US3881719A

US3881719A - Sheet feeding arrangement

Info

Publication number: US3881719A
Application number: US410158A
Authority: US
Inventors: Alfred Schmermund
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-10-31
Filing date: 1973-10-26
Publication date: 1975-05-06
Anticipated expiration: 1992-05-06
Also published as: JPS4976267A; BE806330A; GB1440924A; DD107417A5; FR2204537A1; DE2351644A1; FR2204537B1

Abstract

A sheet processing device including an elongate storage magazine and a suction conveyor device, is disclosed. The magazine is so mounted that the longitudinal dimension of the magazine is inclined at an angle of about 15* to the horizontal and the stacking direction of sheets stored in the magazine with their adjacent flat faces in contact extends in a direction only slightly inclined to the horizontal. Thus, one end portion of the magazine is maintained at a lower level than the respective other end portion. The magazine is provided with a plurality of endless belts, each of which has one of its runs in contact with the edges of sheets stacked in the magazine. As the endless belts are rotated, the belts contacting the edges of the stacked sheets exert a frictional force tending to urge the sheets towards the lower end portion of the magazine. The wall portions adjacent the lower end portion of the magazine are perforate to permit a stream of gas to be blown into the magazine to loosen sheets stacked in the lower end portion thereof. The magazine is associated with a rotary suction roller assembly which is arranged to extract the sheets singly from the lower end portion of the magazine. Each sheet so removed is transferred to suction conveyor means comprising permeable endless belts through which suction is applied to each such sheet to maintain it in contact with the permeable belts whilst being conveyed thereby to a reception station of a cigarette packaging machine. Due to the horizontal orientation of the magazine the sheets, after being removed therefrom and transferred to the permeable belt conveyor, are substantially vertically orientated. It is therefore necessary for the permeable belt conveyor to cause the sheets to transverse an L-shaped path in order that they may be horizontally orientated when fed to the reception station of the packaging machine.

Description

United States Patent [191 Schmermund [111- 3,881,719 [451 May 6,1975

[ SHEET FEEDING ARRANGEMENT 22 Filed: Oct. 26, 1973 21 Appl. No.: 410,158

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 31, 1972 United Kingdom 50092/72 [52] US. Cl. 271/12; 271/95; 271/98; 271/150; 271/197; 53/192; 53/234; 93/12 C [51] Int. Cl B65h 5/08 [58] Field of Search 271/95, 105, 149, 150, 271/11-15, 197, 98; 53/192, 234; 93/12 C, 58 ST, 58.1

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,068,036 7/1913 Von Barth 271/95 X' 1,784,835 12/1930 Harris 53/234 2,111,024 3/1938 Donnellan.... 271/95 X 2,163,145 6/1939 Johnson 271/150 2,911,216 11/1959 Richardson 271/95 3,146,565 9/1964 Otto 53/192 3,253,387 5/1966 Schmermund 53/234 3,545,740 12/1970 Rana et al 271/12 X 3,602,495 8/1971 Hepp 271 95 x 3,659,840 5/1972 Ruck.... 271/197 3,664,240 5/1972 Helm 93/58.l

