US3113506A

US3113506A - Pile compressor

Info

Publication number: US3113506A
Application number: US91783A
Authority: US
Inventors: Harry W Faeber
Original assignee: Time Inc
Current assignee: TI Gotham Inc
Priority date: 1961-02-27
Filing date: 1961-02-27
Publication date: 1963-12-10
Anticipated expiration: 1980-12-10
Also published as: GB933257A

Description

Dec. 10, 1963 H. w. FAEBER' 3,113,506

PILE COMPRESSOR Filed Feb. 27, 1961 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 PRESSURE SWITCH INVEN TOR. HARRY W. FAEBER his ATTORNEYS Dec. 10, 1963 Filed Feb. 27, 1961 FIG 2 H. w. FAEBER 3,113,506

PILE COMPRESSOR s Sheets-Sheet 2 TIMED SWITCH INVENTOR. HARRY W. FAEBER Mai, Maw

his ATTORNEYS INVENTbR. HARRY w. FAEBER his ATTORNEYS Dec. 10, I963 H. w. FAEBER PILE COMPRESSOR 3 t w w w u & 4 Z 5 2 o m o 1 4/ .fi 4 o o 0 0 U 4 2 4\ W m H II w z 2 h n d h m trates York Filed Feb. 27, 1961, Ser. No. 91,7 83 6 Claims. (Cl. 100-53) This invention generally relates to the handling of materials and, more particularly, to apparatus for the compression of stacks or piles of items, such as, for example, folded sheets of newsprint or the like, in order to facilitate subsequent handling operations.

The invention finds particular application in the printing industry in which it is often necessary to compress a stack of newspapers or folded sheets of paper that are referred to generally as signatures. To elaborate, the top surface of an uncompressed stack or pile of signatures typically is not level; i.e., the side of the stack composed of the folded edges of the signatures is normally much higher than the opposite side. This is because the folded edge of a signature is appreciably thicker than the opposite edge where there is no fold. Thus, in order to facilitate stacking and also to facilitate subsequent handling operations, it is desirable that uncompressed stacks or piles of signatures be compressed to form compact bundles of signatures having substantially fiat top surfaces.

Although compression of a stack of signatures may be accomplished through the use of a single plate being brought to bear down on top of the stack, this has its consequent disadvantages. For example, if the curl of the stack of signatures is very great, i.e., if the side of the stack that is composed of the signature folds is much higher than the opposite side, then bringing a simple plate down on top of the stack in order to compress it may result in damaging the stack. That is, the curled up portions of the upper signatures of the stack may be crushed or folded over during the compression step with the result that a number of signatures will be unusable. In addition, when the plate comes into contact with the curled-up portion of the stack there may be a tendency for the upper signatures to slip relative to one another, thereby fanning out the upper signatures in the stack.

The present invention sucessfully avoids the disadvantages consequent to the use of a simple plate to compress a pile of signatures by employing in its place a multiple plate mechanism in which the plates act in sequence. For example, in the case of a double plate mechanism the plates are operated in a two step process. The first step -of this process may be characterized as holding and partial compressing; the second step as curl compress ing.

In the holding and partial compressing step, one of two plates is positioned against the portion of the top surface of the stack of signatures that corresponds to the non-curled portion of the stack, i.e., the portion that does not include the folded signature edges. Since this portion is substantially horizontal, the first plate comprises a horizontally positioned plate that is brought to bear down upon the associated surface of the stack with a given pressure, thus holding and partially compressing the stack.

When the first plate compresses the non-curled portion of the top surface of the stack with a predetermined amount of pressure, a pressure sensitive device actuates the movement of a second plate, thus to initiate the curl compressing step. The second plate is initially positioned substantially in parallel relation to the curled portion of the stack and is pivotally mounted with respect to an axis in the first plate. Accordingly, in the curl com- 3,ll3,5% Patented Dec. 10, 1963 pressing step the second plate is made to swing about the axis in the first plate, thus compressing the curled portion of the stack at all times in a direction perpendicular to the curled surface.

The second plate swings about the above-mentioned axis until it forms an angle of approximately with the first plate, i.e., until the first and second plates together form a single plane surface. Accordingly, both the first and second plates push the top of the stack downward to compress the stack.

