Apparatus for separating and stacking sheets of paper or the like

Abstract

The present invention is concerned with a method of separating and stacking sheets of paper, cardboard and the like, which are delivered from a sheet punching machine and consist of useful and waste portions connected together by small fillets, comprising the steps of laying and separating a specific number of sheets on a severing table of a useful portion separating station; interrupting the supply of sheets; lowering the table with a stack of separated sheets; withdrawing the table from under the stack and laying the stack on a pallet situated therebelow; setting the table in place and raising same; removing the pallet with the stack and introducing a new pallet with simultaneous resumption of the cycle of steps. Apparatus for carrying out the method comprises a supply device upstream of a sheet-punching machine for supplying punched, but not yet separated, sheets on to a plane severing surface, severing tools movable upwards and downwards on linkages and arranged above the plane supporting surface, and a plane stacking surface for taking up the stack of separated sheets, the plane severing surface being formed by a severing table or the uppermost sheet of a stack of sheets lying on the severing table, the severing table being adjustable in height, the plane stacking surface being formed by a pallet, means for moving the pallet into and from below the severing table and said pallet being adjustable in height, and a device for lateral displacement of the severing table and holding back the stack of sheets in a position lying outside the limits of the pallet and for putting the severing table again into position above the stack of sheets.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.