Method of and apparatus for feeding sheets
AssigneeGeneral Corrugated Machinery Co., Inc.
InventorGeorge A. Ventz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus wherein flat corrugated paperboard sheets in stacks are rearranged into a horizontally shingled array of the desired faced orientation and fed toward an exit in the apparatus, each stack being fed onto a conveyor, then tilted to a first posture wherein the sheets are not yet in the horizontally shingled array, but are supported with their edges resting on the conveyor and with their faces making an acute angle with the conveyor, the sheets then being moved toward the exit while supported on their edges in the first posture, and then being dropped from the first posture into a second posture, wherein the sheets are in the shingled array, and into juxtaposition with shingled sheets of a previous stack on the conveyor for establishing a flow of continuously shingled sheets toward the exit.
Claims32
The method of feeding sheets such as flat corrugated, paperboard sheets used to be formed into packaging cases from a stack of horizontal sheets into a horizontally shingled array of the desired faced orientation toward an exit such as a hopper which comprises:
- feeding the stack of sheets onto the entrance of a conveyor;
- tilting the stack of sheets to a first posture wherein they are resting on their edges so that the sheets form an acute angle with the conveyor, but are not in the horizontally shingled array;
- supporting the face of the sheet in the stack which makes the acute angle with the conveyor to thereby support all the sheets on their edges in the first posture;
- moving the sheets while supported on their edges in the first posture toward the exit;
- and
- subsequently dropping the sheets from the first posture and into a second posture wherein the sheets are in the horizontally shingled array on the conveyor shingled toward the exit to thereby deliver them to the exit.
Apparatus having an entrance and an exit for feeding a stack of horizontal sheets to deliver the same toward the exit in a shingled fashion comprising:
- a conveyor;
- means for delivering the stack of horizontal sheets to the entrance and onto the conveyor;
- means associated with the conveyor for moving the stack of horizontal sheets into a position in which the sheets form a group resting on the edges of the sheets and wherein one end of the group of sheets forms an acute angle with the conveyor such that the sheets forms an acute angle with the conveyor such that the sheets will be delivered to the exit in the desired faced orientation;
- support means for supporting the group of sheets at the end thereof forming an acute angle with the conveyor to preclude the sheets from falling to a horizontal posture on the conveyor until a first predetermined condition has been reached;
- moving means for moving the support means toward and away from the exit;
- actuating means for actuating the moving means to move the support means toward the exit when the first predetermined condition has been reached to thereby move the group of sheets to a position wherein its leading sheet rests against the trailing sheet of the previous group and for actuating the moving means to move the support means toward the entrance when a second predetermined condition has been reached to await delivery of the next stack of horizontal sheets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.