In appraising the advantages of this invention, it should be particularly noted that, by the use of at least two plates, one of which is free to pivot about an axis in the other, the forces exerted against a pile of signatures at all points and at all times are substantially perpendicular thereto. In this fashion, the danger of mutilating signatures during a compression operation is easily and effectively eliminated.

Although the invention has been described above in. general terms, a better understanding of it may be obtained by consulting the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the appended drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side view of a preferred embodiment of the invention showing the compression of a stack of signatures;

FIGURE 2 is a partially cut-away side view of the embodiment of FIGURE 1 showing the positions of, various elements following the compression of a stack of signatures; and

FIGURE 3 is an end view of the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGURE 1 taken along the section 3-3 and viewed in the direction of the arrows.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, a series of stacks of signatures 11, both compressed and uncompressed, are shown positioned on conveyor belts 12 and 13. The

movement of the belts in conveying the stacks of signatures from right to left is controlled by a pair of chain drives 14 and 15, which dictate the movement, e.g., of a series of rollers 16 (see FIGURE 2) that support the belts. The chain drive 15 is driven from the chain drive 14, and the chain drive 14, in turn, is driven through a drive gear 17 through a reciprocating rack 65. The ,conveyor system operates intermittently to position the stacks of signatures one by one under a compressing unit 20, the movement of the conveyor belts taking place when the compressor is in a raised or noncompressing position, as in FIGURE 2. The intermittent action of the conveyor system will be explained later; sufiice to say, there is no movement of the stacks of signatures on the conveyor belts during the compression of a stack, as in FIGURE 1.

The compressing unit 20 is perhaps best illustrated in FIGURES 2 and 3. As shown in FIGURE 3, the entire unit is supported by two

cylindrical slides

21 and 22 that slide up and down on vertical rods 23 and 24-. The vertical movement of the supporting slides is controlled by the action of a piston rod 25 which is coupled to a horizontal tie bar 26 connecting the vertical slides at their lower portions. The movement of piston rod 25 is in turn controlled by an air cylinder 27.

As shown in FIGURES 1 and 2, air cylinder 27 has two pressure lines 30 and 3'1 coupled thereto. Each of the pressure lines is also coupled to a pressune-channeling device 32 that is under the control of both a spring 83 and a solenoid 34. When the solenoid is de energized, i.e., when its input terminal B is de-energized, the action of spring 33, which exerts an upward force, is controlling, and the pressure-channeling device 32 is pulled into its upper position. In this position, depicted in FIGURE 2, a source of pressure P is channeled to the lower pressure line 3-1 of air cylinder 27. As may be seen in the figure, the upper pressure line 30 of the air cylinder becomes an exhaust line.

When pressure is applied to the lower line 311, as when solenoid 34 is de-ene-rgized, piston rod 25 within the air cylinder is forced upward and retained against the top portion of the cylinder. Thus, as shown in FIGURE 2, the entire compressing unit is raised above the stacks of signatures and is in a non-compressing position.

In order to compress a stack of signatures, input terminal B of solenoid 34 is energized, as, e.g., by a source of potential, not shown, whose application is controlled by a switch '67 that is actuated by a portion 68 of rack 65. Terminal B of switch 67 corresponds to terminal B of solenoid 34, and thus, when the terminal is energized, i.e., when the rack 65 is in the position shown in FIG- URE .l, pressure-channeling device 32 is pulled downward into its lower position, as shown in the figure. In this position, the source of air pressure P is channeled into the upper pressure line '30 of air cylinder 27, and thus lower pressure line 31 serves as the exhaust line for the cylinder. When pressure is admitted into the upper pressure line 30, piston rod is forced to the bottom of the cylinder. In this fashion the entire compression unit 20 is lowered so that a horizontal plate 40 (best seen in FIGURE '1), connected to a cross bar 41 (best seen in FIGURE 3) that bridges the

slides

21 and 22, compresses a portion of the stack of signatures and also holds the stack. It should be noted that plate 40 compresses the non-curled portion of the stack of sigmatures. (See FIGURE 1.)

When plate 40 initially compresses the stack of signatures, a curl compressing plate 42, that is hinged about an axis 43 in plate 40, is in its upper position as shown by the dashed lines in FIGURE 1. When a predetermined amount of pressure is built up in the upper pressure line of air cylinder 27, i.e., when the horizontal plate is compressing and holding the stack of signatures, a pressure switch 45 coupled to line -30 is actuated. The output terminal C of pressure switch 45 is coupled to input terminal C of a solenoid 46. Solenoid 46 is coupled to a pressure-channeling device 47 that controls an air cylinder 48 associated with the curl-compressing plate 42.

