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US 4,397,457 AGranted
Sheet feeding apparatus
AssigneeMolins Limited
InventorsDennis Hinchcliffe, Desmond W. Molins
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeMolins Limited
InventorsDennis Hinchcliffe, Desmond W. Molins
Estimating the term…
A stack of sheets, in particular hinged-lid blanks B for cigarette packets, are disposed in a vertical stack S from the top of which successive sheets are lifted by a suction member and removed by mechanical means, e.g. by a pair of conveyors 21 provided with pushers 23. The suction member may be a gang of sleeves 14 to which suction is continuously supplied, so that when a sheet B is engaged by the sleeves they are lifted automatically by suction in readiness for the pushers 23 to remove the raised sheet B, after which the sleeves again drop by gravity. The stack S may be inched around a J-shaped stack, or lifted by a pair of divergent conveyors 30 to which replenishing groups of blanks G are fed from underneath.
Apparatus for removing sheets singly from a stack of a plurality of sheets, in particular hinged-lid blanks for cigarette packets;
Apparatus for removing sheets singly from a stack of a plurality of sheets, in particular hinged-lid blanks for cigarette packets, comprising feed means for feeding said stack along a substantially semicircular path terminating in an upward direction with the upper end of said stack at the terminal end of said path exposed in an upward direction;
Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 7 or 8 in which said suction member comprises at least one vertically slidable sleeve and a source of suction in continuous communication with the sleeve, so that when the sleeve has been closed off by engagement with the topmost sheet the sleeve and sheet will be lifted by the suction, and when the sleeve has been reopened by transverse removal of the sheet by the withdrawal means the sleeve will again drop under the effect of gravity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.