Abstract:
An apparatus for feeding flat products from a pile of flat products to a receiving location especially on a conveyor includes a plurality of delivering units for extracting a single flat product from the pile. Each of the delivering units has a first driven belt and is engageable with a pile. Furthermore, the apparatus includes a diverting element for diverting the flat products in a predetermined direction. A method of operating the apparatus is also provided.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates broadly to the production of print media such as magazines, books, catalogues and the like, and more specifically to the production of different issues or groups of magazines within a total national subscription of a magazine. 
     For the purpose of this disclosure, reference will hereinafter be made to “magazine” or “magazines” with the understanding that the term is to be considered generic to magazines, books, catalogues and the like. In magazine publishing, there is an increasing desire by advertisers to direct their advertising at particular subscriber groups within a total national subscription of a magazine. To meet this demand the magazine publisher has to provide different issues of magazines containing different combinations of advertising for different subscriber groups which accordingly requires that the magazines of one total national subscription are to be made up of different combinations of signatures. 
     A typical magazine assembly system for solving this problem is for example disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,173 which describes a method and an apparatus for producing magazines. The apparatus comprises an inserter having a plurality of pockets arranged aside a collating chain and adapted to contain different sets of signatures which are to be delivered to the collating chain. Each of the inserter pockets is provided with a feeder mechanism which may be selectively engaged or disengaged to enable or prevent the feeding of the signature from the associated pocket feed mechanism to the collating chains. This selective feeding of signatures from a plurality of hoppers makes it possible to produce different issues of magazines of one edition. 
     From U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,086, a collating apparatus for producing magazines is known. This document describes an apparatus for forming sheet material assemblages where a continuous path of sequentially arranged pockets travels beneath a plurality of piles of sheets, each pile being arranged in a bottomless hopper. Each of the pockets comprises a belt mechanism to extract one of the sheet materials from the piles when it passes beneath the pile and to feed it into the receiving pocket. 
     As the number of hoppers which can be arranged along the conveyor is limited due to the limited length of the conveyor, this heretofore known method and apparatus is considerably limited, however, in its ability to add any number of different signatures to the magazine. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,850 discloses a machine for collating signatures on a conveyor, where the individual magazines which are to be produced are provided with the name and address of the subscriber on the inside of a so called demographic signature. To deliver such a signature to a main conveyor it is suggested to provide the machine with a remote conveyor, a so-called raceway, which delivers individual and personalized signatures from a remote signature magazine to the main conveyor. The signatures are fed from the remote magazine to the raceway using an extracting cylinder comprising a pair of discs mounted on a common shaft. The signatures are identical in geometry and have the same preprinted text. During traveling on the raceway the signatures are personalized by an ink jet printer. Furthermore, it is possible to provide two pocket feeders for delivering different signatures onto the raceway depending on so-called demographic orders which refer to different interests of the reader, for example. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the invention of the instant application to provide a new and improved apparatus for feeding sheet material such as signatures or sheets onto a conveyor such as a belt conveyor, especially for use in the production of magazines. 
     It is a further object of the invention to provide a new and improved apparatus for producing magazines having personalized or customized pages. 
     It is yet another object of the invention to provide a new and improved method of operating the apparatus. 
     According to one aspect of the invention, the apparatus for feeding a flat product from a pile of flat products to a receiving location on a conveyor includes a plurality of delivering units moving in a closed loop along a path extending at least partly beneath the pile for extracting a single flat product from the pile. Each of the delivering units has a first driven belt which is engageable with the pile and has a diverting element for diverting the flat product in a predetermined direction. 
     According to another aspect of the invention, there is provided an apparatus for forming sheet material assemblages having a main conveyor and receiving locations located on the main conveyor. A number of the remote sheet material magazines for holding piles of sheet material and a remote delivering unit for delivering sheet material from the remote sheet material magazines to the main conveyor is arranged. The remote delivering unit comprises a remote feeder conveyor having a plurality of receiving locations located thereon. A plurality of delivering units for moving one of the sheet material of one of the piles to one of the receiving locations of the remote feeder conveyor is arranged. The delivering units move independently from the remote feeder conveyor along a path in a closed loop. Each of the delivering units includes a first driven belt having an upper run sequentially engageable with each of the piles of sheet material. A driving unit moves each of the plurality of delivering units past each of the sheet material magazines, wherein each of the delivering units includes a sheet diverting element for diverting the sheet material in a predetermined direction in order to feed the sheet material to the receiving location on the remote feeder conveyor. 
