Patent GB-1061652-A (GB)
Title: Method of and apparatus for picking up,moving and depositing moist or wet cardboard sheets
Inventor: FLEISCHER ROLAND
IPC: B65H3/08
Filed: 1963-08-13
Abstract: 1,061,652. Feeding sheets. PAPIERMASCHINENWERKE FREIBERG VEB. Aug. 13, 1963, No. 31921/63. Heading B6B. [Also in Division B8] Moist or wet cardboard sheets are lifted and moved to another position by a suction head which is about the same size as the sheets, and has a screen-like element fitted over the suction mouth. The sheets can be lifted from a conveyer belt or other support, or from the top of a pile, and delivered to another belt, support, or pile; they can be stacked alternately with intermediate sheets which may be of open-mesh construction; or they can be lifted, turned to lie in a vertical plane and presented to grippers on a chain forming part of a drying system. As shown in Fig. 1, a wet cardboard sheet 1 has been carried on a conveyer belt 2, which is stopped when the front edge of the sheet impinges the light ray of a photo-electric device 4, beneath a suction head 5 which is of the same size as the sheet and has a screen 6 fitted over the suction mouth. The head 5 is connected through a pipe 15 to a source of suction. A pipe 8, connected to a second source of suction, leads to four suction openings 7 arranged on the periphery of the head 5, which serve to grasp and lift up intermediate sheets which are of a screen-like nature except at the outer margins, and which are larger than the cardboard sheets. The head 5 is carried by the rod 9 of a piston 10 slidable in a cylinder 11 coupled at 13, 14 to a pneumatic or hydraulic system, whereby the head 5 can be raised or lowered. Further, the cylinder 11 is fixed to a carrier 12 which is horizontally slidable. When the sheet 1 impinges the photoelectric device 4, the latter causes suction to be established at the head 5 to lift up the sheet from the belt 2, and also causes the piston 10 to rise and the belt 2 to be started to bring another sheet into position. During the lifting of the head 5, the carrier 12 is moved horizontally to another position where the head 5 descends automatically to deposit the sheet on a pile or support; a pulse of compressed air may be introduced into the head 5 to forcibly deposit the sheet. The head 5 is then raised and returned to its position over the belt 2. If an intermediate screen-like sheet has to be stacked between two cardboard sheets, such a sheet is first picked up from a stack by means of the suckers 7 on the head 5, the head is then moved to lift a cardboard sheet into contact with the intermediate sheet, and the two sheets are then moved and placed on a stack. The carrier 12 can be arranged to move the head 5 in a circular path. As shown in Fig. 4, there are two cylinder units 11 each slidable on guide rails 20 from a central to an outer position, and each carries four suction heads 5 which are independently carried in spaced relationship in guides 22 so that four sheets can be picked up. Both the right-hand pair of heads 5 and the left-hand pair can be moved by pneumatic or hydraulic devices 23 so that sheets lifted up can be separated further apart before they are stacked. In operation, the left-hand unit 11 lifts up four cardboard sheets from an intermittently moving belt at the left and deposits them on four left-hand stacks 17, then picks up four intermediate sheets from stacks 16 and deposits them on the same stacks 17, and proceeds to take up another four cardboard sheets from the left-hand belt. The right-hand unit 11 operates in a similar manner, taking cardboard sheets from the right-hand conveyer, and forming four other stacks 17 at the righthand side. Each intermediate sheet (Fig. 6, not shown), may comprise a screen of plastic material such as two solid or four end strips which are gripped by the suckers 7, Fig. 1; or it may be-a solid sheet, in which case it cannot be lifted together with a cardboard sheet.