US3416786A - Book collating method and means - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 17, 1968 5 3,416,786

BOOK COLLATING METHOD AND MEANS Filed Dec. 29, 1965 2 SheetsSheez 2 INVENTOR ANTON STOBB L )4 TTORNEV United States Patent 3,416,786 BOOK COLLATING METHOD AND MEANS Anton R. Stobb, Pittstown, N.J., assignor to Stobb, Inc., Mountainside, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Dec. 29, 1965, Ser. No. 517,332 9 Claims. (Cl. 270-54) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A book collating method and apparatus including rollers offset from a center of planetary movement, and with the rollers supported on shafts eccentric to the axes of the rollers. The rollers carry grippers which move along a straight line for a portion of the planetary motion A stack of signatures is disposed, and a hopper is provided for so disposing signatures, so that the base of the stack is in a fiat plane along the straight line of movement of the grippers. Releasable support means are provided at the base of the stack for holding the same until a sheet or signature is released, and signal means is provided in connection with the action of the grippers to detect such action or the failure thereof. A collector is disposed in sheet-transfer communication with the pickup means of the roller, for receiving the sheets from the pickup means.

This invention relates to a book collating method and means.

The present art is aware of apparatus for assembling books or magazines from separate stacks of signatures which form the book or magazine. This is commonly done by arranging the stacks of signatures in sequential order and taking one signature from each stack and depositing it with a collector which moves past the stacks. In this manner, the signatures are collected in the desired order to have them form a book or magazine.

It is common practice to have the stacks of signatures supported in hoppers which present the stack in a substantially vertical direction so that a gripper is passed below the stacks to pick up the bottom signature and deposit it on a collector, as mentioned. The gripper or pickup means commonly moves in an arcuate or circular path, and, correspondingly, the stack is thus disposed so that the bottom signature is also arcuate to facilitate the pickup. In this general arrangement, there is a problem in permitting the bottom signature to be picked up or removed from the stack at the same time that the stack is being supported in an upward direction. As mentioned, the stack itself is disposed to have the bottom signature curved or bent to conform to the curved path of the gripper or other pickup means.

It is a general object of this invention to provide a collator method and means which improves upon the collating methods and means heretofore known.

A more specific object of this invention is to provide a collating method and means wherein the stack of signatures can be readily and easily maintained in a hopper or the like, can be readily and easily and rapidly placed into the hopper by the operator, and wherein the signatures can be readily and easily removed from the stack to assure that a signature will be removed when it is desired to do so, and to be likewise sure that there will not be more than one signature removed at one time.

Still another specific object of this invention is to provide a collator method and means wherein the gripper itself provides a support for the stack of signatures to be picked up singly by the gripper and wherein the support is provided so that stack may be placed in a planar disposition without requiring any special handling or positioning of the stack by the operator. In accomplishing this particular object, gripper means moves in a similar planar ice pattern so that it presents a support for the stack, or so that it moves across the stack, in a flat plane rather than in an arcuate path.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide a collator method and means wherein the operator is immediately aware of an erroneous act of either missing a signature or taking up more than one signature as one gripper moves past a stack. This particular object is accomplished by the employment of a signal means which detects that a gripper is moving with either none or more than one signature, and the operator can then of course respond to the signal by correcting the defect.

Other objects and advantages become apparent upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a preferred embodiment of this invention with parts thereof broken away and parts thereof sectioned, and with further parts thereof identified in dot-dash lines.

FIG. 2 is an end sectional view taken substantially along the line 22 of FIG. 1 with parts thereof removed. FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view showing the approximate path of the signature grippers or pickup means.

A stack of signatures S is shown supported in a hopper or bin 10 in what may be termed a downwardly directed angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the stack S. Thus the angle is approximately 45 degrees with the horizontal so that the weight of the stack S is shown to be effective downwardly, but of course the stack is not in a completely vertical position. That is, the stack is not directly above the mechanism shown but is to the side thereof. The mechanism is shown to include a frame or support 11 and gripper or pickup means 12 which move past the stack S to obtain one signature from the stack and deposit it on a collector or bed 13,

It will be understood by one skilled in the art that there would be a series of signature stacks, and each stack would have the mechanism necessary for taking one signature from each stack and depositing it on the collector 13. With each stack being of a difierent type of signatures, a complete book or magazine is thus collated or assembled. A moving chain 14 is shown to be included in the collector, and an upstanding lug 16 on the chain 14 moves the signatures along the collector 13 so that each stack can deposit its particular signature on the collector 13. Thus the bottom signature s can be considered to be disposed on the stack S as shown. Ultimately, the signature .9 will be disposed on the collector 13, and it is so shown, and of course this signature came from the gripper 12 and is shown in a position on the gripper 12 immediately above the collector 13 of course just prior to the time the signature s is dropped onto the collector 13.

