Patent GB-554138-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to collating machines
IPC: B65H39/042
Filed: 1941-12-18
Abstract: 554,138. Bookbinding. SMYTH MANUFACTURING CO. Dec. 18, 1941, No. 16345. Convention date, April 28. [Class 16] [Also in Group XVI] A machine for collating and interposing sheets of paper and carbon or other duplicating sheets and forming them into pads is constructed with a stepby-step vertically movable conveyor formed with shelves 3 for receiving paper and carbon sheets, the paper sheets being fed from tables 41 arranged one above the other, and the carbon sheets from tables 111 which are staggered vertically with respect to the paper feed devices. The arrangement is such that as the shelves 3 descend paper and carbon sheets are received alternately, and paste is applied to the edges of the sheets to bind them together. The carbon sheets are cut from webs fed from rolls 136, and the paper sheets are perforated before reaching the shelves 3 by means of rotary discs 67, Fig. 2. The finished products are removed by reciprocating gripper devices on to an intermittently movable band 228. The machine comprises one carbon sheet feeding device less than the number of paper feeding devices, and also one less pasting mechanism. Most of the operating devices are actuated from a cam shaft 27 arranged below them. The paper sheets are separated from their piles by means of suction nozzles 43 mounted in lever arms 44 which are pivoted in slides 45 adapted to be reciprocated on fixed tracks 46 by rack-and-pinion mechanism operated by sliding racks 50, Fig. 1, and cams on shaft 27. Each arm is oscillated so as to cause the nozzles to engage the pile to separate the top sheet and subsequently to deposit it upon a shelf 3. The suction nozzles 43 are so constructed that any nozzle can be rotated through half a revolution to cut off the suction thus permitting the number of nozzles which are active to depend on the width of the sheets. Double feed is prevented by blasts of air directed on to the front edges of the sheet by nozzles 65, Fig. 14. The piles are raised automatically as required under the control of feeler levers 78 which are moved towards the pile by a spring when permitted by a cam. When the pile is low a trip screw 88 releases a latch 89 to permit the operation of pawl..andratchet mechanism and thus through helical gears 97, 98 to operate screws 99 which raise the pile tables. The ratchet mechanism may be dismantled to permit of hand-operation. The cut carbon sheets are fed in a similar manner but prior to this an adjustable length of web is fed past the lower fixed cutting- blade by means of intermittently driven feed rollers 135, Fig. 2, each operated by a one-way clutch driven by an oscillating segment 143 which is driven by an adjustable crank-mechanism adapted to permit a variable length of sheet to be cut by an oscillating blade 158, Fig. 2, which is depressed to effect the cut by means of a reciprocating rod 166 operated by a cam on shaft 27. Each blade 158 returns under spring action and is presesd axially by a spring. The mechanism for applying paste to the edges of the sheets is shown in Fig. 32 and comprises a pad 187 which is carried by a bar 186 which is given a reciprocating motion so as to move the pad 187 alternately into contact with a paste roll 177 in a tank 174 and with the edge of a sheet fed to a shelf 3. The bar is carried by arms 185 which are given a pivotal movement so as to cause the pad to be moved up and down as well as to and fro. Co-operating with the pad 187 is a presser plate 188 which is depressed relatively to the pad by a spring 189 so that the plate contacts the sheets before the pad and remains in contact therewith after withdrawal of the pad. The paste roll 177 is rotated intermittently by pawl-and ratchet mechanism. No paste is applied to the last sheet fed but a pressing-plate is used to act oupn this sheet. The finished pad is delivered by a reciprocating carriage 214, Fig. 33.operated by rack-and-pinion mechanism and provided with spring fingers 218 for gripping the pad. These fingers are normally raised under spring action but are lowered to grip the pad by the action of the descending adjacent shelf 3 on a lever arm 224 of a bell-crank the arm 221 of which acts on a cam surface on the pivoted support of the spring fingers and forces the fingers on to the pad. A fixed wedge 226 acts upon the lever 224 to release the finished pad, and it is then carried laterally on a band 228, Fig. 2, which is advanced intermittently by pawl-and-ratchet mechanism.