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US 4,547,114 AGranted
Positive control stacker
AssigneeThe Procter & Gamble Company
InventorsHoward N. Watrous, Walter Cash, Jr., Weldon R. Dixon
Life of this patent
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AssigneeThe Procter & Gamble Company
InventorsHoward N. Watrous, Walter Cash, Jr., Weldon R. Dixon
Estimating the term…
A stacker for rigid and semi-rigid sheet or pad-like products forming individual stacks thereof of specific count and with the edges of the product in each stack aligned. The stacker comprises at least one pair of multi-thread screws, being mirror images of each other, rotating continuously at the same speed but in opposite directions. Products are continuously fed between the screws of the at least one pair, each product being supported by a set of corresponding threads of both screws. All corresponding sets of threads are so loaded and each product is shifted downwardly by its respective thread set while simultaneously being urged forwardly against a stop to align the front and rear edges thereof. The initial portion of the shaft of each multi-thread screw tapers downwardly and outwardly to align the side edges of the products. When all of the corresponding thread sets have been product filled, the corresponding thread sets terminate one-by-one so as to accumulate a stack from top to bottom, the last thread set to terminate depositing a stack of aligned products equal in number to the number of threads per screw. A single-thread, large pitch screw can be located beneath and coaxial with each of the multi-thread screws, the single-thread screws cooperating to convey or convey and accumulate product stacks formed by the multi-thread screws.
A stacker for rigid and flexible sheet and pad-like products forming individual stacks thereof of specific count, said stacker comprising at least one pair of stacker screws, each stacker screw having at least two helical threads, each thread having a starting edge and a terminating edge, all of said terminating edges of said screw being below all of said starting edges, said stacker screws of said at least one pair having the same number of threads and being mirror images of each other, said stacker screws rotating at the same speed and in opposite directions, said stacker screws being so radially aligned that corresponding threads thereof occupy corresponding positions, said stacker screws of said at least one pair being arranged in side-by-side relationship with their corresponding threads opposed, means to continuously feed products between said screws onto said starting edges of said helical threads of said at least one pair such that each product is supported by corresponding threads of said screws, said corresponding threads being so configured that each of said products is shifted downwardly thereby, said corresponding threads of said screws of said at least one pair terminate one-by-one such that a stack of said products is accumulated from top-to-bottom, the last of said corresponding threads to terminate depositing said product stack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.