US3032338A - Sheet feeders - Google Patents

Description

y 1962 A. ANDERSON ET AL 3,032,338

SHEET FEEDERS Filed June 19, 1958 I uventbrs Alfred Anderson Eugene A -Anderson fiww l' 52' JIM A-H'Orneys Filed June 19, 1958, Set. No. 743,169 2 Claims. (Cl. 271-36) This invention relates to article or sheet feeders and particularly to feeders of the kind used in feeding carton blanks, folded cartons and sheets and the like to printing presses.

Sheet feeders of the aforesaid character have been made and widely used in a form wherein sheets, cartons or the like are stacked in a hopper and are fed one by one from the top of the stack to the printing machine that is associated with sheet feeder. Such feeders are often known as top feed or friction type feeders, and while such feeders are in a broad sense made in many different forms, illustrative examples are found in Alfred Anderson Patent No. 2,696,983, patented December 14, 1954 and Alfred Anderson Patent No. 2,733,919, patented February 7, 1956.

The primary use of friction feeders of this general type is in feeding sheets one by one from asingle stack thereof mounted in the hopper, but in certain instances, it is desired to print upon narrow sheets that may be fed lengthwise from two separate stacks that are located in a side by side relationship in the hopper. With such arrangement, the sheets from the two stacks are separated from the stacks by separating rollers and the sheets thus separated are advanced at the same time into engagement with the pull out rolls of the sheet feeder so that they may then be advanced in unison to the printing machine. The leading edges of the two sheets reach the pick up rolls at the same time, and in their further movement such leading edges reach the printing machine at the same time.

In the use of prior top feed sheet feeders for simultaneous feeding of two sheets, it has been found necessary that such sheets in the two stacks be of the same length, for otherwise the conventional sheet feeders will not separate and feed satisfactorily.

In view of the foregoing it is the primary object of the present invention to enable sheet feeders of the aforesaid kind to separate and feed satisfactorily from two stacks of sheets that are of different lengths in the respective stacks, and a further and related object of the invention is to enable such simultaneous feeding of sheets of different lengths to be attained through the use of a structure that is extremely simple and inexpensive in character.

Other and further objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and claims, and are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, which, by way of illustration, show a preferred embodiment of the present invention and the principles thereof, and what is now considered to be the best mode in which to apply these principles. Other embodiments of the invention embodying the same or equivalent principles may be used and structural changes may be made as desired by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a top feed type of feeder equipped under the present invention for feeding sheets of different lengths simultaneously from separated stacks thereof;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are vertical sectional views taken substantially along the lines 22 and 33, respectively, of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the structure shown in FIG. 1;

3,032,338 Patented May 1, 1962 FIG. 5 is an end view of one of the separating rolls; and

FIG. 6 is a vertical sectional view through the separating roll of FIG. 5.

For purposes of disclosure the invention is illustrated herein as embodied in a sheet feeder 20 that is associated with a printing machine 21 so that the sheet feeder may operate to separate articles such as carton blanks or sheets from stacks thereof in the sheet feeder so as to feed such sheets in succession to the printing machine 21. The sheet feeder 20 in most respects is basically like that shown in the aforesaid Anderson patents, and reference is made specifically to such patents for details of structure and operation. Thus the sheet feeder 20 has a hopper 22 that slopes downwardly toward a discharge end, and upon which hopper division or side walls 23 may be adjustably mounted for holding stacks of sheets S in position in the hopper. Under the present invention provision is made for feeding from two separate areas in which stacks of sheets may be located. In the present instance the invention is concerned with the feeding of sheets of different lengths, and in the left hand stacking area shown in FIG. 1, a stack of relatively short sheets S-i has been illustrated, while in the right hand stacking area a stack of relatively long sheets S-2 has been illustrated.

As shown in the aforesaid Anderson patents, the top sheet of a stack is separated from the stack and is advanced in a forward direction out of the discharge end of the hopper 22 by means including an intermittently operated separating roll which engages the top of the top sheet, and which cooperates with a stationary retard roll 25 that is located beneath the separating roll. The separating roll, as shown in the Anderson patents, is mounted on an intermittently actuated separating shaft 26 which is driven intermittently in a separating direction by means including a rock shaft 28. The rock shaft 28 carries an operating pawl 29 that acts on -a ratchet wheel 30, and as herein shown the ratchet wheel 30 is connected to a gear 31 and through gears 31A to the separating shaft 26.

In the present instance, cooperating sets of separating rolls and retard rolls are provided opposite each of the stacks of sheets, and the left hand separating roll is indicated as R-1 while the right hand separating roll is identified as R2. The separating rolls R-1 and R-2 are mounted on the separating shaft 26, and under the present invention these separating rolls are actuated in unison in a separating direction when the separating shaft 26 is actuated, and the connection between the roll R-2 and the separating shaft 26 is such that the roll R-2 has an overrunning action so that it may rotate in a separating direction with respect to the shaft 26 as will be described in some detail hereinafter. This arrangement permits the withdrawing movement of the long sheets S-2 to be completed without disturbing or inducing an undesired sheet separating action in respect to the sheets S-1.

