Patent GB-384326-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to sheet feeding and registering apparatus
IPC: B41F21/05
Filed: 1931-05-05
Abstract: 384,326. Feeding sheets. WORMSER, A., 48, Dreieichring, Offenbach - on - Main, Germany. May 5, 1931, No. 13316. [A Specification was laid open to inspection under Sect. 91 of the Acts, May 18, 1931.] [Class 100 (i).] Sheets of paper, cardboard, sheet metal, celluloid, or the like are fed to printing-machines &c. from a feedtable on which they rest in overlapped condition, and the sheet to be fed is registered against front stops 20, Fig. 1, to which it is directed by means of adjustable guides 61, with a part of the preceding sheet overlapping the edge which is being registered, the sheet being positively gripped after front and side registering is completed. This overlapping edge may be raised so as to be out of the way of the registering devices, or the stops may be raised from below, or may be advanced from a rear to a forward position under the preceding sheet, or may be inserted from the side. As shown, the registering devices 20 are carried adjustably by lever arms 64 on a shaft 65, carried by oscillating arms 22 by means of which the sheet is conveyed to transfer grippers 7 carried by arms on an oscillating shaft. 6 which causes the sheet to be conveyed to grippers 76 on an impression cylinder. The arms 22 move quicker than the normal speed of the pass after receiving the sheet, and the grippers 7 move at this speed while receiving the sheet, but are slowed down to the speed of the grippers 76 for transfer of the sheet thereto. On the return motion of the grippers 7 their co-operating blocks 77 are moved radially so as to cause the grippers to swing free of the cylinder. The arms 22 are fitted with a pair of suction tubes 38, 39 formed with apertures 21, 21a, and the apertures 21 grip the front edge of the sheet lightly and presses it against the stops 20. When the rear set of apertures engages the sheet the forward edge of the sheet is bent to a curved form, and thus the sheet is stiffened during its side registration which is effected during the forward swing of the arms 22. The tubes 38, 39 are moved laterally to the right so as to register the right edge of the sheet by means of the action of a spring on a rod 25 which can slide in the arms 22 and is attached to a roller 28, Fig. 7, engaging a cam 32 which swings in a direction opposite to that of the arms 22. The right edge 59 of the sheet 9, Fig. 9, as forwarded from the feed table 13 is arranged to the left of a side registering gauge 46 secured to a rod 43 which can slide in a block 42 attached to rods 40, 41 in a fixed but adjustable manner. The sheet is moved by the tubes 38, 39 until it engages the gauge 46 which is moved thereby with the rod 43. The rod is normally held in the block 42 by an adjustable friction lever 56, and after the sheet touches the gauge 46, a pneumatically operated wedge 50 in a block 49 which moves with the tubes 38, 39 clamps the bar 43 to the block 49 and the registered sheet continues its movement until the neck 44 of the bar 43 bears against the block 42 which stops the movement of the tubes 38, 39 and the sheet. A cushioning device may be provided to act on the neck 44. A spring-connection between the rod 22 and the tubes 38, 39 is compressed on further movement of the rod 25. The side-registering device can be arranged to act on either side of the sheet. The front lays are swung forward out of the way of the sheet at the time of transfer by means of a fixed cam which engages a lever on the shaft 65. The sheet is lifted over the side lay as the arms 22 return by means of a cylindrical plate 91, Fig. 12, attached to a pneumatically operated plunger 93 which is normally kept depressed by a spring 94. The rear part of the sheet may be kept raised above the sheet which is being registered by means of an air blast or by means of one or more suction rollers arranged above the feed table. Obliquely cut sheets may be registered against an oblique side lay 46. The machine may be fitted with mirrors to enable the registration of the sheets to be observed from below, or contacts with the registering device may be fitted with a signalling device. The sideregistering may be effected by moving the sheet against a fixed gauge by means of a suction device which grips the bottom of the sheet lightly, so as to permit slip when the edge of the sheet touches the side lay. In this connection a second nozzle may be used to prevent the sheet from turning around by the friction of the sheet on the table. The second nozzle is stationary and is adapted to be uncovered so as to permit the inrush of air when the sheet reaches the side gauge. The side-registering may be effected by grippers instead of suction nozzles.