Primary ExaminerEvon C. Blunk Assistant ExaminerRobert Saifer Attorney, Agent, or FirmSughrue, Rothwell, Mion, Zinn & Macpeak [57] ABSTRACT v A sheet processing device including an elongate storage magazine and a suction conveyordevice, is disclosed. The magazine is so mounted that the longitudinal dimension of the magazine is inclined at an angle of about 15 to the horizontal and the stacking direction of sheets stored in the magazine with their adja- I cent flat faces in contact extends in a direction only slightly inclined to the horizontal. Thus, one end portion of the magazine is maintained at a lower level than the respective other end portion. The magazine is provided with a plurality of endless belts, each of which has one of its runs in contact with the edges of sheets stacked in the magazine. As the endless belts are rotated, the belts contacting the edges of the stacked sheets exert a frictional force tending to urge the sheets towards the lower end portion of the magazine. The wall portions adjacent the lower end portion of the magazine are perforate to permit a stream of gas to be blown into the magazine to loosen sheets stacked in the lower end portion thereof. The magazine is associated with a rotary 'suction roller assembly which is arranged to extract the sheets singly from the lower end portion of the magazine. Each sheet so removed is transferred to suction conveyor means comprising permeable endless belts through which suction is applied to each such sheet to maintain it in contact with the permeable belts whilst being conveyed thereby to a reception station of a cigarette packaging machine. Due to the horizontal orientation of the magazine the sheets, after being removed therefrom and transferred to the permeable belt conveyor, are substantially vertically orientated. It is therefore necessary for the permeable belt conveyor to cause the sheets to transverse an L-shaped path in order that they may be horizontally orientated when fed to the reception station of the packaging machine.

4 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENIEDHAY' sims 3 1 719 PATENTEUHAY @1975 3,881,719

SHEET 30F 3 Fig.3

SHEET FEEDING ARRANGEMENT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a sheet processing device and to a suction conveyor device for the controlled feeding of sheets of wrapping material from a storage magazine to a packaging machine for wrapping blocklike articles in such wrapping material.

In applicants co-pending US. patent application Ser. No. 503,732 filed Oct. 5, 1973, there is disclosed a packaging machine for wrapping blocklike articles, for example cigarette blocks, in wrapping material, which may for example comprise paper or viscose or cellulose film. As stated in the provisional specification of the above mentioned United Kingdom patent application, the supply of wrapping material, for example to form the outer wrapper of an American package of cigarettes, may take place either from a reel having wound thereon a continuous web, a suitable cutting device being provided for cutting the web into sheets, or from a magazine of individual sheets, in which case of course no cutting device is required.

In one known sheet processing device, a stack of precut sheets of wrapping material is stored in a magazine which is so orientated that the stacking direction of the sheets in the magazine extends substantially vertically, or the stacking direction is inclined at an angle which differs from the vertical by only a small acute angle of the order of In such a known arrangement, sheets are required to be removed singly from the bottom of the stack in the magazine and are fed along a substantially horizontally extending feed path to a reception station of a packaging machine. However, since in such known arrangements the weight of the stack of sheets acts substantially vertically, there may be a marked tendency for the sheets, which have been compressed by the weight of the stack, to stick to one another. This may cause difficulty in removing the sheets singly from the bottom of the stack, and requires the sheet extractor device to exert considerable force on each successive bottom sheet to be removed in order to overcome the frictional force exerted thereon by the weight of the sheets stacked above it. Furthermore, the weight of the sheets in the stack, and thus the force necessary to extract the bottom sheet, varies in a very direct manner with the height of the stack. Thus, in an arrangement utilizing such vertically stacked sheets, it is often necessary to adjust the sheet extractor and feeding device several times during the discharge of each magazine in order to compensate for the varying force exerted on the bottom sheet in the magazine. Furthermore, the maximum capacity of a magazine in which sheets are stacked substantially vertically may be unduly restricted by the need to maintain the compressive force exerted on the bottom sheet at less than a predetermined maximum value at which the sheet extractor will operate satisfactorily.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION ual sheets of wrapping material with their adjacent flat faces in contact, mounting means for mounting the magazine with its longitudinal dimension inclined at a small angle to the horizontal, frictionally operative means to act against at least one edge of each sheet for urging the sheets towards an outlet end portion of the magazine, and orifice means, which are disposed next adjacent the outlet end portion and through which compressed gas may be applied to loosen sheets about to be removed from the magazine.

The present arrangement has the advantage that the weight of the pile of sheets does not cause great difficulty in feeding the bottom sheet when the pile is very long. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of the extractor part of the feeding device which removes sheets from the long magazine may be kept constant as the number of sheets remaining in the magazine de creases in operation, because the number of the sheets in the magazine does not effect materially the frictional force which the extractor part must exert in order to remove a sheet from the magazine.

