Machine for receiving and stacking blanks of cardboard or like material of variable shape and format, successively cut out from a continuous web

A machine for receiving and stacking blanks of cardboard or like material of variable shape and format, cut out successively from a continuous web by a cutting-out apparatus located upstream of the machine, supplied in a continuous line in an overlapping relationship one onto another on an endless conveyor belt, comprising:

• a device for deviating the blanks through at least 90.degree.;
• parallel mobile endless belts extending between the outlet of the blank deviating device and a transverse stacking stop which stops the successive blanks which engage one after the other the stack of blanks already formed;
• said blank deviating device comprising a drum which rotates about a horizontal and transverse axis, around which passes said mobile endless belts extending up to said stacking stop;
• said endless conveyor belt being tangential to said drum, therebeneath, and passing around a motorized drive roller and guide rollers having horizontal and transverse axes wherein at least one of the guide rollers is borne by a chassis mounted to pivot about said drum, so that the pivoting chassis may occupy two positions, namely a first horizontal position in which it extends along the longitudinal axis of the machine, so that said endless conveyor belt extends horizontally outside the machine, to allow a continuous outlet, in the horizontal direction, of the line of blanks, and a second vertical position in which said endless conveyor belt is maintained applied against at least the lower quarter of the peripheral surface of said drum so that, when the pivoting chassis is in this second vertical position, the line of blanks is driven between said endless conveyor belt and the mobile endless belts along at least the lower and outer quarter of the peripheral surface of the drum to be deviated through at least 90.degree. and then is directed, by the mobile endless belts, towards the stacking stop;
• a device upstream of said deviating device separating the continuous line of blanks into successive groups of blanks each corresponding to a predetermined number of blanks intended to substantially form an individual stack;
• said separating device provoking, between two successive groups, a "hole" whose passage is then detected by a photoelectric sensor placed at the outlet of the deviating device and upstream of the stacking stop;
• said stacking stop being mounted on a support vertically mobile under the control of a jack so as to be able to be lowered beneath the plane of the parallel mobile endless belts when a stack of blanks has been formed, wherein a transverse evacuation stop is disposed downstream of said stacking stop to stop the individual stacks;
• and
• a device for lateral evacuation of the stacks of blanks upstream of the evacuation stop comprising, between said stacking stop and said stack evacuation stop, a support mobile vertically on the frame of the machine, means for vertically displacing this support, longitudinal rollers mounted to rotate on the support, being located between the mobile endless belts, and means for driving the longitudinal rollers in rotation;
• said separating device being placed at the joinder of an intermediate conveyor belt and of said endless conveyor belt which is in contact with the drum, said intermediate conveyor belt passing over an upstream guide roller having a horizontal and transverse axis, which extends opposite and at the same level as another downstream guide roller, having a horizontal and transverse axis, provided for the intermediate conveyor belt;
• said separating device comprising a lower catch, located normally, between said upstream and downstream guide rollers, flush with the upper sides of said intermediate and endless conveyor belts or under these sides and which may be raised by a jack and, above the guide rollers, a first lever which bears a lower horizontal plate, and a second lever which bears a stop and against which is applied said first lever, under the action of a spring;
• and
• said two levers being mounted to pivot about a horizontal and transverse axis, said second lever being adapted to be lowered by a jack, said second lever also bearing at least one presser roller disposed above the endless conveyor belt and which may be lowered jointly with said second lever, so as to create, by lowering the stop and raising the catch, a rupture in the continuity of the line of blanks in the vertical direction and consequently a "hole" in this line.

A machine for receiving and stacking blanks of cardboard or like material of variable shape and format, cut out successively from a continuous web by a cutting-out apparatus located upstream of the machine;

• comprising:
• an endless conveyor belt for receiving the blanks in a continuous line in an overlapping relationship one onto another;
• a device for deviating the blanks through at least 90.degree.;
• parallel moble endless belts extending between the outlet of said blank deviating device and a transverse stacking stop which stops the successive blanks which engage one after the other the stack of blanks already formed;
• said blank deviating device comprising a drum which rotates about a horizontal and transverse axis, around which passes said mobile endless belts extending up to said stacking stop;
• said endless conveyor belt being tangential to said drum, therebeneath, and passing around a motorized drive roller and guide rollers having horizontal and transverse axes wherein at least one of the guide rollers is borne by a chassis mounted to pivot about said drum, so that the pivoting chassis may occupy two positions, namely a first horizontal position in which it extends along the longitudinal axis of the machine, so that said conveyor belt extends horizontally outside the machine, to allow a continuous outlet, in the horizontal direction, of the line of blanks, and a second vertical position in which said endless belt is maintained applied against at least the lower quarter of the peripheral surface of said drum so that, when the pivoting chassis is in this second vertical position, the line of blanks is driven between said endless conveyor belt and the mobile endless belts along at least the lower and outer quarter of the peripheral surface of the drum to be deviated through at least 90.degree. and then is directed, by the mobile endless belts, towards said stacking stop;
• and
• a separating device upstream of said deviating device separating the continuous line of blanks into successive groups of blanks each corresponding to a predetermined number of blanks intended to substantially form an individual stack;
• said separating device being placed at the joinder of an intermediate conveyor belt and of said endless conveyor belt which is in contact with the drum, said intermediate conveyor belt passing over an upstream guide roller having a horizontal and transverse axis, which extends opposite and at the same level as another downstream guide roller, having a horizontal and transverse axis, provided for the intermediate conveyor belt;
• said separating device comprising a lower catch, located normally, between said upstream and downstream guide rollers, flush with the upper sides of said intermediate and endless conveyor belts or under these sides and which may be raised by a jack and, above the guide rollers, a first lever which bears a lower horizontal plate, and a second lever which bears a stop and against which is applied said first lever, under the action of a spring;
• and
• said two levers being mounted to pivot about a horizontal and transverse axis, said second lever being adapted to be lowered by a jack, said, second lever also bearing at least one presser roller disposed above the conveyor belt and which may be lowered jointly with said second lever, so as to create, by lowering the stop and raising the catch, a rupture in the continuity of the line of blanks in the vertical direction and consequently a "hole" in this line.