Abstract:
An automatic stacking device includes a plurality of successive conveyors to convey properly cut corrugated paper board. By setting the conveyors at different operation speeds and different levels, paper boards can be deposited in stacked forms by predetermined numbers. Thus, the paper boards are deposited to form alternately offset stacks in a vertical pile of paper board. Mechanisms are incorporated to laterally shifted stacks of paper boards during the deposition of the paper boards to allow the paper boards to be piled up in the form of multiple and alternately shifted stacks to facilitate subsequent packaging and shipping.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    (a) Technical Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention relates to an automatic stacking device for corrugated paper board, and in particular to a paper board stacking device that is capable to deposit paper boards in respective and separate stacks. 
         [0003]    (b) Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    Currently, corrugated paper boards are made by first shaping a corrugated core to which surface boards are adhered. The corrugated paper boards so made are then subjected to cutting and slitting to have a desired size. Then, the cut paper boards are manually collected and packaged. 
         [0005]    Since the cut paper boards are collected and packaged manually, a lot of human effort and time are needed in packaging so that the packaging costs are very high. 
       SUMMARY OF TUE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The primary purpose of the present invention is to an automatic stacking device, which comprises a plurality of successively arranged conveyors for conveying cut paper boards and any flat paper products. By setting a difference in level between first and second conveyors, a first stack of paper boards can be separated from a second stacks and the paper boards can be stacked in an alternately stacked manner by predetermined numbers for transportation. It is also possible to pile a subsequent stack of paper boards on a preceding stack of paper boards and mechanisms are employed to alternately shift the paper board stacks in puling piling up the stacks to facilitate subsequent packaging and shipping. Further, the present invention also features setting of a fixed number of paper boards to be stacked or setting the number of paper boards in each stack and no manual counting is needed. 
         [0007]    The present invention further provides a stacking platform that is carried by a conveyor for transporting stacked paper boards to the next working station to carry out other processing, such as packaging, and this allows saving of human labor and speeding up of packaging operation to enhance throughput. 
         [0008]    Further, front and rear barriers are provided on the stacking platform to facilitate stacking of paper boards. A slidable carrier is used to move the front barrier back and forth to adjust the distance between the front and rear barriers to accommodate various sizes of paper boards. The barriers are selectively elevated to control the position of the paper stacks. Further, the stacking platform is coupled to a moving mechanism. The moving mechanism is operated in cooperation with the front and rear barriers to slightly shift newly deposited paper board with respect to the previously stacked paper boards once the previously stacked paper boards reaches a predetermined quantity in order to facilitate packaging or counting. 
         [0009]    The foregoing object and summary provide only a brief introduction to the present invention. To fully appreciate these and other objects of the present invention as well as the invention itself, all of which will become apparent to those skilled in the art, the following detailed description of the invention and the claims should be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Throughout the specification and drawings identical reference numerals refer to identical or similar parts. 
         [0010]    Many other advantages and features of the present invention will become manifest to those versed in the art upon making reference to the detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which a preferred structural embodiment incorporating the principles of the present invention is shown by way of illustrative example. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]      FIG. 1  is a side elevational view of an automatic stacking device constructed in accordance with the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIGS. 2A-2E  are side elevational views demonstrating the operation of the automatic stacking device in stacking paper boards; and 
           [0013]      FIG. 3A-3F  illustrating the stacking operation of paper boards carried out by the stacking device of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
       [0014]    The following descriptions are of exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. 
