US 4,397,456 AGranted

Apparatus for separation of a stack of folded or bound, multi-sheet printed products

AssigneeFerag AG

InventorJurg Eberle

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Abstract

At one side of a stack of printed products or the like there are provided entrainment elements which are mounted at a revolving or orbiting driven chain or equivalent structure. Each entrainment element is inserted at one side of the momentarily lowermost printed product of the stack between the sheets of such printed product and comes into contact with the folding edge or spine of such printed product. By further moving the entrainment element the lowermost product is pulled out from beneath the stack while turning or rotating the same at the region of the product corner at which engages the entrainment element. The thus freely exposed region of the folding edge or spine of the lowermost product then comes to lie between two rolls or rollers of a product removal device, one of these removal rolls being driven. Both of these rolls pull the seized product out of the bottom of the stack in the product removal direction and place such upon two outfeed conveyor belts or bands. With this destacking apparatus it is possible to faultlessly process folded or bound printed products of appreciable thickness and without damaging such products.

Claims23

Dependent claims

An apparatus for the separation of a stack of folded or bound, multi-sheet printed products, especially newspapers and periodicals, comprising:

withdrawal means for engaging at the lowermost product of the stack and for pulling such out from below the stack;
means for retaining the remaining products within the stack while the lowermost product is being withdrawn from the stack;
said withdrawal means comprising at least one entrainment element;
means for moving said at least one entrainment element along a predetermined path of travel;
said entrainment element during its movement being first inserted at a side of the lowermost product between sheets of such product, which side merges with an engageable edge of the product, then said entrainment element coming to bear against said engageable edge of the product, and thereafter being movable essentially in the direction of a predetermined product removal direction, thereby pulling the lowermost product from below the stack at a region of the engageable edge;
and
said withdrawal means further including a product removal device which engages the lowermost product at the region of the engageable edge which has been pulled out from below the stack by the entrainment element and which moves the engaged product in said product removal direction.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.