High speed on-line reshingling of printed products
AssigneeCustom-Bilt Machinery, Inc.
InventorHans G. Faltin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A stream of shingled printed products coming off a press at high speed, with variable speed of conveyance and with variable shingle spacing, has alternate products divided into two streams conveyed at reduced speed. Thus two cyclically driven chains present alternating gripper links at a pickup station to grip and transport the alternate products along diverging paths for release on a corresponding pair of conveyor lines for the divided product streams. To conform with varying speeds and spacings, the gripper chain drive is synchronized to operate the grippers as each individual product arrives.
Claims13
A printing system for downstream processing of shingled products conveyed from a variable speed printing press, comprising in combination, a variable speed printing press for providing a plurality of printed products, on-line conveyor delivery means downstream of said printing press for receiving printed products and for presenting printed products in shingled relationship in a press output stream at a predetermined product rate, reshingling means for processing the on-line product stream to divide the stream into two continuous streams of output shingled products conveyed at a product rate substantially less than said predetermined rate.
A stream divider system for processing a plurality of shingled printed products to alternately direct individual products from a single conveyor line to two separate conveyor lines, comprising in combination, transport means for gripping and transporting each of the products delivered along said single conveyor line and including two sets of grippers cyclically moving in individual paths between the single conveyor line and the two separate conveyor lines, and actuating means for actuating the grippers in the respective sets to grip alternate products from said single conveyor line and to release the products in shingled format on the respective two separate conveyor lines.
A high speed conveying system for reshingling continuously moving shingled printed products, comprising in combination, first, second, and third conveyor means for conveying said shingled printed products along respective predetermined conveyance paths, and reshingling means extending between said first conveyor means and each of said second and third conveyor means for conveying the products between the first, second, and third conveyor means, said reshingling means including individual gripping means for gripping the products and carrying the gripped products between respective ones of said conveyors, transport means for sequentially presenting a plurality of sets of individual gripping means and for carrying alternate ones of said gripping means between said first and said second conveyors and between said first and said third conveyors, respectively, thereby to accommodate individual ones of the shingled products in individual gripping means, said gripping means having clamping means operable to receive and grip an individual product carried on one of said conveyors and for closing said gripping means to convey the gripped product to another of said conveyors and for opening said gripping means at said other conveyor to discharge the product on said other conveyor in shingled relationship with other products thereon.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.