US 4,200,016 AGranted

Apparatus for forming a horizontal stack of vertically oriented sheets

AssigneeRotographic Machinery

InventorsRichard W. Helmig, Clinton L. Berwick

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Abstract

There is disclosed a sheet handling apparatus wherein sheets are delivered onto a conveyor belt traveling at a slower speed than the speed at which the sheets are delivered. The leading end of a sheet is sucked against the conveyor belt such that a trailing end of the sheet flips upwardly and allows the leading end of the succeeding sheet to pass therebeneath. These sheets are conveyed in lapped relationship by the conveyor belt. At a discharge end of the conveyor the lapped sheets drop sequentially in vertical orientation onto a carrier. A movable retainer plate contacts the initial sheet of the stack and is horizontally displaced thereby as the stack builds up, to maintain the sheets upright and in tightly abutting relationship. The retainer is mounted at the end of a freely movable, horizontally extensible pair of rods onto which the sheets fall, such that displacement of the retainer produces extension of the rods to accommodate additional sheets.

Claims13

Dependent claims

Apparatus for arranging mutually lapped sheets in a horizontally stacked relationship comprising:

a power driven conveyor belt including a downwardly traveling conveying segment;
suction means creating a vacuum at the surface of said conveying segment for retaining mutually lapped sheets thereagainst;
sheet stacking means disposed at a lower portion of said conveying segment to receive sheets falling in generally vertically oriented relationship from said belt, said sheet stacking means including:
support means comprising a freely movable, horizontally extensible structure onto which said sheets fall, and
a movable sheet retaining member comprising an upstanding plate engageable with the initial sheet of a stack and progressively displaced away from said belt by a build-up of sheets on said support means;
said extensible structure comprising a plurality of rods whose outer ends are connected to said retaining plate such that displacement of said retaining plate extends said rods to receive additional sheets;
said stacking means comprises a fixed trough on which said rods are slidably mounted, said trough being secured at an end closest to said conveyor belt and unsecured at its outer end such that said trough deflects in responsive to a build-up of the stack, such that gravity aids in the further extension of said rods and retaining member.

4 more elements

Apparatus for arranging sheets into a horizontal stack comprising:

feeding means for continuously feeding sheets in a generally horizontal direction of feed;
an endless conveyor belt including a downwardly inclined sheet transport segment arranged to receive sheets at an upper portion thereof from said feeding means and discharge sheets from a lower portion thereof;
drive means for driving said conveyor belt at a speed slower than the speed at which sheets are fed from said feeding means so that a leading edge of a succeeding sheet overtakes a trailing edge of an immediately preceding sheet carried by said conveyor belt;
suction means for producing a vacuum at the surface of said inclined transport segment of said conveyor belt for drawing a leading portion of the preceding sheet suddenly thereagainst such that the trailing edge of said preceding sheet flips upwardly to permit the leading edge of the succeeding sheet to underlap such trailing edge;
and
sheet stacking means disposed adjacent said lower portion of said inclined belt segment, said sheet stacking means comprising sheet supporting means for receiving lapped sheets falling from said belt in substantially vertical orientation such that a horizontal stack of sheets forms on said supporting means;
said sheet supporting means including retaining means engageable with an initial sheet of the stack to support the latter and to be displaced thereby as the stack builds-up.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.