Apparatus for cutting stacks of sheets

Abstract

Apparatus for cutting stacks of sheets has a first cutting machine which subdivides large piles of overlapping sheets into elongated strip-shaped stacks. The stacks are accumulated on a platform which is moved into a second cutting machine wherein a selected number of stacks is pushed by a feeding device across the cutting plane of a guillotine type knife before the knife descends to separate smaller stacks which come to rest on a plate or enter a gap formed in response to retraction of the plate so that the severed portions of the stacks can be advanced to a processing machine. The stacks which are about to be severed are pushed by a biasing device against a stop which extends at right angles to the cutting plane in the second machine, and each such stack is further pushed by an aligning device so that it abuts the feeding device. This ensures that the stacks are properly oriented prior to severing by the knife in the second machine. The effective length of the feeding device is less than the distance between the stop and the biasing device.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.