The grippers 12 are provided with necessary mechanism to cause them to move in a flat plane upwardly along the base of the stack S. To do this, the grippers 12 include rollers 17 rotatably mounted on shafts 18 cccentric to the axes of the rollers 17. The rollers 17 are rotatable and they orbit about a central shaft 19. In the combination of rotating and orbiting, the roller eccentricity measured from the roller center to the center of the shaft 18, and the roller offset measured from the center of the shaft 19 to the center of the shaft 18, are such that the rollers have their circumferences, in the outside limits thereof, approach following the substantially triangular pattern designated by the line 21 in FIG. 3. Thus, to achieve the triangular pattern 21, the roller eccentricity about shaft 18 would be one-third the roller offset. This relationship is commonly known, and it provides degrees of flat rolling, to form the pattern 21. That is, in 30-60 degree triangle, one leg is twice the length of the hypotenuse, and if R is the roller offset and r is the roller eccentricity, then R plus 1' (in the maximum roller extent) equals twice the sum of R minus r (in the minimum roller extent). So R equals three r. The drawings show the eccentricity to be less than one-third of the roller offset, so there is less than a 120 degree of fiat rolling, but there is a substantial angle of fiat rolling. This therefore clearly shows that the rollers 17 will orbit and rotate so that they will roll along a straight or flat plane along a portion of the base of the stack S to support the stack while at the same time the gripper 12 is picking up the bottom signature s.

In tracing the drive and mechanism for accomplishing the aforementioned, a drive sprocket 22 is shown by the dot-dash lines in FIG. 1, and it will of course be understood to be driven by any suitable power source, and such source may of course be electric power. The sprocket 22 rotates a gear 23, also shown in dot-dash lines, and both are shown to be mounted on a shaft 24. The gear 23 meshes with a gear indicated by the line 26, and the latter in turn meshes with a larger gear indicated by the dot-dash line 27. This therefore causes the gear 27 to rotate in the clockwise direction as indicated in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 also shows these drive parts, and it will be further noted that the gear 26 is mounted on a shaft 28 supported in the frame 11. FIG. 2 also shows that shafts 18 are rotatably supported on gear 27. Thus each shaft 18 is orbited about the shaft 19 on which the gear 27 is mounted.

A gear 29 is also centered on the shaft 19 but is affixed to the frame 11 by means of the bolt 31 in FIG. 2. A gear 32, shown by dot-dash lines in FIG. 1, is in mesh with the gear 29, and a gear 33, also shown by dot-dash lines in FIG. 1, is in mesh with the gear 32. The gear 33 is on the shaft 18, and is shown in FIG. 2. Thus upon rotation of the gear 27 and the consequent orbital displacement of each shaft 18, the gears 33, 32, and 29, being in mesh, cause the shaft 18 to rotate as it orbits the shaft 19. This of course causes the grippers 12, and particularly their rollers 17, to also rotate as they orbit the shaft 19. This produces the substantially triangular pattern shown by line 21 in FIG. 3, for the surface of each roller 17, and the dot-dash line designated 34 in FIG. 1, and adjacent the stack S, shows the path of the gripper element 36 included in the gripper 12. The element 36 is shown to be a suction type of gripper operated by a vacuum to hold the signature s against the roller 17 as the latter moves from the position of the roller 17 on the left in FIG. 1 to the position of the roller 17 on the right in FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 shows the rotating shaft 19 has three arms 37 extending radially therefrom and supporting pivot pins 38 which pivotally carry extension arms 39. Rollers 41 are rotatably supported by pins 42 on the ends of the arms 39. A spring 43 is effective between the arms 37 and 39 to cause the rollers 41 to bear against the pickup roller 17. Thus the rollers 41 are available and operate to hold the signatures against the roller 17 as the signatures are moved from the stack S to the collector 13, such as the roller 41 in the lower position in FIG. 1 is holding the signatures s.

