Variable guide system for shingling in-store adhesive signage

A variable guide system for shingling in-store adhesive signage cards that works with the offset moment/trajectory resulting from some shingling systems by employing multiple adjustable hold downs guides. Adjustments to the hold downs guides are made on the fly by an operator using easily accessible and controllable thumb screws. The thumb screws facilitate side to side movement and angle adjustment of each guide individually in order to prevent jamming of the cards while being shingled at the guides.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to handling adhesive signage card exiting a cutter onto a conveyor at high speeds and in separate shingled sets consisting of 4 rows of 24 cards, and more particularly, to an improved method and apparatus for shingling the separate sets of cards onto the conveyor jam free.

In general, marketing signs for in-store shelving can be either an adhesive type or non-adhesive type. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,975,416 B2, a non-adhesive type marketing sign is shown that includes a free portion, a base portion and a connected portion that couples the base portion to the free portion. The base portion includes an engaging piece and a support piece. The engaging piece is coupled to the support piece of a base bend line and configured to engage with a portion of a product display structure having a price holder. Another marketing sign is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,302,338 constructed of sheet material. The sheet material includes a free portion, a base portion and a connecting portion that couples the base portion to the free portion. The base portion includes an engaging piece and a support piece. The engaging piece is coupled to the support piece at a base bend line and configured to engage with a portion of a product display structure having a price holder. The connecting is defined between a first connecting bend line spaced apart from a second connecting bend line by a first distance. The first connecting bend line is adjacent the support piece of the base portion and the second connecting bend line is adjacent the free portion. The first distance substantially corresponds with a top edge thickness of the price holder.

Currently, the present process used to create adhesive signage for store shelving involves applying a PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) tape to the paper or other substrate and then printing signs on the modified substrate. The media is ˜8 mils thick and the adhesive tape is ˜10 mils thick leading to a total thickness of roughly 18 mils on one side of the media and 8 mils on the other. This creates an uneven distribution of force as the cards are delivered at a high speed to a downstream conveyor/shingling system. This conveyor/shingling system works by taking cut cards (32 up) from 3 sheets or 96 cards every 3.6 seconds. Systems on the market when supplied are fitted with “shingling” rollers located downstream of a slitter that do not work with the adhesive in-store signage. While rollers may work with flat media, the weight differential caused by the tape creates a moment that spins the cards and affects the flight trajectory of each card causing the cards to pile up in front of the rollers and not shingle consistently. When the cards start to pile up at the rollers, the following cards crash into the leading cards and cause large jams due to the speed of the system. The machine must be shut down for the jam to be removed which is a labored task because cards become tightly wedged in under the rollers before the system can be stopped.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved method and apparatus for shingling the separate sets of cards at a high speed onto a conveyor without jams occurring.

SUMMARY

In answer to this need and disclosed hereinafter is a variable guide system for shingling in-store adhesive signage cards that works to remove an offset moment/trajectory of cards resulting from current shingling systems by employing multiple adjustable hold downs guides. Adjustments are made on the fly by an operator using easily accessible and controllable thumb screw adjustments. Thus, allowing for side to side movement and angle adjustment of each guide individually in order to prevent jamming of the cards as they are shingled at the guides.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

For a general understanding of the features of the disclosure, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals have been used throughout to identify identical elements.

A media sheet10is shown inFIG. 1that has been customized for a particular signage application using dimensioned tape11imposition, and a dimensioned image imposition for use on the custom tape imposition ofFIG. 1is shown inFIG. 2. The taped media imposition16,17,18and19ofFIG. 2orients the PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) to card color bands13of indicia which are imposed in a mirror image tape. That is, indicia in the bottom two rows16and17on sheet10inFIG. 2are a mirror image of the indicia on the top two rows18and19due to the placement of PSA tape11in rows16and17in mirror image of placement of PSA tape in rows18and19. This eliminates sheet feeding problems, as well as, the need for a sacrificial tape strip at the bottom of the sheet because a sheet stack of media10is approximately level in height due to the dimensioned tape11imposition. The dimensioned tape11imposition also maximizes the use of each sheet of media10by covering the full sheet without the need for a costly and wasteful PSA tape that would ordinarily be needed to even out a stack of sheets. The imposition of tape and cards allows for the system to compile the cards by processing cut cards (32 up) from 3 sheets or 96 cards every 3.6 seconds with a conventional cross process collator.

