving sections of sheet mate'- rial, a continuously moving, endless-chain conveyor on which the sheets are. successively received for transport, a roller-carrying frame mountedabove the chain andhaving controlled movement to and from the chain, said frame carrying a plurality of closely-spaced rollers for contact with a substantial portion of the length of the chain the rollers borne by said frame holding opposite marginal edge portions of the sheets in contact with the chain for a substantial portion of their length and while the frame is in its lowered position to thereby cause the sheets to be engaged for a substantial portion of their length and transported by the chain, means for moving the frame to and from the chain and for controlling the periods of time during which the frame is in its lowered position to thereby regulate the distance of feed of each sheet, and stop means for limiting the extent of feed of each sheet.

2. In an apparatus for moving sheets of cellophane or like sheet material, an endless-chain conveyor on top of which the sheets are received, a lengthy roller-carrying frame located above the chain and carrying a row of closely-spaced rollers and movable to cause its rollers to simultaneously exert downward pressure on a marginal edge portion only of a sheet on the chain and thereby hold said portion of the sheet in contact with the chain and cause the chain to convey the sheet, means for controlling the period of time that the rollers so engage each sheet to thereby regulate the distance of transport of each sheet, and stop means for limiting the distance of travel of each sheet.

3. An apparatus for transporting thin, paper-like sheets comprising, a pair of spaced endless chains on which the sheets are supported adjacent to their opposite edges, racks located above the chains, each rack carrying a plurality of rollers adapted to be brought into simultaneous contact with a substantial portion of the length of the chain below them when the rack is lowered, means for raising and lowering the racks simultaneously, means by which one rack and the chain co-operating therewith can be adjusted to or from the second rack and its chain, stops for limiting the forward travel of each sheet, and means by which the stops may be adjusted to determine the limits of travel of sheets of various lengths.

4. An apparatus for transporting thin, paper-like sheets comprising, a pair of spaced endless parallel chains on which the sheets are supported adjacent to their opposite edges, elongated racks located above the chains, each rack carrying a plurality of aligned closely-spaced rollers having peripheries disposed below the rack and adapted to be brought into contact with the chain below them when the rack is lowered, means for raising and lowering the racks simultaneously, means by which one rack and the chain co-operating therewith can be adjusted to or from the second rack and its chain, movable stops for limiting the forward travel of each sheet, and means by which the stops may be adjusted to rest in various predetermined positions to thereby determine the limits of travel of sheets of various lengths.

5. An apparatus for transporting sheets including an endless chain, a rack in the form of an elongated frame positioned above and movably mounted for movement to or from the chain, rotatable means carried by the rack and adapted to hold a portion of a sheet against the chain when the rack is lowered to thereby cause the chain to transport the sheet, means for raising and lowering the rack, an adjustable cam for controlling said rack-raising and lowering means and determining the period of time that the rack will remain lowered, a stop for determining the position of rest of the sheets carried by the chains, and means for adjusting the position of said stop.

6. In an apparatus for moving thin, flexible sheets having the characteristics of Cellophane, a pair of spaced, endless chain conveyors over which the sheets are positioned, an elongated frame mounted over each chain and movable to and from the same, each frame carrying a plurality of closely-spaced rollers overlying a lengthy stretch of the chain for contact with the chain when the frame is in a lowered position, means for moving the frame to and from the chain to thereby simultaneously bring all of its rollers either in contact with the chain or spaced therefrom, means for regulating the period of time that each frame is in a lowered position to thereby control the extent of feed of each sheet by the chains, stops against which the forward end of each sheet abuts to thereby position said sheet at a Wrapping station, means for adjusting the position of said stops, and means for moving one of the chains to or from the other chain and frame to thereby determine the spacing between the chains for adjustment to sheets of diflerent widths.

References Cited in the file of this patent UN T ED STATES PATENTS 867,778 Ames Oct. 8, 1907 1,167,653 Nielsen Ian. 11, 1916 1,615,590 Low Jan. 25, 1927 1,979,253 Coy Nov. 6, 1934 2,191,597 Spiess Feb. 27, 1940 2,359,852 Morse Oct. 10, 1944

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