     According to a further aspect of the invention, a method for feeding a flat product from a pile of flat products to a receiving location includes the steps of moving a plurality of delivering units past the pile, each of the delivering units including a belt and a diverting element. The method further comprises the steps of extracting a single flat product from the pile with one of the plurality of delivering units, diverting the flat product with a diverting unit of the delivering unit and feeding the flat product to the receiving location. 
     The provision of the diverting element for diverting a sheet material being fed from a pile of flat products to a receiving location, preferably on a conveyor, by one of the plurality of delivering units makes it possible to use a fast feeding technology to feed single sheet materials onto a conveyor, especially a conveyor belt. 
    
    
     The foregoing and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description taken into connection with the accompanying drawings wherein: 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic and schematic side-elevational, partly perspective view of a floor arrangement of an apparatus according to the invention of the instant application; 
     FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic and schematic side-elevational view of the feeders for moving sheet material from a pile to a receiving location according to the invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic and schematic side-elevational view of a part of the remote delivery unit according to the invention; 
     FIG. 4 is a view like that of FIG. 3 depicting the movement of a sheet material from a pile to a receiving location on a conveyor; 
     FIG. 5 is a view like that of FIG. 4, in another operating phase of the apparatus according to the invention depicting the movement of a sheet material from a pile to a receiving location on a conveyor; and 
     FIG. 6 is a structural side-elevational view of a feeding apparatus according to the invention. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now more in detail to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown therein an apparatus according to the invention of the instant application which includes a main conveyor  10  having receiving locations  12  located thereon for receiving flat products  14  such as sheet material, especially sheets or signatures. A plurality of hoppers (not shown) may be arranged along the main conveyor  10  to feed individual signatures from each of the hoppers to the main conveyor in order to build up a book block which is to be bound and trimmed in order to form a magazine. 
     For producing different issues of magazines containing different combinations of advertising for different subscriber groups it is necessary to feed different types of sheet material e.g. “A”, “B”, “C” and “D” to the main conveyor. These different sheet materials comprise different printing or advertising and are determined for different issues of one magazine and may even differ in size. Each of the different sheet materials A, B, C and D is stored in remote sheet material magazine  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  and is fed from the material magazine to a remote feeder conveyor  24  which transports the individual sheets to the main conveyor  10 . The individual sheets A, B, C and D may be fed by the remote feeder conveyor  24  to the main conveyor  10  via a conventional feeding mechanism  26  which is known for example from U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,850 or U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,173. The material magazines  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  holding a pile of individual signatures or sheets may be of any number but are preferably of up to four as shown in FIG.  1 . The magazines are preferably bottomless and the required signature is drawn from the corresponding magazine by a plurality of delivering feeder units  28  which are arranged in a closed loop and move along a predetermined path  30  but independently from the remote feeder conveyor  24 . The remote feeder conveyor  24  moves the individual sheets or signatures A, B, C or D to the main conveyor  10  directly or as shown in FIG. 1 via a reversing drum  32  which causes the signatures to turn. The individual signatures are transported on the remote feeder conveyor  24  at predetermined receiving locations  13  (FIG. 2, for example) and may be fed to one or more printing stations where printers, e.g. ink jet printers  34 ,  35  print individual data onto the signatures such as the name or the address of the subscriber of the magazine. This printing stations may be arranged at any location along the path of the remote feeder conveyor  24 . Therefore, each individual signature may be ink printed while being transported in horizontal orientation via a properly arranged ink jet or, as shown in FIG. 1 by a printing station  34 , on the transfer drum  32  while being bound on the drum. In addition to the embodiment wherein two or more printing stations are arranged upstream or above the transfer drum  32  it is possible to arrange a printing station  36  downstream from the drum  32 , where the individual signature has been turned already. This makes it possible to provide even the backside of the signature  14  with individual or additional printed information. 
