Device to deliver printed products from a fanwheel

A device used to deliver folded printed products from delivery fanwheels of a folder to a conveyor uses chains driven by the fanwheel shaft and which pass over cam segments to clamp the folded products. The chains each carry angle elements and clamping pieces which cooperate with the vanes of the fanwheels to clasp the printed products.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is directed generally to a device to deliver printed 
matter from the delivery fanwheels of a folder. More particularly, the 
present invention is directed to a device to clamp and deliver folded 
printed matter from the delivery fanwheels of a folder. Most specifically, 
the present invention is directed to a device to clamp and deliver folded 
printed products from the delivery fanwheels of a folder apparatus to form 
a spaced stream of folded printed matter. A plurality of clamping pieces 
are carried by links of chains which pass around cam segments on cam 
support. These clamping pieces grasp and hold the leading edges of the 
folded products which are carried in the pockets of the fanwheels. As the 
fanwheels continue to rotate, the clamping pieces transfer the folded 
products to a conveyor belt. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
Folded printed product deliver fanwheel assemblies are generally well known 
in the art and are typically used to receive folded products, such as 
newspaper sections, from a rotating folding cylinder. The deliver 
fanwheels receive these folded printed products between delivery fan vanes 
and carry the products to a conveyor belt for take-away. It is often 
desireable to arrange the folded printed products on the conveyor belt in 
a pre-determined spaced array. Unless the printed products are held in the 
pockets of the delivery fanwheels and released at a particular time, their 
spacing on the take away conveyor is apt not to be uniform. 
German Patent Application No. 28 11 467 discloses a device to form a stream 
of folded products. The products are clasped by the grippers of a chain 
transport system while still in the vane of the fan. The gripping, 
however, occurs very late so that there is a possibility that the printed 
articles will slide out of the vane before the grippers can clasp them in 
the correct registration position. Because the grippers clasp the printed 
products in an arbitrary manner and transfer them from the path of the 
delivery fanwheel to the path of the chain, the unit does not allow the 
individual products to be oriented at an exact distance from one another 
in the stream. 
Swiss Patent Application No. 4 27 625 is directed to a device which it is 
possible to clasp printed matter shooting into a vane pocket at the 
correct point so that it is in the proper position. To do this, grippers, 
whose opening and closing movements are controlled by at least two curve 
controllers, are set on gripper chain at the correct distances. However, 
because of their small components and complicated construction, grippers 
of this type have initial costs and are quite expensive to maintain. 
It is apparent that a need exists for a printed product clamping device 
which will grasp printed products in the pockets of a delivery fanwheel, 
and which will release the printed folded products to a take-away conveyor 
in an accurate, properly spaced manner. The device to deliver printed 
products out of fanwheels of a folder in accordance with the present 
invention provides such a device and is a substantial improvement over 
prior devices. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device to deliver 
printed products from a fanwheel. 
A further object of the present invention is to provide a printed product 
delivery device for fanwheels of a folder. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a device to clamp 
folded printed products in the vane pockets of delivery fanwheels of a 
folder. 
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a device to 
achieve an exact spacing of a stream of folded products from fanwheels of 
a folder. 
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a device for 
clamping and delivering folded printed products from fanwheels of a folder 
which does not use controllable grippers. 
As will be discussed in greater detail in the description of the preferred 
embodiment which is set forth subsequently, the printed product delivery 
device in accordance with the present invention utilizes a plurality of 
clamping pieces carried on chains to engage and clamp the leading edges of 
folded printed products in the vane pockets of delivery fanwheels of a 
folder. The chains which carry the clamping pieces are guided about upper 
and lower cam segments which are, in turn, held by spaced cam supports. 
Each of the chains is driven from the fanwheel drive shaft at a speed 
slower than that of the fanwheels. As the folded printed products enter 
the vane pockets of the fanwheels, they are engaged and clamped by the 
clamping pieces. The folded printed products are slid out of the vane 
pockets by the more slowly moving clamping pieces and chains and are 
deposited in a spaced array on a take-away conveyor. 
In contrast with print art devices, the device to deliver folded products 
from fanwheels of a folder in accordance with the present invention uses 
clamping pieces which are not controlled sheet grippers and thus which do 
not require elaborate or costly complicated components. A further 
advantage of the present device is that the clamping pieces engage the 
leading ends of the folded products and deliver these products to the 
take-away conveyor in an exactly spaced array. This eliminates the need to 
provide a subsequent spacing device. The printed folded products deliver 
device in accordance with the present invention is also adjustable to 
accommodate folded products having various thicknesses. It will thus be 
apparent that the device for delivering printed products from a fanwheel 
of a folder of the present invention is a significant advance in the art.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring initially to FIG. 1, folded products 3 are guided into place 
between two vanes 4 of several spaced delivery fanwheels 6 by several 
conveyor belts 1 which lie next to one another and which are wrapped 
around a jaw cylinder 2 of a folder. Guide clips are depicted at 7, and 
undriven deflection pulleys are provided at 8. In a generally conventional 
manner, each delivery fanwheel 6 consists of a disk 9 to which several 
vanes 4 are attached. Several delivery fanwheels 6 are attached, in a 
generally known manner, next to one another on a driving shaft 11 which is 
mounted in side frames 12 and 13, as may be seen more clearly in FIG. 2. 
