Abstract:
An article jogging apparatus for the lateral straightening of sheet material located on a conveyor includes a pair of vertically opposed timing belts. One belt being adjustable per product width as well as stream throat. The other belt oscillating between a reference and a thrown position to realign those articles of the stream that are out of alignment. The apparatus utilizes a uniquely assembled drive pulley and position system.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for the lateral straightening or alignment of sheet material located on a conveyor and more particularly to an apparatus for aligning folded printed paper booklets commonly known as signatures, i.e. overlapping, stream from a preceding web press, combination folder or flow folding station. 
     The printing industry yields a vast amount of sheet-like product or articles which have a major plane and a typically rectangular or square perimeter. These articles, or “signatures” as they are referred to in the art, leave the printing press or folding machine where they are subsequently acted upon in a stream in some way. For example, they may be counted, folded, cut, etc. perhaps on their way to be eventually stacked. These successive articles have a forward end and a back end where the front of the articles overlap the back of the succeeding articles to form a shingled stream. As such, the stream is transferred from one operation to the next, such as to further delivery equipment, and eventually leading to a stacking machine where a preset number of articles may form a stack and become ready for further processing or transportation. 
     The stream of articles from the printing press or folding station are usually, for one reason or another, considerably out of alignment. Accordingly, it is necessary to employ a means to align the signatures before they are fed to the next operation. To achieve accurate alignment it has been customary in the past to employ vibrating joggers acting upon the presented edges of the signatures on either one or both sides of the stream. Such joggers have worked satisfactorily where the amount of misalignment of a given signature with respect to the stream is small, where the signatures are made of relatively stiff paper stock, and where the friction between adjacent signatures is not excessive. However, under more severe conditions, these conventional joggers have proved rather inadequate. For example, under gross misalignment and/or the use of flimsy stock having a high coefficient of friction, the engaged edge, or corner, of the signature is simply bent over rather than being pushed into the desired aligned position, thereby compounding the misalignment and making subsequent downline processing impossible. 
     Typically, such joggers include a fixed slide plate on one side of the signature stream and a pivoted jogger plate on the other side which is pivoted back and forth so that it alternately slightly compresses the signature flow against the fixed slide plate and then releases the signature flow to provide a rough alignment of the overlapped signatures. Alternatively, such joggers may include dual pivoted adjacent jogger plates. In any event, these joggers are necessarily cam actuated, and, notwithstanding the previously discussed problems, such cam actuation presents a machine movement problem. In particular, since the articles are alternately bent and then are allowed to straighten suddenly as the cam operates, the sudden straightening frequently causes the signatures to again bounce out of alignment. This problem is intensified at high speeds since the oscillation action has a tendency to disturb the alignment with respect to articles in both the downstream and upstream line. 
     Another typical jogger design includes guide members in the form of endless belts arranged on opposite sides of the stream. These belts are moving in the same direction and at approximately the same speed as the stream as they are continuously conveying/diverging towards/away from one another at the width of the stream. Thus, the sides of the belts running along the stream reciprocally move towards one another to the width of the stream to move together the disordered articles. Although this design may facilitate some of the previously-mentioned problems, it does not solve all of them, and, in fact, amplifies the signature bending drawback. In particular, when a signature is not in alignment, one of its corners is necessarily forced in towards the stream for realignment. However, since one corner is out of alignment, the opposite corner must be out of alignment as well and is similarly forced in towards the stream for realignment. Thus, the signature is susceptible to bending, thereby causing the shingled stream to progress increasingly out of alignment, thereby reversing the joggers&#39; purpose. 
     Irrespective of which current jogger design is utilized, the deficiencies yet remain. These deficiencies lead to down-time and loss of operating efficiency in the conveyor system. This subsequently is responsible for the delay and/or cancellation in the product delivery system. Therefore, article jogging, which leads to correct stream alignment is essential to maintain a low cost and expense of the system while ensuring a timely delivery of the product. 
     By contrast to the current jogger designs, the present invention laterally straightens the alignment of sheet material located on a conveyor without the disadvantages of the aforementioned deficiencies. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved article jogging apparatus that overcomes the deficiencies of the current practices whereby an apparatus is provided for the alignment of signatures which minimizes cost while ensuring a timely delivery. 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide an article jogging apparatus that reduces the occurrence of bending articles due to inadequate camming actuation. 
     It is another object of the present invention to provide an article jogging apparatus that reduces the occurrence of bending articles due to adjacent reciprocating jogger belts. 
     Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an article jogging apparatus that disturbs only the misaligned articles, bringing them back into alignment, without disturbing the properly-aligned articles. 
     It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an article jogging apparatus capable of accommodating various product widths. 
     These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be clearly understood through a consideration of the following detailed description. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for aligning sheet like articles in a stream carried on a conveyor surface moving at a predetermined speed. The stream is passed between two guide members having vertically arranged timing belts moving at the same speed as the stream. One guide member is fixedly positioned relative to one edge of the stream, while the other is positioned adjacent thereto and oscillating between a reference position and a thrown position. The thrown position thereof urging misaligned articles back into stream alignment. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The features of the present invention which are believed to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention, together with the further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in the several figures of which like reference numerals identify like elements, and in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a side view of an article manipulating system incorporating the jogging apparatus of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the system of FIG. 1 illustrating dual feeding conveyors into the jogging apparatus of the present invention. 
     FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the bottom feeding conveyor of FIG.  2 . 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the major components of the jogging apparatus of the present invention. 
     FIG. 5 is a side view of the oscillating jogger of the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 a  is a top plan view of the oscillating jogger of FIG. 5 shown in the reference or planer position. 
     FIG. 6 b  is a top plan view of the oscillating jogger of FIG. 5 shown oscillating between the planer position and the thrown position. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The preferred embodiment of the article jogging apparatus will be shown and described as a component of a complete article manipulating system. More particularly, and referring generally to FIG. 1, an article manipulating system  10  is shown comprised of multiple component parts. The major components of this particular system are fed by multiple conveying belts  12  which transport the stream of articles from one component (or station) to another on their way through the system  10 . 
     The stream of articles may be generated from a product source such as a printing press and the like, and the present invention will be described as capable of receiving a double stream of such articles. This double stream not only saves time and money, but enables a single workman to handle double the product with only occasional work breaks. Irrespective of the number of streams of articles entering the system  10 , they are transported by the conveying belts  12  which form a series of endless conveyors around main belt pulleys  14 . These main belt pulleys  14  are supported by shafts  16  inserted into flange units integral with the frame  18  of the system  10 . 
     To provide for a more uniform and rectangular stack at the end of the system, the articles sometimes need to be crushed and/or flattened. Once the articles enter the system, they may be passed under a beltless crusher roller where they subsequently exit in the flattened state. Typical systems provide for the upper crusher roller to be mounted on self-aligning bearings in order to better follow the uneven profile of the shingled article stream. In particular, an air cylinder provides for an adjustable pressure to the crusher roller, and since it is a dual piston cylinder, half of it is filled with hydraulic fluid and metered to provide for shock absorption as the roller “bumps” over the shingled articles. Although the present system does not utilize such a roller, in fact it only uses a top wheel  20  assembly, it will be apparent that same can be easily substituted therewith. 
     The conveyor belts  12  then transport the articles to the next station in the system, the gapping station. This station comprises, in the preferred embodiment, of interrupt fingers  22  which are lowered onto the stream of articles to stop its flow and create a gap therein upon the processor reaching the predetermined article count. In other words, the system is typically set to eventually handle or stack a predetermined amount of articles. The internal processor is set, at the control station  24 , to stack this desired amount, and when the system counts thereto the stream is interrupted. Specifically, the main gapper air cylinder is actuated upon reaching this count, which pulls the gap cylinder rod-end down. Through a series of linkages, this action eventually lowers the fingers  22  which creates a gap in the stream. 
     After being divided into the desired number of articles per stream, the stream then passes through the article jogging apparatus  26  of the present invention where the stream is realigned before entering the stacking station. The stacking station comprises an accelerator roller  28  to aide the exit of the articles onto the stack table  30 . Upon reaching the desired count upon the table  30 , the stack in compressed and expelled from the system while the next stack is being formed. 
     Referring to FIG. 2, and encompassing the double stream feeding of the aforementioned system, the stream of articles [not shown] move left-to-right  32  from the gapping station to the jogging apparatus  26 . The articles first enter the system and are supported and transported by conveying belts  12  which form the series of endless conveyors around main belt pulleys  14 . These main belt pulleys  14  are supported by shafts  16  inserted into flange units integral with the frame  18  of the system  10 . Once the articles pass the jogging apparatus  26 , they enter the stacking station and are stacked upon table  30 , ejected from the system upon reaching the predetermined count, and the next stream is stacked. 
