Patent GB-873686-A (GB)
Title: Sheet or flat bag stacking apparatus
IPC: B65H29/46
Filed: 1959-04-16
Abstract: 873,686. Sheet-delivery apparatus. NATIONAL DISTILLERS & CHEMICAL CORPORATION. April 16,.1959 [April 16, 1958] No. 13046/59. Class 100(1) Apparatus for stacking flat articles made of flexible sheet material comprises an article receiving station, an article receiving platform disposed at a lower level than the receiving station, a stacker to move the articles from the receiving station on to the receiving platform in the form of a stack, air jets assisting the supporting of the articles in a horizontal position in the stacker, and means for operating the stacker in synchronism with the receipt of the articles at the receiving station. As described, the apparatus is adapted to receive flexible, limp, flat bags 15 of polyethylene film direct from a bag-making machine (not shown). Large bags are guided by side strips, and have their lateral edges supported by horizontal strips 105, 106, but smaller bags are suspended entirely by their own inertia and by air blasts as they enter the receiving station of the apparatus. Each bag is then engaged by a stacker foot 30, which is attached to a piston in an air cylinder 31, and moved downwardly on to a conveyer belt 28 to form a stack. The supply of compressedair to the cylinder 31 is controlled from a timing shaft 32a which is driven from the bag-making machine. The number of bags is counted by a counter 33 (not shown) driven by the timing shaft, and when a pre-set number of bags 15 is deposited on the conveyer 28, the latter is driven to move the stack forward, away from the receiving station. The conveyer 28 is connected by chain-andsprocket drive to a shaft 132 which is adapted to be driven intermittently through a one-way clutch 146, a pinion 145, and a rack 140 attached to a piston in an air cylinder 130 (not shown). The supply of compressedair to this cylinder is also controlled by the counter 33, and the stroke of the rack 140 is controlled by an adjustable abutment thereon which engages an electric switch in a solenoid circuit in the compressed-air system. The stacker foot 30 is a grid framework, and is readily removable for replacement. The guide assembly at the receiving station comprises two opposed vertical plates 96, 97 on side rails 98, 99, respectively, of wood or other electricity non-conducting material, and the latter carry the bag support strips 105, 106, which are made of polyethylene. The rails 98, 99 are carried by arms 114 carrying nuts 112 in engagement with left-and-right hand screw threads on rods 108 which are coupled together by chains and sprockets, and rotatable by a common handle 116, whereby the rails can be readily adjusted. Any static electricity in the bags 15 is discharged by bars 120, 121 having sharp fingers thereon and projecting towards the bags in the receiving position. In a modification, the conveyer 28 is arranged to feed the complete stacks in a direction perpendicular to the path in which the bags are received in the stacking apparatus, and the air cylinder 31 is inclined, so that the stacker foot 30 presses a bag downwardly and forwardly on to the stack on the belt.