According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a suction conveyor device comprising at least one rotatably mounted suction roller provided with an orifice, in the periphery thereof to apply suction to remove successive single sheets from a storage location, a rectilinearly reciprocatable carriage to rotatably support the suction roller, a gripper cylinder to receive the sheets from the suction roller, at least one permeable endless belt constrained into a generally L-shaped configuration to receive the sheets from the gripper cylinder and to convey the sheets along a generally L- shaped path to a wrapping material reception station of a packaging machine, and suction chambers located next adjacent one surface of the permeable belt to apply suction to the sheets through the permeable belt and thereby to maintain the sheets in contact with the surface of the permeable belt opposite to the one surface thereof.

A suction plate may be provided to receive the sheets from the suction conveyor means and to locate them relatively to a plunger provided'to press the sheets into a cell forming a wrapping material reception station of the packaging machine. The cell may be provided on a revolver similar to those described in applicants copending US. patent application Ser. No. 503,732 filed Oct. 5, 1973.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. I shows a sectional view in a vertical plane through a sheet processing device, with a storage magazine fitted in position for operation;

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of part of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, with a rotary suction device for extracting individual sheets from the magazine shown in FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of a wrapping material reception station of a packaging machine, in the form of a revolver.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIG. I, initially the rotary suction device will be described. A suction roller assembly 7 of generally annular configuration has its central cavity connectable to a source of vacuum by a pipe 69 (FIG. 2) fitted to the end of a shaft carrying a number of suction rollers spaced from one another, and a radially directed orifice is provided through the annular wall of each suction roller to apply suction to a sheet with which the outer periphery of the suction rollers comes into contact. Different translational and rotational positions of the suction roller assembly 7 are designated in FIG. 1 by the reference 8a, 8b and 86 respectively. These different positions 8a, 8b and 80 will be referred to subsequently. The suction roller assembly 7 is rotatably mounted in slidable carriages 11 which are slidable along linear guide rods 10 supported at their ends by brackets 9 connected to a support 74 so that sliding of the carriages 11 relative to the rods 10 causes a pinion 63 (FIG. 2) connected to the suction roller assembly 7 to move along a linear toothed rack member 64, thereby rotating the pinion 63 and the suction roller assembly 7. The pinion 63 is provided with teeth to cooperate with those provided on the rack member 64. As the suction roller assembly 7 moves from position 8a through position 8b to position 8c in FIG. 1 they rotate in such a sense as to transfer their respective peripheral orifices from a pick-up orientation shown at position 80 in which a sheet is picked up from the storage magazine to a delivery orientation shown at 812, in which the sheet is given up to a gripper cylinder 1 which rotates in the anti-clockwise sense in FIG. 1. Pull rods 12 are connected to the carriages 11 and are pivoted to levers 13 in the form of bell cranks provided with

camming members

14 and 15 cooperable with cam plates of an actuating arrangement. The bell cranks are pivoted at 62. Rollers are provided on the

camming members

14 and 15. Rotation of the cam plates in contact with the

camming members

14 and 15 causes oscillation of the bell cranks 13 and thereby reciprocation of the pull rods 12 of the carriage l1, and thus both translation and rotation of the suction roller assembly 7. The suction rollers of this assembly may be connected with one another or they may be integrally formed. As shown best in FIG. 2, an elongate bore connects the peripheral orifices of the suction rollers of the assembly 7 via a connecting pipe 69 to a suction source (not shown).

