Patent GB-191317597-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Devices for Feeding Sheets to Printing, Folding, Ruling, and Analogous Apparatus.
IPC: B65H5/14
Filed: 1913-07-31
Granted: 1913-12-24
Abstract: 17,597. Aktiebolaget Princeps. July 31, 1912, [Convention date]. Sheet-forwarders; gripper mechanism. - In connexion with a gripper device carried on swinging arms for feeding sheets to platen presses, the grippers are fitted with auxiliary spring grippers, which, when the sheets are being printed, hold the sheets while they are taken by the grippers on the platen, but the opening of the main grippers may be delayed when thick sheets are being dealt with, so that these sheets are held entirely by the main grippers until taken by the platen grippers. In one form, two sets of grippers are adjustably secured to one shaft in such a manner that the spring pressure on the sets is different, so that they may deal with sheets of different thicknesses. As shown, the sheets are fed from a table 24 to grippers 7, 9 on arms 5, pivoted to oscillating arms 3 which move so as to feed the sheets to an oscillating platen 1. The arms 5 are connected by a cross-piece 6, to which the fixed members 7 of the grippers are secured, the moving members 9 being secured to a shaft 8 by screws 8Î which permit a small amount of free movement relatively thereto. Normally, the grippers 9 are acted on by springs 11, which keep them closed, and when receiving sheets the grippers are opened by cam mechanism. The grippers then close under the action of the springs 11, and hold the sheet until it is ready to be received by the platen grippers. If thin sheets are being dealt with, the grippers are adapted to be opened to a slight extent by the action of a spring-controlled adjustable lever 17, Fig. 2, on the platen, which can be set to engage the end 16 of a lever 15, 16, which normally engages an abutment on a lever 12 pivoted to the shaft 8. The lever 12 is acted on by a spring 14 which tends to move it, and, by means of a clutch 13, the shaft 8 in such a direction as to counteract the effect of the springs 11 and so open the grippers to a slight extent. The lever 15, 16 normally prevents the movement of the lever 12, but when engaged by the lever 17, the grippers 9 open slightly, and the sheets are then held by thin blade springs 21 on the grippers 9, which permit the sheets to be taken by the platen grippers without displacement of of the sheets should the grippers 9 not be opened completely before the return movement of the arms 3 commences. The lever 17 is set so as to have no action on the lever 16 when thick sheets are being dealt with. During the return movement of the arms 3, a roller 22 on the platen acts on lever 12 and moves it to the position shown in Fig. 4, thereby preventing the spring 14 from counteracting the springs 11. As shown in Fig. 7, for dealing with sheets of different thicknesses fed from adjacent piles, the shaft 8, which is to be fitted with two sets of grippers 9, is divided at its middle into two parts provided with slotted sectors 25, 26, which are secured by a jam nut 27 when the necessary adjustment of the two parts of the shaft to cause each set of grippers to grip with the desired pressure has been effected.