Patent GB-941468-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to apparatus for individually removing sheets from a stack of sheets
IPC: B04B11/04
Filed: 1960-03-10
Abstract: 941,468. Feeding sheets. COMPAGNIE DES MACHINES BULL. March 10, 1960 [March 17, 1959; Dec. 30, 1959], No. 8546/60. Heading B6B. Sheets are separated sequentially from the front of a stack by the combination of a rotatable suction drum, means for permanently creating a vacuum along the front face of the front sheet, an inclined air-blowing nozzle directing air towards the drum adjacent the front sheet, and a rocking finger which in one position holds the front sheet away from the drum, and in the other position allows that sheet to be sucked on to the drum for removal thereby. As shown, sheets 11 resting on one edge on an inclined plate 12 and supported by a front plate 13 and a vertical wall 14, are separated by a suction drum 22 which rotates continuously about a horizontal axis. A bar portion 41 of the drum is apertured at 42, and its inner surface is in air-tight contact with a fixed cylindrical hollow member 32 except when moving through the angle A, where the member 32 is apertured at 34. The member 32 is in communication with a source of vacuum, and the front sheet of the stack is thus grasped by the bar 41 as it moves past the table 12, and the separated sheet is stripped from the drum by strippers 71 and forwarded with the assistance of a pressure roller 25. The outer face of the bar 41 is knurled or coated with a substance having a high coefficient of friction. The surface of the drum 22 is grooved to accommodate a number of guide and pressure fingers 61 fixed to a rockable pin 63, and the strippers 71 are also positioned within these grooves. Jets of compressed air are directed on to the drum from inclined nozzles 51. Suction nozzles 56 provided with deflectors are secured to the lower part of the front plate 13 to create a zone of vacuum which is not as high as that in the drum 22. Two rollers 81 of the same diameter as the drum 22 and driven at the same speed, engage the front sheet 11 through apertures in the plate 13, and each has a sector 83 of high coefficient of friction to assist sheet separation. The front sheet is also engaged by rollers 91 having friction sectors thereon, and which are driven in a direction to register the sheet against the wall 14: or suction openings may be provided in the wall 14 to assist sheet alignment. In operation, the fingers 61 are retracted within the periphery of the drum 22 just before the bar 41 enters the angle A, so that the jets of compressed air from nozzles 51 can move the first sheet towards the drum, assisted by the suction nozzles 56, and the sheet is then separated by the suction effect of the bar 41. The front plate 13 may be vibrated, or it could be partially or completely replaced by a series of small rollers, or by a driven endless belt to eliminate friction and assist sheet separation. Suction cowls can be fitted within the grooves of the suction drum 21 to increase the adhesion of the sheets to the drum. The rockable fingers 61 may each comprise two spaced plates with curved sheet-engaging edges; or may each consist of a hollow member connected to a source of suction and provided with forward suction apertures. Apparatus which forms the subject-matter of Specification 941,469 may be included for advancing the sheet pile by belts which are driven by a motor under the control of a differential air pressure measuring capsule.