US 10,414,613 B2Granted

Stacker load change cycle

AssigneeGeo. M. Martin Company

InventorsDaniel J. Talken, Jonathan R. Ames, Grant J. Kimzey, Charles Rizzuti

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Abstract

An automated sheets processing system has a vertical stacks accumulating region (SAR) into which sheets are uninterruptedly fed to build vertical stacks for pre-specified loads including completed loads and newly building nascent loads. A tiltable Stacking Deck has a downstream discharge end from which the sheets can be fed at different elevational levels into the stacks accumulating region. A nascent sheets accumulator system has a plurality of support surfaces that are retractably interjectable into the stacks accumulating region for defining a separation gap between the top of a completed load and the bottommost sheet of a nascent new load. At least one of the support surfaces is retractably interjectable in an upstream direction into the stacks accumulating region while at least two others of the support surfaces are retractably interjectable in a downstream direction into the stacks accumulating region. One of the support surfaces has an anti-scuff feature.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A sheets streaming and stacking apparatus comprising:

(a) a Stacking Deck having a Stacking Deck Discharge End disposed downstream of an opposed Stacking Deck Entry End, the Stacking Deck Discharge End being positioned above a Load Conveyor and configured to discharge therefrom a continuous stream of sheets that are to be subdivided into plural spaced-apart stacks, the Load Conveyor being capable of moving completed stacks downstream once completed, at least one of the Stacking Deck Discharge End and the Load Conveyor being vertically movable such that vertical distance between a Stacking Deck Discharge Surface of the Stacking Deck Discharge End and a load-receiving, Load Conveyor Surface of the Load Conveyor is variable, the Stacking Deck Discharge End being disposed over a vertical stacks accumulating region and configured to discharge the continuous stream of sheets downwardly into the stacks accumulating region;
and
(b) an Accumulation Sheet Support System that is selectively interjectable into the stacks accumulating region to provide at least first, second and third Sheet Support Surfaces, the first Sheet Support Surface being defined by a downstream-wise retractable Lead Edge Support, the second Sheet Support Surface being defined by an upstream-wise retractable Trail Edge Support and the third Sheet Support Surface being defined by an upstream-wise retractable Center Support, where the Center Support is at least selectively moveable laterally within the stacks accumulating region to provide underneath support to a bottommost sheet of a nascent stack forming in the stacks accumulating region as being separated from and above a completed previous stack also present within the stacks accumulating region, the underneath support provided by the third Sheet Support Surface being disposed in an area between opposed leading and trailing edges of the bottommost sheet of the nascent stack.

A method of separating stacks of sheets while continuously feeding sheets into a vertical stacks accumulating region, the method comprising:

(a) parking a horizontally reciprocal first cross bar having one or more sheet supporting elements in a parking space disposed under and proximate to a downstream end of a tiltable sheet feeder, the downstream end of the tiltable sheet feeder being configured to selectively rise and fall relative to an upstream end of the tiltable sheet feeder, the disposition of the parking space being configured to remain proximate within a prespecified minimal distance to the downstream end as it rises and falls, the tiltable sheet feeder being configured to uninterruptedly feed sheets out of and in a downstream direction from its downstream end for discharge into the stacks accumulating region;
(b) while the tiltable sheet feeder continues to uninterruptedly feed sheets out from its downstream end, advancing the first cross bar in the downstream direction such that the one or more sheet supporting elements of the advanced first cross bar project at least partially out from the parking space beyond the downstream end of the tiltable sheet feeder and such that the projected one or more sheet supporting elements of the advanced first cross bar define and maintain a separation gap between a topmost sheet of a completed first stack in the stacks accumulating hopper region and a bottommost sheet of a nascent second stack beginning to form in the stacks accumulating region above the completed first stack, the downstream projected one or more sheet supporting elements providing at least partial underneath support to at least a central portion of the nascent second stack;
(c) while the downstream projected one or more sheet supporting elements begin to provide said at least partial underneath support for at least a central portion of the nascent second stack, maintaining a lead edge supporting lip that is extendable upstream to be under a leading bottom edge of the nascent second stack retracted out of the stacks accumulating region so that the nascent second stack is at least partially supported underneath by a lead edge of the first stack;
and
(d) after the separation gap has been initially defined and maintained, advancing the one or more sheet supporting elements further downstream and interjecting the lead edge supporting lip under the leading bottom edge of the nascent second stack so that the first stack is not needed for support and can be move out of the stacks accumulating region.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/724,880Filed 4 Oct 2017 · us provisional application
Priority: 7 Oct 2016
Published: US 2018/0099833 A112 Apr 2018
Granted: 17 Sep 2019
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification15 codes

B65H 29/18
By contact of one face only with moving tapes, bands, or chains: and introducing into a pile
B65H 29/34
By dropping the articles: from supports slid from under the articles
B65H 29/50
Delivering or advancing articles from machines; Advancing articles to or into piles: piling apparatus of which the discharge point moves in…
B65H 31/20
Pile receivers: adjustable for different article sizes