Patent GB-190822591-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Signature and like Gathering or Assembling Machines.
Inventor: BARKER GEORGE
Filed: 1908-10-24
Granted: 1909-05-27
Abstract: 22,591. Barker, G., [Standard Assembler Co.]. Oct. 24. Bookbinding.-In a machine for assembling or " stuffing " folded sheets for newspaper, book, &c. signatures or sections, the top sheets of a number of piles 5, 6, 7 are opened up by suction lifters 9 so that the travelling cross-bar 8 may take the sheet and pass or "stuff " it into the fold of the top sheet on the next pile, and so on until a complete signature is obtained. This is then removed from the bar 8 by the rapidly-running tapes 10, 11, and may be finally deposited on a slowly-moving band 17 by a flier 18. The operation of the sheets at each pile is identical. The pile is curved as shown in Fig. 13 so that the sheets project out at the side of the machine and rest on the supporting-bands 24, 27. The follower 22 engages with the links of the chain 24 and assists in the feeding of the folded sheets. The bands are driven from a shaft 32 by the chain 33. The shaft 32 is driven intermittently by ratchet gearing, the pawl lever being connected to a constantly-operated lever 40, when the level of the pile is below a certain height, by a catch on the lever 56 pivoted on the lever 40, which is reciprocated by an incline on the sliding bar 44 engaging with the tumbler 46 at the end of the lever 40. The position of the lever 56 depends on the position of an adjustable screw 55 attached to the crank arm 54 fixed to the shaft 51, which carries at its other end the arm 50 and bar 49 to which is fixed the section - lifting device. This rests on the pile normally, and according to its height so the raising-mechanism is operated or not. A second incline on the sliding bar 44 engaging with the tumbler 68 at the end of the crank 54 lifts the suction device at a suitable moment, and simultaneously the suction device is connected to a vacuum chamber by a stop-cock operated by stops on the bar 44. The suction device, which is situated over a corner of the sheet furthest from the last fold, thus opens the sheet as shown in Fig. 1, to allow a bar 8 with or without other sheets on it to pass between the folds and carry the sheet on to the delivery tapes 10. 11, which run at such a speed as to strip the sheets of the bar 8, which then returns along the path 8<a>. In order to prevent the lifted portion of the sheet from dropping prematurely when the action of the suckers ceases, a bar 69 is pivoted at the side of the machine so as to swing horizontally into the position shown in Fig. 1, after the sheet has been opened, under the action of a cam piece on the rod 44. The bars 8 are yieldingly connected to rolling carriages 116 running on an endless track 118, and held the same distance apart as the piles 5, 6, 7 by a driving-chain. The bar 44 is operated through gearing and a clutch so as to reciprocate either once every time a bar 8 approaches one of the piles, in which case the folded sheets are delivered to the tapes stuffed into each other, or once every time an empty bar is, approaching each of the piles, in which case the sheets are delivered to the tapes singly and assembled in the right order,