Patent GB-1375400-A (GB)
IPC: B65H15/02
Filed: 1971-12-02
Abstract: 1375400 Feeding and delivering sheets RENGO KK (RENGO CO Ltd) 2 Dec 1971 [27 May 1971] 56058/71 Heading B8R In apparatus for feeding cardboard sheets D from a pile on a pile table 30 to a stack in a hopper 155 of a processing machine C, the pile table 30 forms part of an inverter device A having fixed at right angles to the table a conveying surface movable from a substantially vertical to a substantially horizontal position and the apparatus includes a conveyer B whose upstream end is adjacent the downstream end of said conveying surface when the latter is in its substantially horizontal position. Both the inverter device A and the conveyer B are mounted on wheels 24, 24<SP>1</SP> movable on rails 22, a pile being loaded on to balls mounted in the floor of the table 30 and the device A then being moved on the rails 22 into alignment with the conveyer B. A motor 144 driving a jogging plate 133 mounted on the conveyer B adjacent the the supply hopper 155 is started. The required speed of a motor 124 driving the spaced belts 87 of the conveyer B via a slip coupling (VS1), Fig. 15 (not shown), is then set and the motor started, its speed being continuously monitored by a generator (TG1) which controls the speed of the belts 87 by a feed back circuit. The inverter device A is then pivoted by a piston and cylinder arrangement 35, 36, so that the conveying surface, which is made up of longitudinally staggered sets of belts, 50, Fig. 3, is horizontal and the pile supported thereon with the sheets fanned out. In this position, the device triggers limit switches which start a motor 40 driving the belts 50 via a second slip coupling (VS2) at a pre-determined speed ratio with respect to the speed of the belts 87, a second generator (TG3) monitoring the speed of the motor and providing a feed-back control. The belts 50 of each set are mounted on pulleys 48, 49, respectively freely and fixedly mounted on shafts 47-1, 47-2 &c. Two sprockets are provided on each shaft, one 51 being free to rotate relative to its shaft and the other 52 being fixed. After the fixed sprocket 52 on downstream shaft 47-1 has been rotated a certain distance by the motor 40, a lug thereon engages a lug on the sprocket 51 of the same shaft thus causing this sprocket to rotate and drive, via chain 53 and the next sprocket 52, the shaft 47-2. In this manner, the sets of belts 50 are brought into conveyance successively from the downstream to the upstream end of the conveying surface. The fanned-out pile is thus spaced out into an overlapping stream as it is fed to the conveyer B. When a photo-electric detector R1 senses the sheets, it causes a reduction in the speed of the belts 87 and 50. As the stack builds up in the hopper 155 it is jogged by the plate 133 and when the top of the stack actuates photo-electric sensors R2, R3, the motors 124, 40 are stopped after a time delay and restarted only when the stack height has been diminished by the processing machine C. When the inverter device A is empty, the conveying surface is returned to its vertical position actuating a limit switch which reverses the motor 40 ready for the next cycle. A removable bar may support the pile during turning. The length and height of the conveyer B above the hopper 155 are adjustable.