US2807463A - Reproducing-and-folding apparatus - Google Patents

Description

W. P. SMITH REPRODUCING-AND-FOLDING APPARATUS Sept. 24, 1957 Filed Feb. 5, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. W/LL/IRD A SM/T/l ATTORNEYS Sept. 24, 1957 w. P. SMITH REPRODUCING-AND-FOLDING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 5, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORAZYS' Sept. 24, 1957 w. P. SMITH REPRODUCING-AND-FOLDING APPARATUS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 5, 1954 INVENTOR. MLm/eo SM/m ATTORNEYJ United States Patent i '3 2,807,463 REPRODUCING-AND-FOLDING APPARATUS Willard P. Smith, Boston, Mass., assignor of one-half to Frederick F. Mosley, Stoneham, Mass.

The present invention relates to methods of and ap paratus for reproducing and folding sheet material, and, more particularly, to apparatus of the drum-reproducing type, such as mimeographs.

Many types of printing machines are adapted to feed a large web, once printed, to a folder apparatus where the web may be folded. Such machines, however, are not suitable for use with individual relatively small-size sheets of paper and the like such as, for example, standard ofiice-size stock customarily utilized in mimeographing and similar reproducing apparatus. While machines have heretofore been proposed for printing and folding individual relatively small-size cards, tickets and the like, they usually involved several operational steps on the part of the operator and they are not adapted for the high speeds essential in mimeographing and like 'operations. It has accordingly heretofore been the practice in such mimeographing and like operations, first, -to stack the mimeographed or otherwise reproduced sheets, and then to feed them by hand or otherwise, one-by-one, to a separate folding machine for folding. This procedure,-

however, is quite timeconsuming and inefiicient. In addition, it requires special handling and is dependent upon the skill of the operator.

An object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved method of and apparatus for automatically reproducing and folding that is particularly adapted for use with individual small-size sheets.

An additional object is to provide a new and improved method of the character described that may be practiced with the aid of a wide variety of different types of reproducing and folding apparatus.

A further object is to provide a method and apparatus of this character that is operable at the high speeds used in mimeographing and similar reproducing processes. In accordance with the present invention, this end is attained by releasing the mimeographed or otherwise marked sheet while it is in high-speed motion so that it may travel unrestrained beyond the reproducer. travels by its momentum along a predetermined direction and it is then automatically received and folded.

Other and further objects will be explained hereinafter and will be more particularly pointed out in the appended claims. I H

The invention will now be described in connection with the accompanying drawings, A 3

Fig. 1 of which is a perspective view of a' pi'efe rre apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention;

Figs. 2 and 3 are similar views illustrating successive positions of operation of the apparatus of Fig. 1;

Figs. 4 and 7 are sections, upon anenl-arged scale, taken upon the respective lines 4--4- and 77 of Fig. 2, looking in the direction of the arrows; and

Figs. 5 and 6 are similar fragmentary views upon still a larger scale of a detail.

A reproducer of the drum-reproducing type is shown The released sheet- Patented Sept. 24, 1957 at 3 provided with an ink stencil 7 that is mounted about the surface of the drum. The drum 3 is rotated by a hand crank 5 that rotates a gear 23, Fig. 7, driving a further gear 21. The gear 21 is mounted upon an axle 40, supported between side mounting plates 49, about which the drum 3 revolves. If desired, of course, the crank 5 may be connected with automatic driving means, as is well known. Clockwise rotation of the crank 5 causes the drum 3 carrying the ink stencil 7 to rotate in the direction of the arrow in Figs. 1 to 3. A sheet-feeding device 4, later more fully described, pushes the top sheet 1 of a stack of sheets 2 to be reproduced toward a platform 6 above which the drum 3 is mounted. The stack of sheets 2 may be contained within a frame 8 upon an automatically elevating platform, not shown, as is well known. The head or front end of the top sheet 1 of the stack of sheets 2 is engaged on its upper side by the drum 3 and on its lower side by a roller 9 disposed at a predetermined point 11 at the bottom of the drum 3. This engagement of the head of the sheet 1 on its opposite sides is simultaneously accompanied by engagement of the sheet with the ink stencil 7 and by movement of the sheet 1, in response to rotation of the drum 3, beyond the predetermined point 11, to the right of the machine, as viewed in Figs. 1 to 3, and to the left, as viewed in Fig. 7. beyond the point 11 by the rotation of the crank 5, the sheet 1 having been marked by the ink stencil 7 during such movement. The momentum imparted to the sheet 1 permits it to travel unrestrained beyond the drum 3, to the right in Fig. 2. The next sheet 1 on top of the stack 2 is then received between the drum 3 and the roller 9 to be similarly acted upon.

