Patent GB-715678-A (GB)
Title: Machine for assembling sheet form material
IPC: B65B25/14
Filed: 1950-06-23
Abstract: 715,678. Producing stacks of cut photographic film interleaved with folders or separators. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO., E. I. June 23, 1950 [June 25, 1949], No. 15782/50. Class 98(2) [Also in Groups VIII, XVI, XXIV, XXIX, XXX, XXXV and XXXVII] A machine for producing stacks of cut photographic film interleaved with folders or separators is provided with an inspection station at which opposite sides of a photographic film fed from a roll are inspected and in which switches are provided for signalling film faults, a cutting station at which the film is cut into desired variable lengths, an assembly station at which cut lengths of film are assembled with folders or separators, a reject station where faulty cut lengths of film with their accompanying folders or cut lengths of film unprovided with folders are rejected in accordance with signals received from a control relay system itself actuated either by a switching device for registering film-fault signals received from the inspection station and actuating, after a time interval corresponding to the time taken by the film to pass from the inspection to the cutting station, the control relay system. or by a mercury switch for detecting the absence of a folder on a conveyer bringing the folders to; the assembly station, and a stacking station where the assembled and non- rejected units are allowed to fall on to a stacking conveyer belt which is intermittently moved forward by short steps to produce a staggered stack of twelve units, and then moved forward a long step to start a new stack, means being provided to arrest the movement of the stacking conveyer belt each time a unit fails to arrive due to its rejection at the reject station. The inspection may be performed visually or by photo-electric means. As shown in Fig. 4, the film 2 is continuously drawn through an inspection station 4 from a roll 3 by the rollers 7 continuously driven through gearing 8<SP>1</SP>, Fig. 2, from the D.C. motor 8. The film is passed over guide rollers 6 and 31 in such a manner that, in the case of visual inspection, an inspector located in the booth 37 can view from the point 6a one side of the film illuminated by light of suitable quality reflected by the reflector 36 from the lamp 35 and a second inspector located in the booth 37<SP>1</SP> can similarly view the other side of the film. Faults in the film detected by the inspectors are signalled by the opening of either of the switches 48, 49, which action de-energizes corresponding solenoids in a time-switch (see, Group XXXVII) which delays the application of the fault-signal to the control relay system until the fault in the film has travelled from the inspection point to the cutting station. One edge of the film 2 is aligned along a fixed line between the inspection and cutting stations by the roller 511. whose shaft 512 is carried in a swivel frame 513 whose pivotal movement is controlled by a fluid-pressure servomotor (see Group XXIX). The film is fed to the cutting station 11. where it is cut into lengths of selected size by a guillotine machine (see Group VIII), by a pair of rollers 14, 14<SP>1</SP> of which the roller 14 is intermittently driven by another D.C. motor which also drives the remainder of the machine, variation of speed of the motor 8 relative to the second motor being corrected by means operated by abnormal variations in the loop of film between the two pairs of rollers (see Group XXXV). The cut film is transferred from the cutting station to the assembly station by a transfer pallet 101 and gripper blade, rotated through 90‹ in the transfer operation (see Group XVI). The folders 1 are fed from the bottom of a hopper 33 adapted to accommodate folders of different sizes by suction arms (see Group XVI) to sets of grippers 260 on an endless-chain conveyer (see Group XXX). The conveyer, which is intermittently fed forward in steps by the main electric drive by a gear arrangement including sun-andplanet gearing (see Group XXIV) successively transports the folders to the stations B, C, and D, and the assembly station, and the assembled folder and film units from the assembly station to the reject and stacking stations. The stations B, C, and D are provided with mercury switches tilted by the presence of folders to close their contacts. the contacts of the mercury switches at the stations B and C being in parallel with each other and a third pair of cam-control contacts and these three pairs of contacts being in the starter relay circuit of the main driving motor. During each successive movement of the conveyer and at the time when the mercury switches at stations B and C are tilted to closed position by folders, the cam controlled contacts open, so that the absence of folders in both stations Band C will cause all three sets of parallel contacts to be open at the same time and thus stop the driving motor. The number of