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US 4,228,993 AGranted
Sheet orienting and transporting frame
AssigneePPG Industries, Inc.
InventorWilliam P. Cathers
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A frame has (1) a pair of arms parallel to one another and normal to a third arm, each arm having a movable dog for orienting a sheet and (2) a plurality of arms each having cups through which a vacuum is pulled to secure the oriented sheet to the frame and through which pressurized fluid is moved to bias the sheet away from the frame.
Claims15
Sheet orienting and transporting apparatus for transferring a sheet from a sheet supply position to a predetermined sheet receiving position, comprising:
- a pair of sheet orienting members;
- means for maintaining said pair of sheet orienting members in predetermined spaced relationship to one another to define orienting axes;
- means for moving said pair of sheet orienting members along a first reciprocating path towards said sheet supply position into a sheet engaging and orienting position and away from said sheet supply position toward a sheet non-engaging position;
- means for displacing said maintaining means in a sheet orienting direction along a second reciprocating path from a remote position to the sheet supply position and for moving said maintaining means in a non-orienting direction along the second reciprocating path subsequent to orientation of said sheet, said second reciprocating path being transverse to said first reciprocating path;
- and
- means mounted on said maintaining means for engaging an oriented sheet to said maintaining means for movement therewith subsequent to movement of said maintaining means in said orienting and non-orienting directions, said means for displacing said orienting members moving said maintaining means and said sheet from said sheet supply position to said predetermined sheet receiving position.
3 more elements
A method of orienting and transporting a sheet, comprising the steps of:
- advancing the sheet along an article movement path into a first position;
- displacing a frame in a first direction along a reciprocating path relative to the sheet to engage the edges of the sheet by orienting means mounted on the frame to orient the sheet at the first position;
- displacing the frame in a second opposite direction along the reciprocating path a predetermined distance to disengage the orienting means and the edges of the oriented sheet;
- displacing the orienting means away from the sheet;
- displacing the frame in the first direction along the reciprocating path the predetermined distance;
- securing the oriented sheet to the frame;
- and
- transferring the sheet from the first position to a second predetermined position.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.