Thus, as will be evident in FIGS. 2 and 3, the sheets that are separated by the rolls R-1 and R-2 are advanced into pull-out rolls 32 that are constantly driven, as described in said Anderson patents, so that when the actuation of the separating shaft 36 has been terminated, the leading edges of the sheets will have been engaged by the pull-out rolls 32 and the advancing movement of the sheets will be continued so as to deliver the sheet to the feed belts 33 which complete the movement of the sheets to the printing machine 21.

In FIG. 2 of the drawings, the top sheet S-l has been advanced by the pull-out rolls 32 to such an extent that the trailing edge of the sheet is out of contact with the separating roll R1, and the pull-out rolls 32 are functioning to continue the advancing movement of this sheet. When the trailing edge of sheet S1 has moved out of engagement with the roll R-l, rotative movement of the roll R-1 would normally stop, but it is to be noted that such rotative movement of the roll R-l does continue so long as the sheet S-l remains in engagement with the roll R-l.

Now as to the longer sheet S42, attention is directed to FIG. 3 of the, drawings where the sheet 8-2 is shown as being advanced in the same lineal amount as the sheet S1 that is shown in FIG. 2, but the trailing edge portions of the sheet 8-2 is at this time still in engagement with the roll R2 and is imparting rotative movement to the roll R-2.

Such rotation of the roll R2 will continue until the trailing edge of the sheet 8-2 has passed out of contact with respect to the roll R-2. It is this continued action of the longer sheet 8-2 in producing rotative movement of the roll R-2 that has heretofore made it impossible to satisfactorily feed sheets of different lengths at the same time in feeders of this general type, and we have discovered that this difficulty may be avoided by providing for an overrunning connection between the shaft 26 and the roll R2. Thus, as shown particularly in FIG. of the drawing, the roll R-Z has a central hub 35 that is adapted to be fixed by a set screw 126A to the shaft 26, and the roll has an outer annular member 36 that is rub- 'ber covered as at 37, and the member 36 surrounds a portion of the hub 35 and has a plurality of movable clutch elements 38 that act between the member 38 and the member 36 to drive the member 36 in one direction, and yet allow overrunning of the member 36 in said direction when this is required. The clutch that is thus provided is of the quick pickup type so that when the shaft 26 is advanced in its forward or separating direction, the rolls R-1 and R-Z will be actuated in unison to feed sheets S-1 and S-2 at the same, time.

In the present embodiment of the invention, the overrunning clutch connection has been illustrated in association with but one of the rolls R.-1 and R2, the other roll R-l being secured directly to the shaft by a set screw 126 and with this arrangement the longer sheets S2 must in every instance be disposed in the hopper opposite the rollers R-2. If desired, however, the roller R-1 may have the same overrunning clutch as the rolls R-2, and in such instances the long sheets may be disposed in position opposite either of the separating rollers.

From the foregoing description it will be evident that the present invention provides for simultaneous feeding of long sheets and short. sheets from the hopper of a friction feed sheet feeder, and it will also be evident that this feeding operation under the present invention is accomplished without danger of false or undesired feeding of sheets from the stack of short sheets.

Thus, while we have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of our invention it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the appending claims.

We claim:

1. In a sheet feeder having a two compartment hopper in which sheets of different lengths may be stacked, separating means for separating the top sheets from the respective stacks and initiating endwise movement of such top sheets out of the hopper, constantly driven pull out means to which such top sheets are advanced and which are then operable to complete the Withdrawal of the sheets from the hopper, said separating means comprising two sets of cooperating separating rolls and nonrotative retard rolls with the sets disposed in operative relation to the respective compartments of the hopper, a separator shaft upon which the separating rolls are mounted, a one-way ratchet drive for intermittently driving said shaft in a separating direction, connecting means for driving said separating rolls in unison with said separating shaft in a separating direction, the connecting means for at least one of said separating rolls being in the form of a one-way drive clutch.

2. A sheet feeder for simultaneously feeding sheets having different lengths, said sheet feeder having a hopper with a discharge end, compartment means for locating sheets of different lengths in separate stacks in said hopper, a separator shaft extending across said discharge end and having a one-way ratchet drive whereby the shaft is intermittently rotated in a separating direction, constantly driven pull out rolls into which sheets are fed from the discharge end of the hopper, sets of cooperating separating rolls and non-rotative retard rolls disposed in spaced relation at the discharge end of the hopper opposite the respective compartment means with the separating rolls mounted on and connected to the shaft for drive in unison by the shaft in said separating direction, the separating roll located opposite one of said compartment means being connected to the shaft for free rotation relative to the shaft in said separating direction to enable the pull-out rolls to complete their pull out action with respect to a blank without imparting rotation to the other separating roll.

References ited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 856,347 Iahn June 11, 1907 2,093,384 Storck et al. Sept. 14, 1937 2,138,682 Storck Nov. 29, 1938 2,224,137 Breman et al. Dec. 10, 1940 2,255,777 Jones Sept. 16, 1941 2,359,856 Morse Oct. 10, 1944 2,518,221 Camphouse Aug. 8, 1950 2,569,387 Robinson Sept. 25, 1951 2,665,906 Johnson Jan. 12, 1954 2,670,954 Bach Mar. 2, 1954 2,734,743 Spurlino et a1 Feb. 14, 1956

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