Suction conveyor means will now be described with reference to FIG. 1. The gripper cylinder 1 is provided with a gripper mounting shaft 2 and gripper members 3, as well as a lever 4 on the shaft 3 and provided with a roller which runs on a cam 5 and is urged thereagainst by a tension spring 6. As shown in FIG. 1, the grippers 3 are positioned to take a sheet withdrawn from the stack in the magazine from the suction rollers 7. On rotational displacement of the cylinder 1 in the direction indicated by the arrow, the grippers 3 are positioned as shown at 3a to transfer a sheet to suction conveyor means including endless conveyor belts 21, which are permeable to air, and which pass in a generally L- shaped configuration around an upper

suction roller device

16, 17 and a lower

suction roller device

23, 24. Each of these suction roller devices comprises an outer

annular portion

16, 23 respectively provided with orifice therethrough and rotatable about central

stationary portions

17, 24 respectively. The precise construction of these devices may be as described in applieants co-pending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 4 10,159 filed Oct. 26, 1973.

Additional guide rollers

27 and 28 are provided to maintain the conveyor belts 21 in their desired configuration. The roller 16 is provided with grooves (FIG. 2), to facilitate opening of the grippers 3 when it is desired that the gripper cylinder 1 should give up the sheet from the mazazine to the belts 21. This is assisted by the suction applied to the interior of the

suction roller device

16, 17.

A supplementary guide belt 83 circulates around

guide rollers

29 and 30 which rotate in the direction shown by the arrows in FIG. 1, to ensure that a sheet passing between the

belts

21 and 83 correctly follows the external surface of the belts 21. This is assisted by the suction applied to the interior of the

suction roller device

23, 24. Suction chambers provided in the interior of these devices are shown at 18 and 25 respectively. These

suction chambers

18 and 25 are connected via

vacuum lines

22 and 26 to a source of vacuum pressure (not shown). A holder 31 is provided to mount the bearings of the

guide rollers

29 and 30 on a support 74. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the vertical runs of the belts 21 pass over suction chambers 87 provided with walls next adjacent the respective vertical runs of the belts 21. As shown is FIG. 2, these walls I next adjacent the belts 21 are provided with perforations 86 which communicate with the suction chambers 87. The suction chambers 87 are connected via vacuum lines 88 to a source of vacuum pressure (not shown). The horizontal runs of the belts 21 pass over suction chambers 33, provided with lower walls next adjacent the upper surfaces of the horizontal runs of the belts 21. These lower walls are perforated as shown at 32 in FIG. 1. The suction chambers 33 are connected via vacuum lines 89 to a suitable source of vacuum pressure (not shown). The

suction chambers

33 and 87 apply suction to the respectively next adjacent portions of the belts 21. The upper walls of the suction chambers 33 are supported on a cross member 35. The cross member 35 is on its part secured on the support 74. Lateral guides 34 for the belts 21 are fitted to the upper wall of the suction chambers 33. Guide roller 27 is also rotatably mounted on the walls of the suction chambers 33. The roller device 23 is not provided with grooves corresponding to those of the

roller device

16, 17.

Referring now to the elongate magazine shown at the right in FIG. 1 and 2, the floor of the magazine is denoted by the reference numeral 72, the side walls by 47 and the front end wall by 48. As shown in the drawings, the elongate magazine stores a plurality of sheets of wrapper material, which are indicated generally in FIG. 1 by the reference numeral 38. The floor 72 of the magazine extends at a small acute angle to the horizontal and, as indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the sheets 38 are stacked in the magazine with the stacking axis extending parallel to the floor of the magazine. Thus, the sheets each extend in a plane which is inclined closely to the vertical. Two endless conveyor belts 50, which constitute frictionally operative means to act against at least one edge of each sheet, are arranged to act in the plane of the floor 72. Similarly, in each side wall 47 of the magazine, an endless belt 51 is provided. The floor conveyor belts 50 pass around rollers 54 (FIG. 1) and 49 (FIG. 2), and the side wall conveyor belts 51 pass around rollers 45 (FIG. 2) and 52 (FIG. 1). The

rollers

45 and 52 are each mounted in brackets projecting from the side walls 47, as seen best in FIG. 2. The two brackets supporting the ends ofa shaft carrying the roller 52 are shown in FIG. 1 and are denoted thereon by the reference 53. The

