Patent GB-953303-A (GB)
Title: Sheet handling apparatus
IPC: B65H29/51
Filed: 1962-03-20
Abstract: 953,303. Delivering sheets. WEST VIRGINIA PULP & PAPER CO. March 20, 1926 [March 20, 1961], No. 10602/62. Heading B6H. Sheets are conveyed from handling apparatus at high speed to a collecting drum which accumulates them in packets of predetermined number, which packets are delivered to a variable speed conveying means, which receives a packet at the peripheral speed of the drum, delivers it to a receiver at a reduced speed, and attains its higher speed to receive the next packet. A web is fed from an unwinder 2, Fig. 1, past a fault-detecting station 14 to a cutter drum 20 which severs it into sheets, a change speed unit adjusting the web speed according to the desired sheet length. Tapes 42, 43, 101, 201, 301 moving faster than the web feed the sheets to or past three sorter stacker units 100, 200, 300. Each sorter stacker unit comprises a collecting drum (e.g. 204, Figs. 1, 3 and 11, for the unit 200) and a transfer drum 207. When a sheet is to be collected by the drum 204, flippers 203 under pneumatic control are raised out of circumferential grooves in the drum and the sheet is directed round the drum by tapes 205, 209. Further sheets to be collected are fed so as to pass round the drum in registry with and to form a batch with sheets previously collected, each sheet so collected being counted by a device 691. When a required number of sheets have been collected, e.g. for a signal from the device 691 actuates a pneumatic cylinder 270 controlling a cam follower 271 running in one of two cam tracks in a disc 293 to open flippers 206 and direct the batch to the drum 207, whence they are delivered to a stack 213. The sheets are floated on to the stack by air from a pipe 218 and jogged into registry by joggers 210, 211, 212 assisted by air from a conduit 219. After each batch is stacked, air below it is pressed out by a tamper device comprising pads 610. After each ream, a flag or ribbon 672 is positioned on said ream by a ream flag inserted 670. Each stack rests on an hydraulic lifter 288, the height of the pile being controlled by a photo-electric detector 680. The roller 207 is driven from the roller 204 by a device which may include two tachometer generators, the arrangement being such that the speed of the drum 207 fluctuates between the speed of the drum 204 when receiving sheets therefrom and a lower speed when delivering them to the stack. The machine is operated by an electric motor and the timing of the various functions at each sorter reached is controlled by a timing switch mounted on the collecting drum shaft. In operation, the sorter stackers are set to receive respectively sheets of first and second quality and to be in stand-by condition, by means of controls on panels 740, Fig. 14. Signals from an inspection control panel 17 at the detecting station 14 are sent, in response to the condition of each sheet, to the shift registers SR1, SR2, SR3, which control the operation of the flippers such as 203, so that sheets of the two qualities are collected by the drums pre-set to receive them, while sheets of poorer quality pass over all the stackers to a shoot 80. Signals are also passed to the shift registers from a cut line synchronizer 21 which photo-electrically detects the sheet edges, controlling a delay mechanism whereby the flippers are actuated when the sheet detected at 21 arrives at the sorter stackers. Alternatively, the machine may comprise only one stacker, when the flippers are omitted, and the slow-down and speed-up drive between the drums can be programmed through a non-linear gear chain.