The ends 14 and 16 of the fanwheel driving shaft 11 are supported in 
sleeves 17 and 18, which are attached to the side frames 11 and 12. 
End portions 24 and 26 of spaced side plates 22 and 23 are connected to one 
another by a cross strut 27, as may be seen in FIG. 2, and are pivotally 
mounted to a chain wheel shaft 28. The chain wheel shaft 28 is mounted in 
the side frames 12 and 13 a small distance from, and parallel to, the 
fanwheel driving shaft 11 by means of antifriction bearings 19 and 21. Two 
chian wheels 29 and 31, which are each located between two delivery 
fanwheels 6, are interlocked to the chain wheel shaft 28. An additional 
driven chain wheel 32 is secured to the chain wheel shaft 28 and is 
connected to a drive chain 33 to a driving chain wheel 34 which is secured 
to the driving shaft 11. The driving chain wheel 34 is smaller than the 
driven chain wheel 32 so that endless chains 49 and 51 driven by chain 
wheels 29 and 31 rotate at a speed relative to the circumferential vane 
rotation speed V.sub.m. The mean circumferential vane rotation speed 
V.sub.m with respect to a mean vane radius r.sub.m, measured from the axis 
of rotation 45 of the deliver fanwheel 6, wherein 
EQU r.sub.m =r.sub.s +r.sub.g /2 
is approximately 2.5 times faster than the chain speed V.sub.K : 
EQU V.sub.m =2.5.times.V.sub.K, 
where r.sub.m =mean vane radius, r.sub.g =the radius of the vane base, and 
r.sub.s =the radius of the vane end. (The radii can be seen in FIG. 1). 
This means that the vane rotational speed V.sub.m is generally 2.5 times 
that of the chain speed V.sub.K. In other words, the several chains 49 and 
51 move more slowly than the fanwheels 6 rotate. 
Upright cam supports 36 and 37 are form-fitted by their ends 38 and 39, 
between two delivery fanwheels 6, to the cross strut 27, as seen in FIG. 
2. The cam supports 36 and 37 each having a mounting point for the chain 
wheel shaft 28. A conveyor belt 42 is fixed beneath the delivery fanwheel 
6 and is used to carry the folded products 3 arriving at it. The speed of 
the upper side 40 of the conveyor belt 42 is equal to the peripheral speed 
V.sub.K of the chains 49 and 51. The cam supports 36 and 37 each have an 
upper arm 69 and 71 and a lower arm 72 and 73, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 2. 
The arms 69 and 72; 71 and 73 extend about the driving shaft 11, but 
without touching it or completely surrounding it. 
An upper cam segment 41 facing toward the jaw cylinder 2 is rigidly fixed 
to the upper arm 69, and a lower cam segment 43 facing toward the conveyor 
belt 42 is rigidly fixed to the lower arm 72. An upper cam segment 44 
facing toward the jaw cylinder 2 is rigidly fixed to the cam support 37, 
and a lower cam segment 46 facing toward the conveyor belt 42 is rigidly 
fixed to the lower support. The upper and lower cam segments 41, 44; 43, 
46 are each equipped with a centrally mounted chain guiding fin 47 or 48 
which stretches along the entire length of the bearing surface of the cam 
segment 41 and 44; 43 and 46. 
The upper cam segments 41 and 44 are spaced part from the lower cam 
segments 43 and 46. The chains 49 and 51 wrap around the chain wheels 29 
and 31, which drive them, and around the upper cam segments 41 and 44; and 
the lower cam segment 43 and 46. The chains 49 and 51 moves on a straight 
line between the upper 41, 44; and the lower 43, 46 cam segments. The 
chains 49 and 51 are guided around the driving shaft 11 of the delivery 
fanwheel 6 by the cam segments 41 and 44; 43 and 46. 
Angle elements 52 are attached at equal intervals and at right angles to 
links 50 of each chain 49 and 51. These angle elements 52 each have one 
long leg 54 and one short leg 53. The long leg 54 sits tangentially to the 
chains 49 and 51. The short leg 53 sits vertically and facing away to the 
outside. A spherical clamping piece 57 is attached to an outward facing 
surface 55 of the long leg 54. This clamping piece 57 is preferably 
constructed of an elastic, slip-free material such as rubber, PVC or 
unmachined chromium film. 
The short leg 53 of the angle element 52 acts both as a stop to a folded 
product 3 entering a vane pocket 61 formed by a vane 4 and a delivery 
fanwheel body 9, and as an aid in ejecting the folded product 3 from the 
vane pocket 61 onto the conveyor belt 42. A distance a between two 
consecutive short legs 53 of two angle elements 52 is the same as the 
distance b between the folded products when placed on the conveyor belt 
42, for example 90 mm. 