front rollers

45 and 49 are spaced from an outlet end portion 48 of the magazine. The magazine is disposed with its longitudinal dimension inclined at a small acute angle to the horizontal, as shown in FIG. 1, so that the sheets in the magazine cannot fall backwards to cause difficulties in feeding. In the preferred embodiment the magazine is so mounted that its longitudinal dimension is inclined at an angle of approximately to the horizontal. However, this angle of inclination may be varied to suit different applications but, generally, will be within the range 5 to 25 to the horizontal. In the outlet end portion 48 of the magazine, there are provided aperture

plates containing apertures

42, 43 through which a compressed gas, such as compressed air, is admitted to the magazine to loosen the sheets located in the outlet end portion of the magazine prior to feeding. The apertured plates are constructed in the manner of a sieve, and are provided in the side walls of the magazine and in the floor. Cover members with connecting means to receive pipes to supply compressed air are provided, and one of these cover members is shown in FIG. 1 and designated by the reference numeral 44. By the loosening effect of the compressed air it may be ensured that the sheets are fed individually by the suction roller assembly 7. The compressed air stream tends to prevent the sheets sticking to one another and facilitates their separation to enable the sheets to be fed only one at a time. Shafts, one which belt guide rollers for the

belts

50 and 51 are mounted, are connected together by bevel gears 73. These shafts are driven to cause the belts 50 to circulate in the direction shown in FIG. 2 by the arrows. The belts S1 circulate in the same direction as the belts 50. Thus the

belts

50 and 51 urge the sheets in the magazine forwardly, i.e. towards the left in FIG. 1, by friction towards the end portion 48 and the suction roller assembly 7. On the horizontally extending shaft carrying the guide rollers 49 there is fitted a spur wheel 55 (FIG. 1), which co-operates with a pinion on an intermediate shaft 56, and a spur gear 57 mounted on the intermediate shaft 56 engages with a pinion 58 on a motor-driven shaft, a relatively large power transmission being available. The motor for driving the pinion 58 is indicated schematically in the drawings and is designated by M.

M is a small motor with a relatively low torque, and which can remain actuated for example constantly, thereby ensuring that the

belts

51 and 50 always urge the contents of the magazine forwardly with the same pressure, which may if desired be regulable by means of a variation of electrical resistance, or by means of electronic control arrangements.

Numeral 66 designates a nozzle arrangement for applying adhesive material to a sheet passing around the periphery of the gripper cylinder 1, and the nozzle arrangement is connected via a pipe 67 to a source (not shown) of the adhesive material. Compressed air may be provided to eject the adhesive material from the nozzle arrangement.

An indenting or embossing cylinder 65 causes each sheet, for example of paper, fed from the magazine, to have a groove formed therein at a position intended later to be a fold. If desired, more than one groove may be provided by the cylinder 65.

The arrangement so far described may be utilized with any one of a number of different kinds of packaging machines, for example that disclosed in applicants co-pending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 503,732 filed Oct. 5, 1973. The wrapping material reception station of such a packaging machine is shown in FIG. 3, numeral 38 d (FIGS. 1 and 3) indicates the last position reached by the sheet after passing the positions 38a (FIGS. 1 and 2), 3811 (FIG. 1), 38 (FIG. 1) and 38d (FIG. 1). Part of a cross-shaped revolver 81 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. Such a revolver is provided with four cells, only the top one of which is shown at 37. The cell 37 is of a double-walled configuration and has an inner perforated wall 370 and an outer continuous wall 37a provided with projecting edge portions in the form of an intermediate web 37b. A suction chamber is defined between the

walls

37a and 37c and is connected to a radial passage 82 (FIG. 1) and thus to a vacuum line 80a.