     The remote delivery unit  15  delivers different kinds of signatures A, B, C, D to the main conveyor  10 . It includes a remote feeder conveyor  24  as well as a plurality of delivering units  28  for moving one of the individual signatures A, B, C, D of one of the piles  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  to one of the receiving locations  13  located on the remote feeder conveyor  24  as shown in greater detail in FIG.  2 . 
     Each of the remote sheet material magazines  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22  has two side walls  38 ,  40 , as shown in FIG. 2, which hold the pile of sheet material  23  and the preferably bottomless magazine  16 . A plurality of delivering units  28  are arranged beneath the magazine  16  and may be linked together so that they move along a predetermined continuous path  30  which partly extends beneath the stationary arranged bottomless sheet material magazines  16 ,  18 ,  20 ,  22 . The remote feeder units  28  are preferably of the same construction and include a separating part  39  for separating a single sheet material  14  from the pile of sheet material  23  and a diverting part  41  for diverting the single sheet material onto a predetermined direction. Each of the remote feeder units  28  preferably comprises a driven belt  42  having an upper run  44  supporting the pile  23  of the sheet material magazine  16 . The uppers runs  44  of the belts  42  move in the direction indicated by the arrow “Z” which is opposite to the direction of movement of the delivering units  28  relative to the sheet material magazine  16 , which is indicated by the arrow “X”. The velocity of the upper runs  44  and the velocity of the movement of the delivering units  28  is preferably substantially the same so that a fixed point on the upper run  44  of the belt  42  is stationary relative to the remote sheet material magazine  16 . 
     The remote feeder conveyor  24  may move in the same direction as the remote feeder units  28 , indicated by the arrow “X”. As soon as a trailing edge  46  of one of the separating parts  39  passes the side wall  40 , a sucker  47  can be activated in order to draw the lowermost signature from the bottom of the pile  23  downwardly. Whenever a single sheet material shall be drawn from the bottom of the pile  23  the sucker  47  will be activated. The feeding action of the sucker can be selectively controlled either by engagement of motion, e.g. a calm drive, or by activating and deactivating a vacuum, applied to the sucker  47 . When activated, the sucker  47  draws a sheet material from the bottom of the pile of sheet materials  23  downwardly and, according to the movement of the belt  42 , the sheet material  14  is drawn in the direction given by the arrow “W”. When the sheet material  14  enters the diverting part  41  of the remote delivering unit  28 , its direction is diverted to a direction substantially parallel to the moving direction of the remote feeder conveyor  24 . 
     The sucker  47  guides the leading edge of the sheet material  14  around the primary belt pulley  42  and releases it after one half turn of the sucker shaft  50 . The sheet material now travels downwardly and the direction of movement is subsequently changed when the leading edge of the sheet material enters the diverting part  41  of the delivering unit  28 . The diverting part  41  comprises two rollers  52  and  54 , and a second belt  56  travelling around the rollers  54  and  52 . The second belt  56  is engaged with a lower roller  48  of the separating part of the delivering unit  28 , and the second roller  52  of the diverting part  39  is engaged with the first belt  42  of a separating part of a succeeding delivering unit. This engaged construction of the belts and rollers makes it possible to keep the individual delivering units in close contact with each other and therefore it is possible to arrange the units  28  a small distance from one another. 
     The second belt  56  of each diverting part  41  is driven independently from the delivering unit  28  and the drive of the first belt  42  but preferably is driven at the velocity of the units. When the leading edge of the sheet material enters the nip between the first belt  42  and the second belt  56  it is trapped between the two belts and fed to the remote feeder conveyor  24  where it is laid on the receiving location  13  and transported to the main conveyor  10 . 