dwell stations and corresponding mercury switches may be varied to cause the machine to stop when folders are missing at the selected number of stations. At the station D, the action is similar, the absence of a folder at the station D serving to break the control relay circuit to effect rejection of the corresponding cut length of film, which will be carried forward from the assembling station without a folder, when this film reaches the reject station, At the assembly station, the grippers 260 holding the folder are temporarily released, the folder is opened by the action of suction means on the upper and lower sides the cut film is transferred from the cutting apparatus into the opened folder by the transfer pallet 101 and gripper blade, and the grippers 260 are allowed to close to grip the edge of the assembled unit (see Group XVI). At the reject station, Fig. 25, the assembled units held by the grippers 260 normally, after leaving the supporting ribbons 195 tensioned by the weights 197, pass over the reject fingers 208 and proceed, on the next stepwise movement of the conveyer, to the stacking station. When a signal is sent out by the control relay system indicating the arrival at the reject station of a unit containing a cut film containing a fault or of a cut film without a folder, the solenoid coil in the casing 235 is de-energized, the solenoid connecting rod 236 is pulled down by the spring 237 to permit the lever 230 to descend and cause the pin 229 fixed to the lever 230 and passing through the hole 231 in the lever 232 fixed to the shaft 233 to enter a depression 228 in the rounded end of the bell-crank lever 226 free on shaft 233 to pin the levers 232, 226 together. The lever 226,carries a cam-follower roller 225 engaging in a cam groove 222 in the cam-wheel 218 which makes one complete revolution for each film cut, and the cam is set to cause the roller 225 to fall to its extreme lower position just before the folder grippers 260 reach the free ends of reject fingers 208 and to remain in that position until the grippers have reached their dwell position and have released the folder units. Pinned to the shaft 233 is a crank 244 pinned at 241 to the push rod 240 sliding on the guide pin 242 and loosely pinned at the top to the plate 224 carrying the reject cam 209 which, when raised, contacts the rollers 263 to open the grippers. The plate 224 is pinned to the shaft 249 carrying levers on which is mounted the bar 250<SP>1</SP> carrying the reject fingers 208, so that when the solenoid in casing 235 is de-energized, the cam 209 is raised to open the grippers and the fingers 208 are raised into the position shown in Fig. 25 to deflect the folder unit or film into the reject hopper 10, the fall of the rear edge of the rejected unit or film being delayed by the guide fingers 205. At the next (stacking) station, the grippers 260 are opened by the stationary cam 259, Fig. 2, to permit the units to fall on to the stacker conveyer belt 25 carried on a driving pulley 450 and an idling pulley, 451; the pulley 450 being chain-driven from a shaft driven by pawl-and-ratchet mechanism (see Group XVI) so that the belt 25 is moved forward a short step each time a unit falls thereon until a staggered stack of twelve units has been built up, whereupon the belt 25 is given a longer movement to start a new stack. When a set of grippers without a folder reaches the stacking station, a signal is sent by the the control relay system to interrupt the pawl-andratchet feed of the belt 25. The control relay system comprises a gang of rotating cams C1-C9 (not shown) making one revolution per cycle of the cutting machine and closing the corresponding contacts C1C-C9C, Fig. 56, for varying periods of time each cycle, and a number of relays having solenoids, e.g. CR1S, which when energized close two pairs of contacts, e.g. CR1 and CR1C. At the commencement of operation, the machine is run with the manual switch 67 in the circuit of the relay coil CR1S or the contacts WTD in the inspection circuit open, so that the coil CR1S will not be energized, and all assembled units will be rejected. When equilibrium is reached, the switch 67 and contacts WTD are closed, and so long as the films cut are all perfect and the folders are brought forward regularly, the cam C1 will close contacts C1C. to energize coil CR1S due to the completion of the circuit between the supply lines TT1 and TT2, and the pairs of contacts CR1 and CR1C will be closed and thus CR1C in parallel with C1C will maintain the circuit through coil CR1S after cam C1 turns to open the contacts C1C. When cam C2 closes contacts C2C in the next cycle, coil CR2S is energized, since contacts CR1 are already closed, and accordingly contacts CR2 and CR2C are closed. Just before cam C2 opens contacts C2C. cam C3 closes contacts C3C, so that coil CR2S remains energized through contacts C3C, CR2C. When cam C4 closes contacts C4C in the third cycle, coil CR3S is energized, and contacts CR3 and CR3C are closed, and just before cam C4