Patent ID: 11970353
Assignee: BOBST MEX SA
Field: Handling (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B | IPC B

Claim 11:
12. A gripper assembly for recovering a layout from a sheet material, the sheet material being divided between the layout and a waste portion, the gripper assembly comprising:
a conveyor unit for providing the sheet material, wherein the conveyor unit is equipped with a vacuum system for holding the sheet material on the conveyor unit, the conveyor unit comprising a plurality of suction openings for the sheet material; and
a vacuum gripper being adapted for interacting with sheet material provided by the conveyor unit, the vacuum gripper comprising a gripper body on which an array of air flow openings is arranged, each air flow opening being adapted to seize at least a portion of the sheet material by applying a vacuum force thereto,
wherein, among the array of air flow openings, air flow openings associated with one or more blanks of the layout are selectively open while air flow openings associated with the waste portion of the sheet material are selectively closed,
a magnetic gripping side of the gripper body is equipped with a mask that selectively covers air flow openings associated with waste and selectively does not interfere with the air flow openings associated with the one or more blanks of the layout, and a magnetic cover is attached to the magnetic gripping side of the gripper body, and
the mask is positioned between the magnetic gripping side of the gripper body and a magnetic sheet covering the mask on a side opposing the gripper body.