Methods for handling sheet material
AssigneeW & A Bates Limited
InventorsAnthony G. Goodfellow, Anthony R. Wright
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
In the feeding of sheet material to a machine such as a tire building former a sheet is first placed on a table and one edge of the sheet is aligned with a first datum line, preferably by tilting the table and supplying floatation air under the sheet. The sheet is then picked up and moved transversely through a predetermined distance by a gripping device to align the edge with a second datum line so as to enable the sheet to be fed in appropriate alignment to a machine.
Claims4
A method of feeding a ply of tire building fabric to a tire building former comprising laying a ply of fabric onto a table at a first location, transversely tilting the table while providing a flow of air beneath the ply to permit the ply to float over the table surface into appropriate alignment against a raised side abutment of the table thus arranging the ply on the table to align one side edge of said ply with a first datum line, applying a gripping device to the ply and transversely moving the gripping device and ply in an alignment preserving manner to a second location to align said one edge with a second datum line parallel with the first datum line and which is in predetermined relationship to a tire building former to enable the ply to be fed in appropriate axial alignment to the former.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.