US 5,126,002 AGranted

Leaf paper bundling apparatus

AssigneeGlory Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsTsutomu Iwata, Tohru Akamatsu, Osamu Itoh, Makoto Miyagawa

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Abstract

A leaf paper bundling apparatus winds a tape around the periphery of a stack of leaf papers. A stacking device stacks and aligns a predetermined number of leaf papers in an upright position in a direction parallel to the short edges of the leaf papers. Left and right holding fingers are employed to hold the stacked leaf papers and transfer the stacked leaf papers to a bundling position, maintaining the upright position of the stacked leaf papers. A tape fed by a tape supply is wound around the stacked leaf papers by a tape winding device. The tape is tightened about the stacked leaf papers, and a pair of clamping members clamp the stacked leaf papers therebetween. The clamping members each have spaced contact edges straddling the tape. The stacked leaf papers can then be tightly held together without interfering with the winding of the tape about the stacked leaf papers. Further, the contact edges of the clamping members are longer than the width of the stacked leaf papers so that the edges extend beyond the edges of the stacked leaf papers. This prevents the tape being tightened about the stacked leaf papers from bending the edges of the leaf papers. The tape is then cut by a cutting device, and the ends of the tape are bonded with a thermal bonding pad that is moved between the contact edges of one of the clamping members.

Claims13

Dependent claims

A leaf paper bundling apparatus for winding a tape around a periphery of a stack f leaf papers having long and short edges, comprising:

a stacking means for stacking a predetermined number of leaf papers in an upright position in a direction parallel to the short edges of the leaf papers and aligning both the long and short edges of the leaf papers;
a holding and transferring means for holding and transferring the stacked leaf papers in the upright position from said stacking means to a bundling position defined immediately below said stacking means, said holding and transferring means including left and right holding fingers for holding the stacked leaf papers and maintaining the upright position of the stacked leaf papers;
a clamping means having a pair of clamping members for clamping the stacked leaf papers from both sides thereof at a position on the stacked leaf papers separated from the one position whereat the leaf papers are held by said left and right holding fingers of said holding and transferring means;
a tape supply means for supplying tape to be wound around the stacked leaf papers, said tape supply means being provided adjacent one of said clamping members, and said tape supply means having tape tightening means for applying tension to the tape after the tape has been wound around the stacked leaf papers;
a tape winding means for winding the tape from said tape supply means around the periphery of the stacked leaf papers at a position on the stacked leaf papers other than the one position whereat the leaf papers are held by said left and right holding fingers of said holding and transferring means, said tape winding means including a fixed holding member and a movable holding member for holding an end of the tape supplied by said tape supply means and winding the tape by moving to advance, describe an arc path at said bundling position around the stacked leaf papers, release the tape and retreat from said bundling position in a direction parallel to the long edges of the leaf papers;
cutting means for cutting the tape after the tape has been wound around the stacked leaf papers by said tape winding means and tension has been applied to the tape by said tape tightening means, said cutting means being provided adjacent said tape supply means;
and
a tape thermal bonding means for adhering the cut ends of the tape together, said tape thermal bonding means including a thermal bonding pad moving to the cut ends from a predetermined position and retreating to said predetermined position after thermal bonding has been carried out.

5 more elements

A leaf paper bundling apparatus for winding a tape around a periphery of a stack of leaf papers having long and short edges, comprising:

a stacking device for stacking a predetermined number of leaf papers;
a holding and transferring device for holding and transferring the stacked leaf papers in the upright position from said stacking device to a bundling position defined below said stacking device;
a pair of clamping members for clamping the stacked leaf papers therebetween at said bundling position, wherein each said clamping member has a pair of spaced apart contact edges having a length dimension greater than the width of the leaf paper in the direction in which the tape is wound around the stacked leaf papers for clamping the stacked leaf paper bundle, with each said pair of spaced apart contact edges straddling the tape wound around the stacked leaf paper on opposite sides of the stacked leaf paper;
a tape supply means for supplying tape to be wound around the stacked leaf papers, said tape supply means being provided adjacent one of said clamping members, and said tape supply means having tape tightening means for applying tension to the tape after the tape has been wound around the stacked leaf papers;
a tape winding means for winding the tape from said tape supply means around the periphery of the stacked leaf papers;
cutting means for cutting the tape after the tape has been wound around the stacked leaf papers by said tape winding means and tension has been applied to the tape by said tape tightening means, said cutting means being provided adjacent said tape supply means;
and
a tape thermal bonding means for adhering the cut ends of the tape together.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.