         [0015]    With reference to the drawings, and in particular to  FIG. 1 , the present invention provides an automatic stacking device, which is generally designated at  100 , for conveying and stacking cut/slit corrugated paper board. The automatic stacking device  100  is arranged to connect to a rear discharge end of a paper board cutting machine  110  to receive cut corrugated paper board or other cut paper boards of any desired form or shape. The automatic stacking device  100  comprises a first conveyor  120 , a second conveyor  130 , an intermediate conveyor  140 , a rear conveyor  150 , at least one hold-down bar  122 , which can be alternatively in the form of a hold-down roller, at least one second hold-down bar  134 , which can also be alternatively in the form of a hold-down roller, a first elevator mechanism  132 , a second elevator mechanism  142 , a third elevator mechanism  152 , and a stacking platform  160 . The first conveyor  120  has a front end closely adjacent to the cutting machine  110  to receive the corrugate paper boards fed out of the cutting machine  110 . The first hold-down bar  122  is arranged above the first conveyor  120  to hold down the corrugated paper boards conveyed through the first conveyor  120 . The second conveyor  130  has a front end that is coupled to a rear end of the first conveyor  120  by a connection mechanism, such as a universal joint or a key and keyway set. The connection mechanism can be any known means and no further detail will given hereinafter, and it is noted that any variation or equivalents thereof is considered belonging to the scope of the present invention. Further, the rear end of the first conveyor  120  is set at a level that is higher than the front end of the second conveyor  130  so that during the operation of the device, paper boards can be smoothly and successively transferred to the second conveyor  130  and the paper boards can be successively deposited and stacked on the second conveyor  130 . The intermediate conveyor  140  is coupled to a rear end of the second conveyor  130 , preferably by a connection mechanism, and the rear conveyor  150  is coupled to a rear end of the intermediate conveyor  140 , preferably by a connection mechanism, whereby by regulating the operation speeds of the conveyors, quantity based deposition/stacking of paper boards can be realized. The first elevator mechanism  132  is coupled to the second conveyor  130  to selectively elevate/lower the rear end of the second conveyor  130  in a controlled manner. The second elevator mechanism  142  is coupled to the intermediate conveyor  140 ; and the third elevator mechanism  152  is coupled to the rear conveyor  150  for selectively elevating/lowering a rear end of the rear conveyor  150 . By employing the elevator mechanisms to adjust the levels of the second conveyor, the intermediate conveyor, and the rear conveyor  150  and by controlling the operation speeds of the conveyors and/or the control of spacing distance, the paper boards can be deposited/stacked in a desired manner. It is noted that the first to third elevator mechanisms can be any device/mechanism or equivalents thereof that are effective in selectively moving the conveyors up and down in a controlled manner. 
         [0016]    Referring to  FIGS. 2A-2E , an example of the operation of the device in accordance with the preset invention will be given. The operation speed of the first conveyor  120  is set faster than the second conveyor  130 . Since the rear end of the first conveyor  120  is higher than the front end of the second conveyor  130 , the movement of the paper boards will be that the paper boards on the second conveyor  130  are moved slower than those on the first conveyor  120 . Thus, when a paper board slides from the first conveyor  120  down onto the second conveyor  130 , a portion of the paper board overlaps a preceding paper board to form partial stacking deposition on the second conveyor  130 . When a predetermined number of paper boards is reached, the operation speeds of the second conveyor  130 , the intermediate conveyor  140 , and the rear conveyor  150  are switched to be faster than that of the first conveyor  120  to transport the deposited paper boards rearwards and at the same time, the first conveyor  120  is set to a lower operation speed. Once the stack of the previously deposited paper boards exits the second conveyor  140 , the first conveyor  120  is switched back to the fast operation speed to convey off the paper boards on the first conveyor  20 , while the second conveyor  140  is again set in the low operation speed to allow subsequent deposition of the paper boards thereon. In the meantime, the intermediate conveyor  140  and the rear conveyor  150  can be set at a fast speed or maintained at the original speed to rearward convey the paper boards. The sequence of speed regulation is then repeated to cyclically set the operation speeds of the conveyors to eventually realize stacking of the paper boards in a batch basis. It is apparent that the present invention is not limited to the above discussed sequence of speed regulation or adjustment for the conveyors and can be of various ways of speed regulation or adjustment. Any feasible or effective manner of regulating or adjusting operation speeds of the conveyors that may realized batch-based stacking of paper boards is considered well within the scope of the present invention provided that the device defined in the attached claims is employed to realize the stacking. 