An example of a pressure sensitive adhesive taped individual 3×3 inch signage card12cut from sheet such as10inFIG. 2is shown inFIG. 3where: A is the signage sign height of 240 points; B is sign width of 216 points; C indicated the score location down form the trim at 42.29 points; D represents the adhesive tape11at 40.5 points; E is an adhesive release liner at 54 points; and F indicates adhesive release liner distance down from trim at 3.65 points. In the figure, 72 points equals 1 inch or 25.4 millimeters and 1 point equals 0.352777778 millimeters.

To meet a demand for a high volume of individual signage cards12inFIG. 3per printing, media sheets are fed from a feeder into a printer with each sheet including PSA taped media imposition. The sheets exit the printer in a process direction into a stop and are then fed orthogonally into a conventional slitter and inline collation system that shingles 4 stacks of 24 cards each onto a conveyor20. Every three sheets of cards are shingled in sets of 24 in each of the four lanes of chutes. Conveyor20is accelerated every three sheets to create an open space between the shingled sets so that the operator knows the four shingled sets contained in the chutes across the conveyor are to be stacked together to make one ninety six card stack. A conventional controller within the printer signals the system when to accelerate. As shown inFIG. 4, and in accordance with the present disclosure, a variable guide system30includes a series of four chutes defined by walls33that receive individually cut cards12from an upstream cutter (not shown) that are held down by a hold-down mechanism31positioned within each chute. Cards12have a weight differential caused by the weight of the tape11and this creates a moment that spins the cards and affects the flight trajectory of each card as it is conveyed. The hold-down mechanism31is configured to offset the moment/trajectory weight differential caused by the tape by using 4 adjustable hold downs31that include adjustable thumb screws32and Mylar strips34that are loaded by weights36. Adjustments are made on the fly by the operator rotating the easily accessible and controllable thumb screw. This allows for side to side movement and angle adjustment of each hold-down mechanism31individually. The adjustment is made easily to ensure that the cards do not pile up under Mylar strips34and cause a jam or shoot under the Mylar strips themselves. This ensures that the operator can create an evenly shingled set that is separated from the previous and following sets and can be picked up by the operator at high speed.

Additionally if a jam does occur the hold-down mechanism is rotated out of the way as shown inFIGS. 5 and 6which allows the cards to freely move out of the slitter system without allowing the cards to become wedged. InFIG. 5, as view from the outboard end of hold-down mechanism31, a catch member37is shown rotated in the direction of arrow38into a hold down or RUN position while inFIG. 6the another catch members36is shown from the inboard end of hold-down mechanism31rotated in the direction of arrow39into an UP or jam clearance position. This system allows adjustment of: the defection angle from the slitter; length of the Mylar strip deflectors; and inboard to outboard location of deflectors and allows these parameters to be changed to optimize the system while the machine is running.

In recapitulation, a system has been disclosed that shingle cards cut from a sheet. Each card includes a PSA (pressure sensitive adhesive) tape on paper as a modified substrate. The cards are fed into four chutes positioned above and working in conjunction with a conveyor in batches of 24 in each chute and held in place and prevented from jamming at the entrance to the conveyor from a slitter by a hold-down mechanism in each chute. The hold-down mechanism is rotatable for jam clearance and is designed to relieve the jam pressure as the cards exit the slitter at high speed. The hold-down mechanism is free to rotate and prevents tight compacting of cards and reduces downtime caused by misfeeds.