Corresponding vacuum lines

80b, 80c and 80d are provided for the other cells (which are not shown). Apertures through the inner wall 37c of the cell are shown at 79 in FIG. 1. As shown best in FIG. 3, the revolver 81 includes a rotatably mounted block 76 which is provided with four

faces

76a, 76b, 76c and 76d. In the interest of clarity, only the cell 37 is shown mounted by a bracket to the face 75a. However, the complete revolver is provided with four such cells, each mounted next adjacent a respective one of the four

faces

76a, 76b, 76c and 76d. As shown in the case of the face 76b a plurality of passages are provided in the block 75, and these passages establish selective communication between the suction chambers of the respective cells and the

vacuum lines

80a, 80b, 80c and 800'. A suction plate assembly 36 includes two

hollow base plates

36a and 36b cooperating with respective perforate upper plate members to define chambers therebetween which are each connected to vacuum means. The suction plate assembly 36 is provided on either side of the position occupied by the central portion of a sheet at position 38a, and the perforations in the upper plate member associated with the hollow plate member 361) are indicated in FIG. 3 by the reference numeral 78. The perforations 78 communicate with a vacuum line 84. A plunger 39 is provided above the revolver 81 to push a sheet located at 38d into the cell 37, in which the sheet is then held by suction. Connecting means 40 and 41 (FIG. 1) are provided for the operation of the plunger 39. The sheets are held in the revolver cells until they have received a cigarette block and the finished package is then ejected from the cell. A folder member 77 (FIGS. 1 and 3) is movably mounted on the revolver to fold a narrow strip of the sheet projecting in a direction parallel to the axis of the revolver, at the appropriate time in the sequence of operations of the packaging machine. All the necessary folds of the wrapper sheets take place at other stages in the operation of the packaging machine while the packages are still held in a cell. Some of the folding elements employed for this purpose are driven, while others are stationary.

A perforate sloping side wall 85 of the plate member 36a is provided to apply suction to the outer projecting limb of a sheet pressed into the cell, when the pushing member 39 is raised again In operation of the above described embodiment, a wrapper sheet in the magazine shown in FIG. 1 is withdrawn by the suction roller assembly 7 and transferred to the gripper 3 on the gripper cylinder 1. When the suction roller assembly 7 has grasped the bottom edge of a sheet in the magazine, the cams contacting the

camming members

14 and 15 operate to pivot the bell cranks 13 anti-clockwise in FIG. 1 towards the position shown in broken lines, and the bell cranks 13 then urge the pull rods 12 and carriage 11 upwardly in FIG. 1, during which the suction roller assembly 7 rotates clockwise whilst the pinion 63 is displaced towards the top of the rack member 64. Thus, the suction roller assembly 7 reaches its delivery position at which a sheet which has been extracted from the magazine is transferred to the gripper cylinder 1. The transfer position of the sheet is shown at 38a in FIG. 1. The gripper cylinder 1 rotates anti-clockwise, and the sheet carried thereby receives adhesive material from the nozzle 66. The sheet then passes through a nip between the cylinder 65 and the gripper cylinder 1, where one or more grooves are made in the sheet. This latter position of the sheet is indicated in FIG. 1 by the reference 38b. The sheet then receives suction through the apertures 19 of the

suction roller device

16, 17, and is transferred to the conveyor belts 21 (FIGS. 2 and 3), and passes while driven by the belts 21 between these belts and the supplementary belts 83, which guides the sheet around an approximately 90 bend, after which the sheet travels to the left in FIG. 1 to the position 38d, where it is received by the suction plate assembly 36 and positioned at 38d; The plunger 39 now pushes the sheet vertically downwardly into the uppermost cell 37 of the revolver 81 shown in FIG. 3. The perforate sloping side wall 85 now retains the upper edge of the folded sheet 38e while the plunger 39 is retracted upwardly.

With the arrangement described above, a very long magazine, and therefore one with a very large capacity may be used, and the weight of the sheets does not interfere with the delivery procedure because of the near horizontal orientation of the magazine. Furthermore, the conveying of the sheets from the magazine to the revolver takes place very conveniently, and without any inaccuracy introduced by changes in the weight of the stack of sheets in the magazine. Even if the necessary path of travel between the magazine and the revolver is very long, such travel takes place without great difficulty.

