Patent ID: 6216591
Filing Date: 2001-04-17
Classification: B65H

Abstract:
A delivery fan suitable for use in a rotary printing press, among other applications, for receiving signatures from a folding mechanism and depositing the same on a delivery conveyor in an overlapping succession, the delivery fan being capable of handling signatures of different number of pages and thicknesses including those of a known least thickness, comprising:(a) hub means mounted on a rotational axis rotatable in a prescribed direction;(b) a plurality of fingers mounted to the hub means and arcuately extending therefrom both outwardly and upstream of the hub means with respect to the prescribed rotational direction thereof, the fingers being spaced from one another circumferentially of the hub means, every two neighboring fingers defining a pocket for receiving a signature; and(c) a plurality of flat springs anchored to the hub means and each extending toward a bottom of one pocket in order to prevent the signatures from jumping out the pockets, there being a spacing, which is at least in part less than the known least thickness of signatures to be handled, between each flat spring and a downstream one, with respect to the prescribed rotational direction of the hub means, of each circumferentially spaced pair of fingers defining part of one pocket.