     In another embodiment of the invention of the instant application which is shown in FIGS. 3 to  5 , the individual sheet material is fed from a pile of sheet materials  23  to a receiving location  13  on the remote feeder conveyor  24  with gripper drums  58 ,  60 . As shown in FIG. 3 an individual sheet material is drawn from the bottom of a pile of sheet materials  23  as described above. The plurality of delivering units  28 , the so-called carriages, which move in continuous path, include a diverting part  41  and a separating part  39 . They move beneath piles of sheet material  23 ,  23   a  in the direction given by the arrow “X”. A vacuum mechanism grabs the leading edge of a lowermost individual signature  14  when a carriage passes under and draws the signature  14  into the carriage. According to the relative movement of the carriages  28  and the upper run  44  of the belt  42  the signature  14  is peeled into the carriage and diverted by the diverting element  41  of the carriage  28 . As the belts  42  and  56  are preferably driven at the same speed as the carriages move, the signature  14  is passed through the carriage and ejected at the bottom of the carriage at twice the linear velocity of the carriage and fed tangentially to a rotating gripper drum  58 . The gripper drum  58  is rotating in the direction of the paper flow, the surface speed of the drum being preferably greater than the linear speed of the paper. To perform sufficient gripping and feeding of the individual signature  14  by the gripper drum  58 , the gripper drum  58  has a surface speed which is 10% greater than that of the linear speed of the paper. Preferably, the signature  14  is gripped by the gripper drum  58  when the gripper, mounted on the gripper drum  58 , has reached a position approximately 5° past its upper position which is indicated by the dot-dash or phantom line  62 . 
     Upon further rotation of the gripper drum  58 , the signature  14  is fed from the carriage  28  to a receiving location  13  on the remote feeder conveyor  24  whereat the gripper drum  58  rotates about 175° further, as is shown in FIG.  4 . To determine if a correct feeding of a single signature  14  has occurred it is possible to measure the thickness of the signature  14  using calipers (not shown) during the rotation of the drum  58 . During the movement of the gripper drum  58 , an additional gripper drum  60  may proceed with feeding a signature  14   a  from a pile of signatures  23   a  to another receiving location  13  of the remote feeder conveyor  24 . Thus, it is possible to feed different individual signatures from different piles of signatures to the remote feeder conveyor  24  which transports these signatures to a main conveyor. 
     As shown in FIG. 5, a printer  37  which may be arranged downstream in the feeding direction of the remote feeder conveyor  24  starts to print information onto the signature as soon as it reaches a position beneath the printer  37  which is indicated by the position of signature  14   b . The information printed on the signature may be of any type, especially of any individual type such as the subscriber&#39;s name or address. In addition or instead of these individual data, the information which is printed on the individual signature  14  may comprise some latest information which has not been known during the previous printing of the individual signatures  14 . 
     In FIG. 6, a more detailed side view of a feeding apparatus according to the invention is shown. The plurality of delivering unit  28 , the so-called carriages, are arranged in a housing  17  and move in a continuous loop along a rail  70 . As already described hereinabove, a gripper mounted on the gripper drum  58  grips the leading edge of a signature as soon as it comes out from the bottom of the carriages  28 . The signature  14  is set directly into the gripper of the gripper drum  58 . At this time, the control of movement of the signature  14  is transferred from the belts of the carriages to the gripper drum. The gripper drum carries the signature around while reversing the original direction of movement “X”, which corresponds to the direction of movement of the carriages into the direction of movement “Y” of the feeder conveyor  24 . The gripper drums  58  which are preferably belt-driven may be formed with a groove for receiving a belt  72  therein, the groove being sized so that the outside diameter of the belt is flush with the surface of the drum. The belt  72  may be of any suitable kind of material, but preferably is a round polyurethane belting. The belt  72  leaves the drum tangentially at the end of the drum facing towards the feeder conveyor  24  and guides the feeder  24  substantially parallel, thereby forming an upper belt with respect to the feeder conveyor  24 . After a signature  14  has been carried around by a gripper drum  58 , it is released into the nip between the gripper drum and the feeder conveyor  24  which preferably is of a transport belt type. When the gripper drum  58  releases the signature  14 , it is clamped between the upper belt  72  and the lower conveyor belt  24  and transported in the direction “Y” which is the direction of movement of the feeder conveyor  24 . Once trapped within the nip of the upper belt  72  and the feeder conveyor  24  the signature may be transported to an ink jet module where it will be ink jetted and transported to a main conveyor. Although the feeding mechanism of the invention has been described in connection with the remote feeder conveyor it is also possible to use this principle of feeding of signatures from a pile of signatures to a feeder conveyor, especially a belt feeder conveyor in a main conveyor. 
     Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the invention of the instant application that others can by applying current knowledge readily adapt it to various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention and, therefore such adaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalence of the following claims.