     Although the present invention will be described as it would cooperate with the illustrated system, it will be understood that the system of FIG. 1 is merely generic in nature. The present invention may be incorporated in a like system at a different point in the conveying process, or perhaps a completely different system. In any event, the present invention provides for an article-jogging apparatus for use with a variety of shingled stream needs and is not intended to be limited to a particular application thereof. 
     Therefore, and referring now to FIG. 3, the left-to-right  32  moving articles enter the article jogging apparatus  26  while conveyed on stream carrier belts  34 . This misaligned stream passes between the stream jogger  40  and the stream fence  42 . FIG. 3 illustrates that the article jogging apparatus  26  is basically supported in the preferred embodiment by support shaft  36  and drive shaft  38 , both of which are in turn supported by frame  18 . Both the jogger  40  and the fence  42  have vertical belts  44  moving at the same speed as the stream conveyor belts  34 . The fence  42  can accommodate various product widths as it is adjustable  46  toward and away from the stream centerline. Additionally, in order to help guide the stream of product into the jogging area, the fence  42  has an adjustable throat  48 . Thus, as the vertical belts  44  are moving at the same speed as carrier belts  34 , the articles are gently realigned by being urged by the adjustable fence  42  towards the oscillating  50  jogger  40 . 
     Before delving into the detailed description of the jogger  40 , and specifically FIGS. 5 and 6, the operation of the article jogging apparatus  26  may better be understood through the simplified description of FIG.  4 . In order to adequately simplify this illustration, it is noted that the jogger  40  and fence  42  of FIG. 3 have now switched positions with each other in FIG.  4 . During operation, the stream of articles (or product) is fed left-to-right  32  on the flat product carrier belt  34  between the jogger  40  and the fence  42 . Both are shown supported, at least in part, by drive shaft  38  which is driven via main drive gear  52 . To adjust  46  for product size, the fence gear box  54  slides and locks into position about shaft  38 . Additionally, and as previously discussed, the fence throat is adjustable  48  through throat lock  56 . The jogger  40 , more fully discussed below, also has a gearbox  58 , which as with fence gearbox  54  provides for a 90° power shift to power belts  44 . However, the jogger is not adjustable, but instead oscillates  50  to gently jog the misaligned articles into the stream to provide for a uniformly aligned stream. This oscillation is accomplished through an eccentric pin  60  driving the pivot link  62  about the pivot block  64  which is affixed to the frame. 
     The jogger  40  of the article jogging apparatus  26  of the preferred embodiment will now be discussed in greater detail and in reference to FIGS. 5-6. Referring to FIG. 5, the drive shaft  38  rotation is converted to vertical rotation of jogger drive shaft  66  via 90° gearbox  58 . Jogger drive shaft  66  rotation is imparted to main timing belt pulley  68  via bolts  70  and end plate  72 . Conversely, jogger drive shaft  66  rotation is isolated from plate  74  via bearings  76 , while the plate  74  is supported by friction plate  78 . 
     Main timing belt pulley  68  thus rotates and drives timing belt  44  and, in turn, rotates the secondary timing belt pulley  80 . Oscillating shaft  82  is bolted to, and rotates with pulley  80  via end plate  84 . Further, shaft  82  rotation is isolated from plate  74  by bearing  86 . The actuation by combination of drive shaft, belt pulley and timing belt of the fence  42  basically operates in the same fashion. 
     The rotation of shaft  82  is imparted to eccentric hub  88 , thereby causing bearing pin  90  to rotate eccentrically and crank link arm  92  which pivots about pivot point  94 . Pivot point  94  is affixed on the block  96  which, in turn, is bolted to the center frame  18 . The overall effect is that the timing belt  44  moves at the same relative speed as the stream of printed products, and secondary timing belt pulley  80  oscillates at an amplitude equal to the eccentricity of hub  88 . 
     The plan view of FIG. 6 a  shows the jogger  40  in its reference or planer position, while FIG. 6 b  shows the jogger  40  oscillating from its reference position to its thrown position. Again, jogger drive shaft  66  rotation is imported to main timing belt pulley  68  which rotates and drives timing belt  44  and, in turn, rotates the secondary timing belt pulley  80 . The rotation of pulley  80  rotates oscillating shaft  82 , which is imported to the eccentric hub  88 . Thus, bearing pin  90  rotates and cranks link arm  92  which pivots about point  94 . Therefore, as bearing pin  90  rotates about shaft  82 , the timing belt  44  is oscillating between the reference and thrown position. 
     While a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the invention in its broader aspects and, therefore, the aim in the appended claims is to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.