vIn accordance with the present invention, the released sheet 1'is permitted to travel by its momentum, unrestrained, into a properly positioned chute 13, 14 of a folder apparatus 12. A further guide 15, preferably ofcardboard or similar material, may be disposed along the vides a continuous surface for directing the released sheets the path of travel of the sheets. A further shield or guide wall 17 may be provided along the chute 13 to prevent lateral misalignment of the sheet as it travels by its momentum, un'restrained, into the folder 12.

By arranging the folder 12 and its chute '13, 14 in the proper direction and at the appropriate distance from the predetermined point '11 at the bottom of the drum 3,- and preferably providing the appropriate guide 15, each sheet 3 1, as it is mimeographed, is automatically fed toward'the folder 12 and travels by its momentum, unrestrained, into the folder 12, where it may be automatically folded. This method of operation thus obviates the long-standing difliculties attendant upon stacking mimeographed sheets and then feeding them by hand or otherwise, one-by-one, into i a separate folding machine, as previously set forth. The j present invention, moreover, eliminates the necessity for several operational steps that are inherent in other types] I By the single movement of the crank 5, and with no auxiliary apparatus,

of combined printing and folding machines.

the present invention provides that the reproducing step also effects the necessary directing step that insures that In Fig. 2, the sheet 1 has been moved completely the reproduced material automatically feeds to the folder where it may thereupon become automatically folded.

The invention, therefore does not require the use of any particular type of reproducing or mimeographing apparatus, nor, of any particular type .of folding apparatus, sincetthe invention may be practiced with any of a host of different types of apparatus of this character, just so long as the reproducing and folding apparatus are placed in the above-described relative positions so that the sheet, after it has been reproduced, travels unrestrained into the folder apparatus.

For purposes of illustration, however, a preferred mimeographed reproducer having a particular type of driving mechanism and a particular preferred type of folder apparatus will now be explained. Referring to Fig. 7, the mimeograph apparatus may be provided with an automatic sheet-feeding mechanism. An arm 39 of this mechanism may be pivoted about an axis 51 at the base of the machine on one side of the stack of sheets 2, and may extend upward to link at 41 with a link arm 43 that, in turn, may operate the before-mentioned feeding device 4 through a pivot 50. At an intermediate point 37 of the arm 39, a rocker arm 35 is linked. The rocker arm 3S eccentrically drives a gear 31 through a link 33 in order to rotate the gear 31 in the direction of the arrow thereupon. Through back and forth oscillations of the arm 39 about the axis 51, therefore, the paper-feeding device 4 is oscillated back and forth to feed the top sheet 1 of the stack 2 to the mimeograph apparatus platform 6 and be tween :the drum 3 and the roller 9. The gear 31 may, in turn, be driven through successively engaging gears 29, 27,25 and 23, the axles of which may be supported in a frame 10. The sheet-feeding device 4 thus moves back and forth upon the stack of sheets 2 as the gear 23 is driven by the hand crank 5 that also rotates the drum 3, as before explained. In order to provide, however, that the sheetfeeding device 4 apply pressure to the top sheet 1 of the stack of sheets, 2 when moved toward the mimeographing apparatus in the direction shown by the horizontal arrow in.Fig. 7, and in the opposite direction in Figs. 1 to 3, thereby to push the top sheet 1 toward the drum 3, an arm 45 is provided pivoted at. 47 to a standard 42 that is secured to one side of the machine. A leaf spring 149 is secured to a .stud 44 upon the standard 42 and the spring 149 bears against the pivotal connection 47 with the arm 45. This causes a terminal projection 46 at the free end of the arm 45 to ride against the underside of the link arm 43. In the position shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the projection 46 bears upon the portion of the link arm 43 close to the pivot 41,1thus applying relatively little upward leverage against the link arm 43 and permitting the sheet-feeding device 4 to rest rather heavily upon the top sheet 1 of the stack of sheets 2 in order to provide for feeding the top sheet 1 to the reproducer 3. When the arm 39 oscillates away from the drum 3, to the right as shown in Fig. 7, and to the left, in Fig. 2, the projection 46 will bear upon portions of the link arm 43 closer to the pivot 50, thus applying greater upward force under the control of the spring 149. This causes the sheet-feeding device 4 to rise slightly above the top sheet 1 of the stack of sheets 2 so thatas it is returned over the stack of sheets 2 away from the drum 3, the feeding device 4 will not engage the top sheet 1.