FIG. 2 shows the roller 17 to be hollow and having two air passageways 44 extending from the hollow interior to the suction cups 36. A shaft 18 has an air passageway 46 which is in flow communication with the interior of the roller 17 and which is also in flow communication with an air passageway 47 in the side frame piece 48. The passageway 47 is shown in FIG. 1 to extend only part of a complete circle, and a rotatable plate 49 overlaps the passageway 47 and rotatably supports the shaft 19 in the frame piece 48, and also rotatably supports the shaft 18, both as shown in FIG. 2. A piece 49 carries a circular seal member 51 which seals the passageway 47 except of course for the opening 52 in the seal 51 to communicate the passageways 47 and 46. It will herefore e understood that each shaft 18 has a passageway 46 in separate fiow communication with the passageway 47. Further, the passageways 46 are in fiow communication with the passageway 47 only in the length of the passageway 47, which length extends from the shaft 18 on the left in FIG. 1 to the shaft on the right in FIG. 1. Therefore, the grippers 12 are effective only between these two positions mentioned, and thus when the gripper 12 on the right in FIG. 1 reaches the position in which it is in, the vacuum or suction is terminated as the gripper 12 moves further clockwise about the shaft 19 and thus the signature s is released by the suction cups 36.

The top of the stack S is secured by an adjustable plate or holder 53 which is mounted on the frame 11 by means of the bolt 54 extending through an elongated slot 56 in the plate 53. Thus the plate 53 can be raised and lowered to accommodate a position to where it will only slightly overlap the upper edge of the stack S as shown. The lower edge of the stack S is secured by a movable finger 57 pivotally mounted on a shaft 58. The finger 57 is integral with an arm 59 attached to a shaft 61 by means of a pin 62. The shaft 61 is slidable in a block 63 suitably secured to the frame piece 11. A compression spring 64 urges the shaft 61 downwardly and carries a cam follower 66 along with it. The follower 66 thus rolls on a cam 67 which rotates with a shaft 68 driven by a sprocket 69 and a chain 71, shown in dotdash lines. The drive as shown indicates that the sprocket 69 is driven along with the sprocket 22 so that the cam follower 66 will be synchronized with the other collating mechanism described. It will therefore be understood that the depression in the cam 67 is adjacent the follower 66 so that the latter will be moved downwardly to retract the finger 57 and release the lower signature s at the time that the suction cup 36 moves into the position indicated by the dot-dash line 34 to pick up the signature s.

In the event that any one of the grippers 12 picks up more or less than one signature, the mechanism then has not properly functioned. To detect this, an electric switch 72 is mounted on the frame 11 and has a push button 73 in contact with an arm 74 pivotally mounted on a pin 76 in a block 77. The block 77 is slidably secured to the frame 11 and is adjustable therein by means of a screw 78 extending between the frame 11 and the block 76. Thus the arm 74 is adjustable, and it has a roller 79 adjacent the path of the outer limit of the grippers 12, that is, the path shown in FIG. 3. Thus the grippers 12 move adjacent the roller 79, and the latter may be contacted by a signature s, and if in the event more than one signature is on the gripper 12, then the arm 74 would be pivoted upwardly to actuate the push button 73 and stop the entire mechanism, such as the electric drive previously mentioned. A brace 81 holds the arm 74 from falling below the position shown in FIG. 1. However, a finger 82 is pivotally mounted on the arm 74 by means of a pin 83, and the finger 82 can extend to an angled surface 84 carried by the gripper 12. Thus the end of the finger 82 will be caught in the angled surface 84, and counterclockwise rotation of the gripper 12 will again cause the arm 74 to pivot upwardly and signal the fact that no signature was carried by that gripper 12. That is, when there is no signature carried by the gripper 12, then the finger 82 is permitted to project to a point where it will engage the angled surface 84, as shown in FIG. 1, for the signaling purpose just described. Of course, if there is a signature carried on the gripper 12, then the arm 82 will simply be pivoted with respect to the arm 74 and will not trip the switch 72.

FIG. 2 shows a means whereby the vacuum may be maintained between a source of supply connected to the opening or passageway 86 in communication with the arcuate groove 47 and the passageway 46. Thus, the shaft 18 is provided with an axially fixed collar 87 urged to the left in FIG. 2 by a compression spring 88. Thus the spring is shown mounted over a retainer 89 which does not rotate because of the ball bearings 91 interposed between it and the shaft 18. The shaft 18 is therefore urged to the left to have its seal 51 elfective over the vacuum groove 47 as necessary. Further, it will of course be understood that while the sectional view shown in FIG. 1 is basically shown to be a section taken on a line looking to the right in FIG. 2, nevertheless, the vacuum groove 47 is indicated on the view in FIG. 1 though it is to the left of the would-be section line in FIG. 2. It will of course be readily understood by one skilled in the art that the parts are located as necessary and as described and the drawing in FIG. 1 simply shows the configuration from an end view rather than their precise location axially of the shaft 19.

