Back to results
US 4,787,619 AGranted
Sheet feed bench with blower jets and a method of removing sheets from a stack
AssigneeMathias Bauerle GmbH
InventorsManfred Fuss, Joachim Kurtz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Loading patent…
Loading patent…
AssigneeMathias Bauerle GmbH
InventorsManfred Fuss, Joachim Kurtz
Estimating the term…
In a sheet feed bench with two parallel sheet feed rails that are adjustable relative to one another and with each having blowing jets on their surfaces facing one another directly above the level of the bench, connected to a common source of compressed air, the sheet feed rails resting on the bench surface are provided with groove-like or notch-like enlargements at the level of the blowing jets. Each of these extend over the entire length of the sheet feeder rails. These enlargements make it possible to position the inner surfaces of the sheet feeder rails so closely and tightly against the longitudinal edges of the stack of sheets that only small amounts of compressed air can escape upward. The formation of an air cushion is improved by this in such a way that the stack height can be more than double without adversely affecting the single-sheet separation.
A sheet feed bench comprising a horizontal bench plate, first and second parallel sheet feed rails on said bench plate at least one of which is adjustably movable toward and away from the other, a plurality of fluid pressure blower jets carried by each feed rail and located directly above the level of said bench plate on the sides of said rails facing one another, said bench plate being adapted to be supplied with sheets to form a stack which is refillable from the top of the stack, single sheet separator means located adjacent said bench plate operable to remove the bottom sheet from a stack of sheets, each of said feed rails resting substantially airtight on the surface of said bench plate and having a groove defining respective enlargements on the surface of said rails which face one another at the level of said blower jets and which extend substantially over entire length of the each rail.
A method of separating sheets from a stack of sheets which are positioned on a bench plate and which comprises the steps of arranging guide rails on each side of the stack of sheets which may be moved inwardly to engage each respective side, maintaining the bottoms of the guide rails in substantially air-tight connection with said bench plate, providing an enlargement in each guide rail extending along substantially the length of the sheets at the level of the bench plate and directing a fluid jet through the enlargement toward the sheets while the lowermost ones of the sheet are being removed from the stack of sheets.
A sheet feed bench comprising a horizontal bench plate, first and second parallel sheet feed rails on said bench plate at least one of which is adjustably movable toward and away from the other, a plurality of fluid pressure blower jets carried by each feed rail and located directly above the level of said bench plate on the sides of said rails facing one another, said bench plate being adapted to be supplied with sheets to form a stack which is refillable from the top of the stack, single sheet separator means located adjacent said bench plate operable to remove the bottom sheet from a stack of sheets, each of said feed rails resting substantially airtight on the surface of said bench plate and having a groove defining respective enlargements on the surface of said rails which face one another at the level of said blower jets and which extend substantially over the entire length of each rail, including a sealing ledge resting on the surface of said bench plate extending between the facing surfaces of said rails.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
Drawings are temporarily unavailable. Open the PDF at USPTO
No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.
Using pneumatic force: suction rollers
Supplementary devices or measures to assist separation or prevent double feed: air blast acting on edges of, or under, articles
Of horizontal or inclined articles, i.e. wherein articles support fully or in part the mass of other articles in the piles: from bottom of the pile
Handling thin or filamentary material
Term ended 29 Apr 2007 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to sheet feeding devices and, in particular, to a new and useful sheet feed bench and to a method of feeding sheets off a stack thereof.
This invention concerns a sheet feed bench with two parallel sheet feed rails adjustable relative to one another, each of which has several blower jets directly above the level of the bench on their sides facing one another, which are connected or can be connected to a common source of compressed air, and with a single-sheet separator by which the bottom sheet is taken from a stack of sheets that can be refilled from the top.
In the Drawings:
FIG. 1 is a perspective elevational view of a feed bench constructed in accordance with the invention;
FIG. 2 is a vertical section through a sheet feed rail of the feed bench of FIG. 1;
Referring to the drawings, in particular, the invention embodied therein comprises a sheet feed bench which includes a horizontal bench plate 1 on which the stack of sheets 53 is placed for separating the sheets from the bottom of the stack and for replenishing the stack from the top. In accordance with the invention, two parallel sheet feed rails 3 and 4 are mounted directly on the horizontal bench plate 1 so that they may be separated relatively or moved toward each other in accordance with the width of the sheets to be fed. Each feed rail 3 and 4 includes a plurality of fluid pressure blower jets which are generated through air valves 20 and produced at the level of the surface of the horizontal bench plate 1. A separator, such as a rotatable suction roll 8, is disposed at the level of the surface of the bench plate 1 at an end thereof and is operable to remove each bottom sheet in succession. A feature of the invention is that the rails engage substantially air-tight on the bench plate and there is a groove or notch 39 extending along each side of the rails 3 and 4 on the surfaces which face each other and at the lower level of the blower jets and that this enlargement extends substantially along the length of the sheets being handled.
As seen best from FIG. 1, the sheet feed bench shown in the drawing comprises a rectangular, horizontal bench plate 1 on which there are two sheet feed rails 3 and 4 running parallel to one another and adjustable perpendicular to one another. These sheet feed rails 3, 4 are fastened to the bench plate 1 by screws, not shown, and by means of adjustable clamp devices to a cross-rail 5 which, in turn, is fastened to the bench plate 1 by vertical brackets 6 and 7 at the ends. A suction roll 8 is mounted to rotate in a recess in the front section of the bench plate below the cross-rail 5 and parallel to it. This suction roll 8 is designed in a known manner as a hollow cylinder and has a number of radial suction holes 9 arranged in rows. Inside the suction roll 8 is a vacuum chamber of sector-like design, not shown in the drawings, that is connected to a suction pump. The suction roll 8 is arranged so that the top surface of the bench plate 1 is at least approximately tangential to the circumferential surface of the suction roll 8. There is a vertical stopper plate 10 above the suction roll 8 whose bottom stopping edge 11 is separated from the circumference of the suction roll 8 by approximately the thickness of the sheets to be singled. Means of transport that consist of several transport rolls 13 fastened to a shaft 12 and two pressure rolls 14, that are mounted to rotate in bearing blocks 15 and 16, are located with a small separation from the suction roll 8 in the direction of transport. It is the purpose of these means of transport to transport further each of the bottom sheets taken individually from the stack by the suction roll 8.
The two sheet feed rails 3 and 4 resting on the bench plate 8 are arranged and designed as mirror images of one another. As seen from FIG. 2, each of them includes a rectangular pipe 17 whose cavity 18 is tightly sealed at the front and rear ends. There are compressed air valves 20 that can be sealed off individually arranged in the bottom wall 19 of the rectangular pipe 17 over the entire length, distributed at regular intervals, which can be smaller in the front section than in the other sections of the sheet feed rails. Each of these compressed air valves 20 includes a valve seat sleeve 21 and a closing plate 22 that is fastened by means of a shaft 23 to an adjusting knob 24. In the closed position shown in FIG. 2, the closing plate 22 is pressed against the valve seat sleeve 21 by means of a compression spring 25 encircling the shaft 23. The compressed air valve 20 is .thus closed. The adjusting knob 24 has a washer 26 with two lifters 27 diametrically opposite one another, which can drop into corresponding recesses 28 in a collar 29 when the compressed air valve 20 in question is to be closed. To open the compressed air valve 20, the adjusting knob is turned relative to the collar 29 so that the two lifters 27 come to lie on the upper face 30 of the collar 29 and the closing plate 22 is lifted from the valve seat sleeve 21.