The details of a preferred type of folding mechanism 12 are illustrated in Fig. 4. A pair of sheet-feeding rollers 121'and 123 are operated by a driving mechanism, not shown, to rotate in opposite directions as indicated by the arrows thereupon. The sheet 1 that has traveled from the drum 3 unrestrained directly into the chute 13, 14 is passed beween the rollers 121 and 123 and carried upward between a pair of somewhat curved guide members 133 until it strikes a stop .131 at which time the sheet 1 is buckled or folded, as shown at 1" in Fig. 5.

The buckled portion 1' of the sheet 1 is then fed downward between the roller 123 and a further roller 125, as more particularly shown in Figs. 4 and 6, between a pair of downwardly curving guides 135 until the sheet 1 strikes a further stop 129, at which time the sheet is again buckled or folded. The twice folded sheet is then fed between the roller 123 and still a further roller 127 out of the folder 12 along slightly downwardly inclined belts 19 traveling over a correspondingly inclined surface 119. The overlapped folded sheets may be removed as they are fed along the belts 19, or the leading folded sheet may be engaged by a terminal chute hook to permit the sheets to become stacked at a sharper angle with respect to the vertical. Further details of the folder 12 and the various driving mechanisms associated therewith are not illustrated and described in order to prevent detraction, by complication, from the essential features of novelty of the present invention, such further details being well known as described, for example, in United States Letters Patent No. 2,589,436, issued March 18, 1952, to F. J. Rouan ct al.

While, as before stated, the invention may be practiced with other types of reproducers and folders than the particular preferred types illustrated and described, a satisfactory arrangement employing the illustrated apparatus that is well adapted to mimeographing letterhead and legal-size sheets, may utilize the following adjustments. The chute 13, 14 of the folder 12 may be placed substantially in-line with the reproducer platform 6 with the forward edge of the side mounting plates 49 spaced about six inches from the outer edge of the chute 13. This may provide a distance of about twenty to twentythree inches, more or less, from the point 11, between the drum 3 and the roller 9, and the entrance 14 to the folder rollers 121 and 123. The momentum imparted to the sheet 1 as it is reproduced and directed toward the folder 12 may then carry the reproduced sheet directly to the rollers 121 and 123.

Modifications will occur to those skilled in the art and all such are considered to fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A reproducing-and-folding apparatus having, in combination, a reproducer provided with marking means, means for operating the reproducer to engage opposite sides of a sheet at a predetermined point with the sheet contacting the marking means and simultaneously to move the sheet as it is marked beyond the said point, the marked sheet being released by the reproducer just beyond the said point in order that it may travel beyond the said point unrestrained with a predetermined momentum, a guide disposedbeyond the said point and constituted of material to which the released traveling sheet tends to be elcctrostatically attracted for directing the travel of .the release sheet along a predeterntincd direction, and afolder provided witha chute positioned along the said predetermined direction and connected to the reproducer by the guide to receivethc released directed sheet before the dissipation of its m0- mentum and folding mechanism for folding the sheet.

2. A reproducing-and-folding apparatus as claimed in claim 1 and in which the said reproducer is a mimeograph apparatus and the said folder is provided with means for twice folding the sheet.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 588,487 Scott 1. Aug. 17, 1.897 1,243,032 Barr Oct. 16, 1917 1,617,782 Ahlquist Feb. 15, 1927 2,670,664 Heitrnann Mar. 2, 1954

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