         [0017]    Referring to FIGS.  1  and  2 A- 2 E, the stacking platform  160  is arranged behind the rear end of the rear conveyor  150  at a location lower than the rear end so that when the paper boards that are conveyed by the rear conveyor  150  reaches the rear end thereof falls to the stacking platform  160 , the paper boards will be automatically and successively stacked on the stacking platform  160  in order. Thus, the present invention may realize stacking of paper boards by controlling the operation speeds of the conveyors and elevation adjustments of the elevator mechanisms so that the present invention is advantageous in increasing throughput in a given period of time. 
         [0018]    Also referring to  FIGS. 3A and 3F , the stacking platform  160  is coupled to a conveyor  162  so that after the paper boards are completely stacked on the stacking platform  160 , they can be transported to a next work station by the conveyor  162 . Further, a front barrier  172  and a rear barrier  156 , both being preferably in the form of a flat board, can be additionally provided to facilitate orderly stacking of the paper boards when they falls onto the stacking platform  160 . The rear conveyor  150  is provided at the rear end thereof with a hold-down roller  154 , which depresses the paper boards down to increase the friction between the paper boards and the rear conveyor  150  in order to ensure smooth movement of the paper boards. 
         [0019]    As shown in  FIGS. 2E and 3F , the rear barrier  156  is pivoted to the rear conveyor  150  and the rear barrier  156  is vertically movable with the elevation/lowering of the rear end of the rear conveyor  150 . Further, the stacking platform  160  is further provided with a moving mechanism  164 , which comprises a plurality of rollers  166  arranged below the stacking platform  160  and at least one driving unit  168 . The driving unit  168  controls reciprocal movement of the stacking platform  160  in a given direction. The driving unit  168  can be for example a pneumatic cylinder or a hydraulic cylinder or a motor, but not limited thereto. A front barrier support frame  170  (see  FIG. 1 ), a front barrier slide  174 , a front barrier elevating device  178 , and two front barrier rails  176  are arranged above the stacking platform  160 . The front barrier support frame  170  comprises a frame-like structure on which the slide  174  is arranged to be reciprocally slidable with respect to the support frame  170 . The elevating device  178  is mounted to the slide  174  and is coupled to the front barrier  172  so that when the slide  174  changes relative position thereof with respect to the support frame  170 , the front barrier  172  moves in unison with the slide  174  to set at a desired location thereby changing the distance between the front barrier  172  and the rear barrier  156  to accommodate difference in size of the paper boards. In addition, the rails  176  are arranged outboard the opposite edges of the front barrier  172  and are connected to the slide  174 . Further, the rails  176  form in opposing surfaces thereof channels  1762  that receives the opposite edges of the Front barrier  172  so that the elevating device  178  may drive the front barrier  172  to vertically move along the channels  1762  to thereby realize elevation/lowering of the front barrier  172  (in the vertical direction). It is noted that the elevating device  178  is of a generally known driving mechanism, such as a motor set, and further detail is not needed herein. When the paper boards has been stacked to a desired level or reaches a given quantity, the moving mechanism  164  drives the stacking platform  160  to move forward or rearward and at the same time, the rear barrier  156  and the front barrier  172  simultaneously and vertically moved to a desired level to make the space under the barriers  172 ,  156  unblocked and free for avoiding collision with the paper board stacked below and for depositing a new stack of paper boards on the previous stack in an slightly offsetting or shifted manner to ease pick-up and packing in a batch manner and thereby facilitating shipping. Further, in accordance with the change of the elevation of the rear end of the rear conveyor  150  by the third elevator mechanism  152 , the first and second elevator mechanisms  132 ,  142  are operated to make changes to the elevation thereof in order to maintain smooth and orderly conveyance of the paper boards by the conveyors. 
         [0020]    If desired, a counter (not shown) can be arranged on the first conveyor  120  for counting the number of the paper boards moving through the first conveyor in order to provide a parameter for facilitating control and setting of the operation speeds of the conveyors. The counter can be of any known structure or can be any known sensor. 
         [0021]    It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above. 
         [0022]    While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.