To accomplish the triangular pattern of FIG. 3, the speed of the rollers 17 and their orbital speed around the axis of the shaft 19 and the diameter and eccentricity of the rollers 17, all produce the planar motion of the outer limit of the circumference of the rollers past the end of the stack S.

While a specific embodiment of this invention has been shown and described, it should be obvious that certain changes could be made in the embodiment and the invention should therefore be determined only by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A collator for gathering signatures for the assembly of a book or magazine, comprising a bin for supporting an aligned stack of signatures uprightly disposed with the stack axis at a 45 degree angle with respect to the vertical, the bottom of said stack being in a flat plane, a roller planetarily mounted for rolling on said fiat plane of said bottom of said stack, a gripper on said roller and being operative for picking up one of said signatures in the movement of said roller along a portion of said bottom of said stack, and signal means disposed adjacent said roller to detect if none and more than one of said signatures is being carried on said roller and past said signal means at any one time.

2. A collator for gathering signatures for the assembly of a book or magazine, comprising a bin for supporting an aligned stack of signatures having the end thereof disposed in a fiat plane, a shaft mounted for orbital movement about an axis and adjacent said end of said stack, a roller eccentrically rotatably mounted on said shaft for rolling past an end of said stack and with said roller being eccentrically mounted and rotatable and orbital in a planetary motion about said axis to have the radially outer limit of the circumference of said roller with respect to said axis move on said flat plane on a portion of said end of said stack, a gripper on said roller and being operative for picking up one of said signatures in the movement of said roller past said stack, and a collector for receiving said signatures from said gripper.

3. The subject matter of claim 2 wherein said gripper is vacuum operated, and including a vacuum line in fluidfiow communication with said gripper and extending with respect to the orbital path of said gripper only from the corresponding place of signature pick-up at said stack to the corresponding place of signature release at said collector.

4. The subject matter of claim 1 wherein the signal means includes a sensing roller rotatably mounted adjacent the path of the first-mentioned said roller and in rolling contact with the signatures carried therepast and being displaceable by the thickness of two of said signatures, and an electric switch operatively connected with said sensing roller for actuation when said sensing roller is displaced by said two signatures.

5. The subject matter of claim 1 wherein the signal means includes an electric switch adjacent the path of said roller and actuated by said roller when there is no signature on said roller at the time the latter moves past said switch.

6. A method of book collating comprising the steps of stacking signatures for books in an aligned stack with the longitudinal axis of the stack disposed to 'be oriented at least approximately intermediate the horizontal and vertical directions, upwardly supporting the upper and lower edges of the bottom signature in said stack to have the bottom of said stack disposed on a fiat plane and with the intermediate portion of said bottom signature being engaged by a roller in rolling contact with said intermediate portion and orbital about an axis below said stack, and with the holding of said lower edge being by a mova'hly releasable support, releasing said lower edge by moving said support and picking otf one of said signatures by gripping it with a suction-type gripper at said lower edge and peeling said one signature from said stack by eccentrically supporting said gripper on said roller while the latter rolls along said flat plane of said bottom of said stack and toward said upper edge, re-securing said lower edge by replacing said support thereagainst, and depositing said one signature onto a collector for signatures.

7. A method of book collating comprising the steps of stacking signatures for books in an aligned stack disposed with the stack axis at an angle of forty-five degrees with respect to the vertical and with the feed end of the stack being at bottom of the stack and disposed in a flat plane releasa'bly supporting the bottom one of said signatures on said flat plane by holding the upper edge and the lower edge of said bottom one and having the remaining intermediate portion of said bottom one exposed, upwardly supporting said stack by rolling a roller along said flat plane and on said intermediate portion with said roller orbiting an axis below said stack, gripping the bottom one of said signatures at said lower edge thereof and peeling said one signature from said stack by supporting a suction gripper eccentrically on said roller and rolling the latter on said flat plane in the direction away from said lower edge and toward said upper edge, and depositing said one signature onto a collector for signatures.

8. The method of claim 7, including the additional step of alternately supporting and releasing said lower end of said bottom signature in synchronization with the gripping of said bottom signature to timely release the latter and to upwardly support said stack.

9. The method of claim 7, including the step of monitoring the passage of said signatures from said stack to said collector and signaling if none and more than one signature is moved to said collector at any one time.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,039,541 9/1912 Kast 270--56 2,166,709 7/ 1939 Swanson 270-56 3,089,693 5/1963 Gore et a1 270-54 3,130,966 4/1964 Hepp 270-64 EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner. P. V. WILLIAMS, Assistant Examiner.

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