When pressure switch 45 is actuated, thereby energizing the terminal C, the solenoid 46 is in turn energized and the pressure-channeling device 47 is pulled to its lower position, as in FIGURE 1. In this position, the pressure from source P is channeled to the upper pressure line 49 of the cylinder 48, and thus the lower pressure line 50 serves as an exhaust line. Accordingly, a piston rod 51 within the cylinder is forced downward, and the curl-compressing plate 42, to which piston rod 51 is pivotally coupled by pin 52, is forced downward in a,

swinging motion as it pivots about the axis 43 in the horizontal plate 40.

The curl-compressing plate 42 swings about the axis 43 until it compresses the curled portion of the stack of signatures. Thus, plate 4 2 assumes the position shown in full lines in FIGURE 1, and the entire stack of signatures is compressed by both the horizontal plate 40 and the curl-compressing plate 42.

After the complete compression of a stack of signatures, solenoid 34 is de-energized by the de-act-uation of switch 67, caused by the movement of rack 65 to the position shown in FIGURE 2. This movement of the rack will be explained shortly. When solenoid 34 is de-energized, the pressurechanneling device 32 is returned to its upper position by the action of spring 33. In this position, as shown in FIGURE '2, the source of pressure P is channeled to the lower pressure line 3 1, while the upper line 80 serves as the exhaust line. Accordingly, piston rod 25 is forced toward the top of the air cylinder, and the entire compression unit :20 commences to swing upward.

As soon as upper line 30 becomes an exhaust line, the pressure therein is lost, and pressure switch 45 is deactuated, thereby de-energizing solenoid 46. When solenoid 46 is de-energized, spring 55 returns the pressurechanneling device 47 to its upper position, as shown in FIGURE 2, and thus lower line 50 of cylinder 48 becomes a pressure line while upper line 49 becomes the exhaust line. Piston rod 5 1 is accordingly forced upward, and the curl-compressing plate 42 swings upward. In this fashion, the entire compression unit '20 is raised to the non-compressing position shown in FIGURE 2.

The intermittent movement of the signatures along the conveyor belts is accomplished by the indexing rack 65 as follows. The rack is connected to the movable piston of an air cylinder 66, opposite ends of which are connected by

pressure lines

66 and 61 to a pressure-channeling device 62 similar to pressure-

oharmeling devices

32 and 47. In the position shown in FIGURE 2, solenoid 64 is tie-energized, and the pressure-channeling device 62 is pulled by spring 63 to the position shown.

Controlled by a timed switch 35, the solenoid 64 is energized at terminal A to pull the pressure-channeling device toward it to assume the position shown in \FlIG- URE 1. In this position, the pressure from source P is channeled to the pressure line 60, while the line 61 serves as an exhaust line. Assuming that the indexing rack 65 is initially in the position shown in FIGURE 2, the energization of solenoid 64 results in the movement of the rack to the right until it ultimately assumes the position shown in FIGURE 1. This left to right movement of the rack moves the gear 17 (FIGURE 2) counterclockwise, thus imparting movement to the chain drives 14 and 15 (FIGURE 1). In this fashion, the conveyor belts 12 and 13 are indexed one position so that the next uncompressed stack of signatures is positioned beneath the compressing unit.

When solenoid 64 is tie-energized under the action of timed switch 35, spring 63 pulls the pressure-channeling device 62 to the left so that the device assumes the position shown in FIGURE 2. As shown in the figure, pressure is applied to the pressure line 61 while the line 60 serves as the exhaust line. In this fashion, the rack 65 is driven from right to left. However, because of a clutch or ratchet arrangement in gear 17, the movement of rack 65 from right to left results in no movement of the gear. Thus, the only movement of the gear is counterclockwise, which is occasioned by a left-to-right movement of the indexing rack that leads to an ultimate indexing of the stacks of signatures intermittently under the compression unit.

