Patent GB-941068-A (GB)
Title: A new or improved web-creasing or folding device
Inventor: COUSINS JOHN BASIL
IPC: B65H45/20
Filed: 1960-04-29
Abstract: 941,068. Folding paper. ALACRA Ltd. May 17, 1961 [April 29, 1960], No. 15186/60. Headings B6B and B6H. [Also in Division B4] A transverse crease is formed in a web of paper or the like by means of a pair of parallel rollers on one side of the web and a reciprocating blade which pushes the web into the nip of the rollers, the rollers being rotated so as to draw part of the web into the nip to form a crease and then rotated in the reverse direction so as to release the creased part of the web. The web 10 is fed from a printing machine between upper and lower pairs of rollers 20, 21 by means of a pair of intermittently rotated pinwheels 14 which engage holes in the edge of the web. The pinwheels are mounted on a shaft 82 which is driven, through a free-wheel device, by a gear sector 78 which is oscillated by means of a series of gears and cranks, the drive being taken from a shaft 192 in the printing machine. The degree of oscillation of the sector 78 may be adjusted in order to vary the amount of feed of the web. The rollers 20 are journalled in fixed sub-frame side members 15, Fig. 2, supported by blocks 16 and rods 17 from the main machine frame 18. The rollers 21 are mounted in pivoted brackets 24 which are biased by springs 26 so that the rollers 21 engage the rollers 20. Each pair of rollers 20, 21 is geared together so that the rollers rotate in opposite directions. Gears 28, 28a rotatable about the pivots 25 of the brackets 24 engage the gears of the rollers 21 and are driven by racks 30 secured to a vertically movable sub-frame 32. The subframe 32 carries two vertically disposed folder blades 34, 35 by means of cross-bars 42 which carry guide-pins 43. Springs 44 on the pins 43 urge flanges 4b on the folder blades into engagement with the bars 42. The blades carry bars 38 which are parallel to the bars 42 and the end portions of which ride in slots 39 in the fixed side members 15; thus the sub-frame 32 can continue to move, compressing the springs 44, after movement of one of the folder blades has been arrested by the abutment of the corresponding bar 38 against the ends of its slots 39. The sub-frame is reciprocated vertically by means of cam and crank blocks 108 mounted on an intermittently rotated shaft 102 ; connecting rods 110, pivoted to the blocks at 109, couple the blocks to the sub-frame. Cam followers 112 on pivoted arms 113 engage the peripheries of the blocks 108, the arms 113 being connected by rods 114 to a transverse bar 50 positioned near the feedpath of the web 10. In operation of the device the pinwheels advance the web one step and the bar 50 is simultaneously raised to form a loop in the web. The pin-wheels stop and the sub-frame 32 is raised from the Fig. 1 position so that the blade 34 forces apart the lower pair of rollers 20, 21, engages the web and pushes a portion of it into the nip of the upper pair of rollers 20, 21. the blade being arrested adjacent to the nip by the abutment of its bar 38 against the ends of the slots 39 while the subframe continues to move upwards for a short distance so that the racks 30 drive the rollers and the doubled part of the web is drawn between the rollers and creased. The bar 50 is lowered as the web is drawn into the nip, or just before. When the crease has been formed the sub-frame begins to descend and the rollers are driven in the opposite direction so that the folded web part is released. The pin wheels are rotated to advance the web and the bar 50 is raised to form a fresh loop. The sub-frame continues its descent and the blade 35 makes a further crease in the web in co-operation with the lower pair of rollers 20, 21. The web is thus creased alternately in opposite directions and is folded into a zig-zag pack as it leaves the machine. A guillotine 130, 133 (see Division B4) is associated with the creasing device and may be used for severing the web 10 into sheets, the creasing apparatus being then disabled. Specification 883,271 is referred to.