Patent GB-1316916-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for fastening a superposed mass of sheet like materials
IPC: B65B27/08
Filed: 1971-11-09
Abstract: 1316916 Apparatus for bundling stacks of sheet material TOKYO SHIBAURA ELECTRIC CO Ltd 9 Nov 1971 [13 Nov 1970] 51889/71 Heading B8C Apparatus for bundling a stack 5 of sheets such as postcards comprises a multi-belt conveyer 3 which carries a row of stacks 5 towards a reciprocatable carrier 6 which is adapted to drop down behind each stack in turn and move it forward, at a greater speed than the conveyer 3 into a clamping device 7 which grips only the side edges of the stack, preferably bows the stack in its direction of travel, and is movable backwards and forwards along a rail guide 11 to convey, during its forward movement, each stack successively through a heat contractible tape feeder and guide 9, 12, a heat weld and cutting device 13, 14, a heating device 15 where a loop of tape is contracted tightly around the stack, and a withdrawing device 16. The carrier 6 is reciprocated vertically and horizontally respectively by air cylindrs (27, 24), Fig. 2, not shown, a pusher arm (19) having projections (18) for engaging between the belts (3a-3d) o the conveyer (3). The carrier 6 is operated by a photo-electric detector on arrival of a stack 5. The clamping device 7, Fig. 3, comprises ridged supporting members 29a, 29b and co-operating compressing members 30a, 30b which are operable by rack-and-pinion mechanism 32-34, 37, 38 to clamp the sides of a stack 5, carry spring pressing strips such as (43a 1 , 43b 1 ), Fig. 4A, not shown, and may be perforated. The heatcontractible tape 44, Fig. 6, is drawn out from spring-loaded rollers 45, 46 by an advancing stack 5 and is guided by rollers 48, 49 around the leading edge and top and bottom faces of the stack. When the stack 5, carried by the clamping device, has passed the cutting and welding device 13, 14 an air cylinder 59 is actuated to lower a pair of heated welding blades 52, 53 and a cutting knife 54 which cuts between two welding lines formed by the blades 52, 53 to provide a loose loop of tape around the stack and a continuous tape 10 between the rolls 45, 46 to receive the next stack 5. The clamping device then carries the bound stack into the heating device 15 which has heating elements (66), Fig. 7, not shown, on its upper and lower walls and air contains (72), (73) respectively across its inlet and outlet openings (64, 65). The loop of tape is shrunk around the stack in the heating device 15 and the stack is relieved of its clamping in the device 7 so that the subsequent straightening out of the stack more firmly fastens the tape. The clamping device 7 continues its forward movement to deposit the stack upon an inclined table 81 before it is moved, in the opposite direction, back to its original position to pick up the next stack 5. The withdrawing device 16 comprises an arm (76), Fig. 8, not shown, which is reciprocatable by an air cylinder (77) and which carries a spring- loaded pivotal pushing member (21) which can swing clockwise to ride over a stack 5 and has limited anticlockwise movement to engage behind a stack and move it along the table 81 and into a receptacle 17. In a modification, Fig. 11, not shown, the tape (44) is paid out from only one roller (46a) so that a tape around a stack has only one welded joint. The clamping device 7 may be replaced by a conveyer system, Fig. 10, not shown, comprising upper and lower pairs of laterally-spaced endless conveyer belts.