As may be seen, the sequence of operations, i.e., compress-uncompress-index-compress-etc, is controlled by the sequential and selective energization of

solenoids

34 and 64, as effected by switch 67, which is under the ultimate control of the timed switch 35. This timed switch, which may easily incorporate switch 67, in turn may be controlled by the movement of various other operational parts of a complete handling and conveying system.

While the invention has been described above, numerous additions and substitutions to the preferred embodiment disclosed may be made by one skilled in the art, without, however, departing from the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the following claims should be granted sufficient scope to embrace such additions and substitutions.

I claim:

1. A compressor for bulk material comprising a first plate, a second plate in hinged relation to said first plate, means coupled to said first plate for positioning said first plate upon a first portion of said bulk material, means for applying a predetermined amount of pressure to said first plate, means responsive to the pressure applied to said first plate for swinging said hinged second plate from a noncontacting to a contacting position with respect to a second portion of said bulk material, means for applying a given amount of pressure to said second plate, and means for positioning said first and said second plates from said contacting-pressure-applying position to a noncontacting position.

2. Apparatus for .the compression of a pile of signatures comprising first compression means for contacting and compressing a first portion of a given surface of said pile, second compression means pivotally mounted with respect to an axis contained in said first compression means and initially positioned substantially in parallel relation to the remaining portion of said given surface, means responsive to the exertion of a predetermined amount of compression force by said first compression means for applying a preestablished force to said second compression means whereby said second compression means forms substantially a plane surface with said first compression means and both said first and said second compression means compress said pile.

3. Apparatus for the compression of a stack of sheets comprising holding and compressing means for applying a predetermined amount of pressure substantially perpendicularly to all points on a portion of a given surface of said stack, curl compressing means responsive to the exertion of a predetermined amount of pressure by said holding and compressing means for initially exerting pressure substantially perpendicular to the remaining portion of said surface, means for changing the direction in which said pressure is applied by said curl compressing means finally to exert a force against said surface of said second portion of said stack that is in a direction substantially the same as the direction of said pressure exerted by said holding and compressing means.

4. Apparatus for the compression of a stack of folded sheets comprising a first plate, a. second plate pivotally attached to an edge of said first plate, the plane of said second plate being inclined with respect to the plane of said first plate, first movement means for positioning said first plate against a first substantially fiat portion of a surface of said stack, means for applying a predetermined force to said first plate to compress said first portion, means responsive to the application of said predetermined amount of force to said first plate for pivoting said second plate until said second plate compresses the remaining portion of said surface of said stack and forms substantially a plane surface with said first plate, and means for moving said first and said second plates away from a contacting position with said surface of said stack.

5. Pile compressing apparatus comprising a pair of spaced slide rods, a pair of slides movably attached to said slide rods, a first plate attached to and positioned between said movable slides, means coupled to said movable slides for positioning said first plate with a given amount of pressure against a first substantially fiat portion of a surface of a pile, a second plate pivotally attached to said first plate, means responsive to the pressure applied by said first plate and coupled to said second plate for pivoting said second plate until said second plate and said first plate form together a substantially plane surface, Whereoy said second plate compresses a second portion of said surface of said pile.

6. Apparatus for compressing a stack of signatures which curve at their folded edges, comprising a multiple plate compressor which includes a first plate engageable with a portion of a first surface of the stack remote from the folded edges and a second plate pivotally attached to the first plate and engageable with the first surface of the stack near the folded edges, the second plate being normally in a retracted position relative to the first plate, means for supporting the stack of signatures positioned against a second surface of the stack opposite from said first surface and stationary in a direction normal to said second surface, first reciprocating means for moving the first plate into engagement with the first surface of the stack, and second reciprocating means comprising motor means for subsequently moving the second plate into engagement with the first surface of the stack, said motor means being mounted on said first reciprocating means for reciprocation therewith, thereby to effect a holding of the stack and a compressing of the portion of the first surface of the stack remote from the folded edges before the portion of the first surface of the stack near the folded edges is compressed.

References tilted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 482,782 Burkhardt Sept. 20, 1892 1,883,449 Andrews Oct. 18, 1932 2,272,009 Keller et a1. Feb. 3, 1942 2,492,878 Miollis Dec. 27, 1949 2,644,965 Kitcat July 14, 1953 2,932,247 Thompson Apr. 12, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 5003443 Italy Nov. 18, 1954 37,744 Netherlands Mar. 16, 1936