Patent GB-200890-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in feed mechanism for printing presses
IPC: B41F3/20
Filed: 1922-04-18
Abstract: 200,890. Marks, E. C. R., (Miehle Printing Press & Manufacturing Co.). April 18, 1922. Sheet-separators; registering-devices; pile tables and supports; guides.-Sheets are fed to cylinder printing-machines such as are described in Specification 184,582, from a pile table which can be set to the required position to allow of the movement for side-registering purposes while the sheet is on a transfer or feed table from which it is taken by the impression cylinder. The invention comprises also improvements in air-blast devices for assisting in separating the sheets, and in other means for controlling the separation and feeding of the sheets. As shown the sheets are placed on a pile table 14, which is raised as the sheets are fed off, and the pile is adjusted in position by means of corner guides 20, each formed of guides 21, 22 at right angles to one another and each guide being adjustable transversely in a slot 46 in the pile support frame 13. To set the corner guides to the correct position a sheet of paper is placed on the transfer table 15 against the edge of the printing-surface and by aid of a scale side register device 24 the position which the sheet is to take up is ascertained. The register member 24, which is reciprocated to the right to register the sheet, is placed in its extreme right hand position in taking the scale reading. The left guide 20 is then set to the same reading on a scale s, this scale being offset with respect to scale s to an extent which allows for the movement of the sheet to the right on table 15 for sideregistering. This movement is effected by the member 24 which reciprocates in a slot. The top sheet is fed from the pile by a reciprocating suction device' and, to facilitate the separation, blasts of air are directed against the edges of the pile by a central blower 29, Fig. 4, and diagonal blasts are directed inwards from vertical slits in tubes 30, Fig. 8, carried by the adjustable brackets 48 which support the corner guides for the pile. These brackets also support springs 53 which extend diagonally across the front corners of the pile and control the separation of the sheets and the action of the flotation currents under the top sheet. These springs 53 are adjustably held in clamps 55, and act to prevent the feeding of two sheets at a time, and their action is effective without adjustment on sheets of different thicknesses. The separating action is also assisted by the action of spring members 32 mounted in a U-shaped adjustable support 37 carried by a clamp 40 on a crossbar 42, the support 37 being reversible to give a wide range of action. One of the U-shaped faces 33, 34 of the spring acts on the sheets and presses the top sheets forward, and, when the top sheet is separated, the inclined surface of the spring gives this sheet a forward movement relative to the ones below. As the sheets. are separated they are registered accurately against the right corner gauge 22 by means of a bent wire 58 which gives the sheets a slight movement towards the gauge 22. This guide 58 is also carried by the bracket 48, so that by a single adjustment of this bracket the parts 58, 53, and 30 are all adjusted simultaneously.