The folded product 3 falls between two vanes 4 and, if it has dropped 
normally, rests on the bottom 58 of the vane picket 61 formed by the vane 
4 and the delivery fanwheel body 9. A leading edge 66 of the folded 
product pushes against one of the outward-facing legs 53 which emerges fom 
the peripheral area of the delivery fanwheel body 9 at this instant, and 
is clamped by the clamping piece 57 that is also emerging from the 
peripheral area. Clamping of the leading edge of the folded product 66 
occurs by a scissor-like grip of the clamping pieces 57 and the angle 
elements 52 attached to the chains 49 and 51, and the preferably 
Teflon-coated vanes 4. The leading edge 66 of the folded product undergoes 
a temporary corrugation-like deformation in this process, as is depicted 
in FIG. 3. 
As the delivery fanwheels 6 and their attached vanes 4, several of which, 
for instance, are located next to each other, move along with the chains 
49 and 51 with the angle elements 52, which run between two neighboring 
delivery fanwheels 6, attached to them, the wedge-shaped space formed by 
the clamping piece 57 and the vanes 4 initially tapers so the aperture 
angle decreases, then widens again at a later point. During the tapering 
of the wedge, the clamping piece 57 comes out past the periphery of the 
delivery fanwheel 6. Thus, the folded product 3 is clamped between several 
clamping pieces 57 and the vanes 4, as is shown in FIG. 3, and is moved 
like this toward the conveyor belt 42. After approximately a quarter-turn 
of the delivery fanwheel 6, the wedge opens again and the more rapidly 
moving vanes 4 is pulled out from under the folded product 3, since the 
folded leading edge 66 of the product lies against the short leg 53 of the 
slower moving angle element 52 of the chains 49 and 51. Shortly after 
reaching the lowest point of the delivery fanwheel 6, the van pocket 62 
overtakes the short leg 53 of the angle element 52 and the leading edge 66 
of the folded product 3 is now free to be placed on the conveyor belt 42 
onto the other folded products 3 already there, and with the exactly 
required distance a from them. 
To prevent the ends of the folded products 3, which, depending on their 
size or output positioning, can be larger than the depth of the vane 
pockets 61, from folding over outside the ends of the vanes 4, guide clips 
67, 68 are fitted around the product carrying ends of the delivery 
fanwheels 6. The guide clips 67, 68 guide the end of the folded product 74 
directly to the upper side 40 of the conveyor belt 42. 
To aid in an understanding of the operation of the present invention, an 
operational sequence is shown in FIGS. 4-8. FIG. 4 shows the folded 
product 3 in the vane pocket 61 formed by the vane 4 and the delivery 
fanwheel body 9 shortly before it contacts one of the angle elements 52. 
FIG. 5 shows the instant in which the leading edge 66 of the folded 
product 3 contacts the angle element 52 and is immediately clamped by the 
spherical clamping pieces 57. This is also the start of the ejection of 
the folded product 3 from the vane pocket. Because of a high friction 
factor of the clamping piece 57, the folded product 3 always stays in 
contact with the clamping piece and the angle element 52, and slides off 
the smooth inner surface of the vane 4. FIG. 6 shows the position of the 
folded product 3 when it is almost completely ejected. The unclamped end 
74 of the folded product 3 lies against the guide clip 67 and is guided by 
it. A following folded product 3.2 is already in the next vane pocket 61. 
FIG. 7 shows the following folded product 3.2 being clamped by the buffer 
or clamping piece 57. The center of a folded product 76 sits just before 
the start of the second guide clip 68 which extends very close to the 
conveyor belt 42. FIG. 8 shows the folded product 3 just prior to its 
being ejected onto the conveyor belt 42. The center of the folded product 
76 is in contact with the guide clip 68, the ends of the folded product 74 
are in contact with guide clip 67. The following folded product 3.2 is 
halfway ejected and lies partially in the vane 4, partially on the guide 
clip 67. A third folded product 3.3 is led to the vane 4, without entering 
the vane periphery. 
In order for the device to operate with folded products 3 of varying 
thicknesses, the side plates 22 and 23, the cross strut 27, and the cam 
supports 36 and 37 carrying the cam segments 41, 43, 44, 46 are adjustably 
mounted on the chain wheel shaft 28, so that the clamping pieces 57 which 
cooperate with the vanes 4 can be adjusted. To accomplish this adjustment, 
the cross strut 27 is attached to an adjusting device 77 as seen in FIG. 
1. Moving the side plates 22 and 23 upwards, for example for thinner 
folded products 3, produces a lowering of the cam segments 41, 43, 44 and 
46. The wedge formed by the clamping piece 57 and the vane 4 is thereby 
narrowed so the aperture angle decreases. This allows thinner folded 
products 3 to be securely clamped. For thicker folded products 3, the side 
plates 22 and 23 are moved downwardly. This elevates the cam segments 41, 
43, 44 and 46. 
While a preferred embodiment of a device to deliver folded printed products 
from delivery fanwheels of a folder in accordance with the present 
invention has been set forth fully and completely hereinabove, it will be 
apparent to one of skill in the art that a number of changes in, for 
example, the type of folder, the number of adjacent fanwheels, the number 
of vanes on each fanwheel and the like could be made without departing 
from the true spirit and scope of the present invention which is 
accordingly to be limited only by the following claims.