Blanking station and flexible guide for guiding blanks in a blanking station

Abstract

The invention relates to a blanking station comprising a blanking tool (12), at least one blank receiving unit (14, 16) for receiving and piling of blanks (20) in a blank collecting space (22) in a piling direction, and at least one flexible guide (18), located between the blanking tool (12) and the receiving unit (14, 16), wherein the flexible guide (18) comprises at least one guiding surface (32) adapted for guiding the blanks (20), being oriented in parallel to the piling direction and arranged so as to define an outer contour of the blank collecting space (22), and wherein the flexible guide (18) further comprises at least one flexible portion (28), located in proximity to the blank receiving unit (14, 16), wherein the flexible portion (28) is elastically deformable in a first direction along the outer contour of the blank collecting space (22) and wherein the flexible portion (28) has a lower stiffness in the first direction than in a second direction perpendicular to the outer contour of the blank collecting space (22) to avoid deflection of the flexible portion (28) into the blank collecting space (22) in case of collision with a blank receiving unit (14, 16). Furthermore, the invention relates to a flexible guide for guiding blanks (20) in a blanking station (10).

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.