Patent GB-561362-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to method of and apparatus for conveying or delivering sheets or thin flat articles
IPC: B65H29/32
Filed: 1941-08-12
Abstract: 561,362. Delivery apparatus; drying apparatus. STEVENS, A. H. (Miller Printing Machinery Co.). Aug. 12, 1941, No. 10254. [Classes 100 (i) and 100 (ii)] A delivery apparatus for delivering sheets or thin flat articles from printing and like machines is constructed with a carrier which advances the sheet to the delivery position and is withdrawn to permit the sheet to fall on to a receptacle preferably with the aid of a blowing device, and the sheet is steadied during the return of the carrier preferably by means of a suction device. As shown, sheets are delivered from an impression or creasing cylinder 2 by strippers 3 and a pressing roller 9 and are then advanced by tapes 32 which pass over a roller 33 on a shaft driven by sprocket gear from the cylinder 2, tapes 43 co-operating to hold down the sheets. The sheets are then passed to tapes 48 on a carrier 31 which is reciprocated by racks engaged by oscillating pinions 29 operated by a crank 21 and a gear 23 engaging a pinion on the shaft of the pinions 29. The tapes 48. pass around a knurled roller 49 at the front of the carrier and the front edges of the sheets are held by suction nozzles 61 connected to a tube 60 before the carrier reaches its position above the delivery table 123 and the nozzles 61 position the sheets above the table before the suction is cut off from the nozzles 61 and transferred to other nozzles 63 connected to a tube 59. The tubes 59, 60 are arranged on the carrier 31 in front of the roller 49 and are connected by flexible tubes to a valve 73 fitted with a plug cock which is oscillated by adjustable pins on the frame engaging cam projections on the valve cock. The roller 49 is driven from a fixed rack 55 by ratchet mechanism which rotates the roller counterclockwise as the carrier 31 moves away from the pile. The tapes 48 are thus kept stationary relatively to the sheets being delivered as they are withdrawn to permit the sheets to be deposited on the pile. During this action the valve 73 connects the tube 59 to suction, and some of the tapes 48 are formed with apertures 66 which are brought in succession over the nozzles 63 and the downward motion of the sheet is controlled by the suction which is applied successively to different parts of the sheets until finally before the carrier 31 is free of the pile the sheets are free to fall. This falling action may be assisted by a blast of air delivered from a stationary tube 120, or in a modification, by a tube which is carried by the carrier 31 and is supplied with an air blast under control of a valve actuated by a cam projection which engages fixed pins on the frame. The blowing device forms the subjectmatter of Specification 561,390, [Group XXX]. The tapes 32 engage the undersides of the sheets, and to ensure drying of the printed sheets a burner 100 is mounted across the machine and is supplied with fuel from a mixing chamber 102. The fuel supply may be cut off automatically when the machine is stopped. The gas supply conduit and the suction conduit are passed through the hollow shaft 108 of the oscillating gears 29, and flexible conduits connected to the conduits 107, 108 by radial passages in a drum are wound upon and unwound from -the drum as the carrier 31 is reciprocated by means as described in Specification 561,391, [Group XXX].