By the magazine arrangement, turned through about 90 in relation to conventional arrangements, and also as a result of the use of belts in the walls of the magazine and compressed air to loosen the sheets prior to feeding, the possible maximum capacity of the magazine may be greatly increased compared to that which may be employed in such conventional arrangements. The described suction conveyor means is a convenient arrangement for receiving a sheet in a vertical orientation and delivering it in a horizontal orientation.

1 claim:

1. A sheet processing device comprising, in combination:

an elongate storage magazine for storing a plurality of individual sheets of wrapping material with their adjacent flat faces in contact;

mounting means for mounting said magazine with the elongate dimension thereof inclined at a small angle to the horizontal and thereby to position said magazine with one end portion thereof at a lower level than the respective other end portion thereof;

frictionally operative means to act against at least one edge of each sheet for urging said sheets towards said lower end portion of said magazine;

orifice means disposed next adjacent said lower end portion, whereby compressed gas may be applied through said orifice means to loosen sheets located in said lower end portion of said magazine;

a rotary suction device to remove successive single ones of said sheets from said magazine, said rotary suction device comprising at least one suction roller rotably mounted on a slidable carriage, said carriage being mounted to be rectilinearly reciprocatable, said suction roller being provided with an orifice in the periphery thereof to apply suction to each individual said sheet in turn, thereby to remove said sheet from said magazine;

suction conveyor means comprising at least one permeable endless belt and suction chambers located next adjacent one surface of said permeable belt to apply suction to sheets through said permeable belt thereby to maintain said sheets in contact with the surface of said permeable belt opposite to said one surface thereof, said permeable belt being constrained into a generally L-shaped configuration and being displaceable to convey said sheets successively removed from said storage magazine by said rotary suction device along at least part of a sheet path; and

a gripper cylinder to transfer said sheets from said rotary suction device to said suction conveyor means. 2. A device as defined in claim 1, comprising a nozzle located next adjacent the periphery of said grippercylinder to apply adhesive material to said sheets in passage around said periphery of said gripper cylinder.

3. A device as defined in claim 1, comprising an identing cylinder co-operating with said gripper cylinder to indent said sheets in passage around said gripper cylinder.

4. A device as defined in claim 1, comprising a suction plate to receive said sheets from said permeable endless belt and to locate said received sheets relatively to a plunger for pressing said sheets into a cell.

Claims

1. A sheet processing device comprising, in combination: an elongate storage magazine for storing a plurality of individual sheets of wrapping material with their adjacent flat faces in contact; mounting means for mounting said magazine with the elongate dimension thereof inclined at a small angle to the horizontal and thereby to position said magazine with one end portion thereof at a lower level than the respective other end portion thereof; frictionally operative means to act against at least one edge of each sheet for urging said sheets towards said lower end portion of said magazine; orifice means disposed next adjacent said lower end portion, whereby compressed gas may be applied through said orifice means to loosen sheets located in said lower end portion of said magazine; a rotary suction device to remove successive single ones of said sheets from said magazine, said rotary suction device comprising at least one suction roller rotably mounted on a slidable carriage, said carriage being mounted to be rectilinearly reciprocatable, said suction roller being provided with an orifice in the periphery thereof to apply suction to each individual said sheet in turn, thereby to remove said sheet from said magazine; suction conveyor means comprising at least one permeable endless belt and suction chambers located neXt adjacent one surface of said permeable belt to apply suction to sheets through said permeable belt thereby to maintain said sheets in contact with the surface of said permeable belt opposite to said one surface thereof, said permeable belt being constrained into a generally L-shaped configuration and being displaceable to convey said sheets successively removed from said storage magazine by said rotary suction device along at least part of a sheet path; and a gripper cylinder to transfer said sheets from said rotary suction device to said suction conveyor means.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, comprising a nozzle located next adjacent the periphery of said gripper cylinder to apply adhesive material to said sheets in passage around said periphery of said gripper cylinder.