US 5,248,135 AGranted

Method of, and apparatus for, opening flexible products folded off-center

AssigneeFerag AG

InventorWilly Leu

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Abstract

Folded printed products, held at the fold thereof by clamps, are fed to an opening device. This opening device comprises grippers, each gripper having a stationary gripper jaw and a movable gripper jaw which delimit a slide gap in the closed position of the movable gripper jaw. Along this slide gap there is displaceable a pusher member for the purpose of pushing out of the slide gap the printed product gripped at its open-edge region by the respective gripper. The pusher member thereby acts upon a marginal lap of a first product portion which protrudes beyond the other or second product portion. By virtue of the pre-bending of the printed products, the second product portion is entrained during pushing action at the first product portion and, as a beneficial result of such bending, lifts off from the first product portion upon leaving the slide gap, the marginal lap of the first product portion still being guided in the slide gap.

Claims28

Dependent claims

A method of opening flexible, off-center folded products, such as printed products, each having an off-center fold, a first product portion, a second product portion and in an open-edge region, located opposite the off-center fold, a marginal lap at the first product portion, the marginal lap protruding beyond the second product portion, comprising the steps of:

holding the folded products at the off-center fold thereof;
gripping in each case at least the marginal lap of the folded products by means of gripper jaws of a gripper of an opening device, the gripper jaws being movable relative to one another;
said step of gripping in each case at least the marginal lap entailing the step of gripping in each case both product portions at the open-edge region thereof by means of the gripper and the step of conjointly pre-bending in each case both product portions;
the gripper jaws in the closed position thereof forming a slide gap for the product portions;
moving the open-edge region within the slide gap by pushing the marginal lap of the first product portion towards the related off-center fold;
said step of moving the open-edge region entailing the step of ejecting at least the second product portion from the slide gap;
and
the second product portion moving apart from the first product portion as a result of the bowing-out of the first product portion.

5 more elements

An apparatus for opening flexible products which have been folded off-center, such as printed products, each having an off-center fold, a first product portion, a second product portion and in an open-edge region, located opposite to the off-center fold, a marginal lap at the first product portion, this marginal lap protruding beyond the second product portion, comprising:

holding means for holding each folded product at the off-center fold thereof;
an opening device having at least one gripper;
said at least one gripper comprising gripper jaws movable in relation to one another for gripping at least the marginal lap of a respective folded product;
bending means serving to bend at least the first product portion engaged by the at least one gripper in order to at least partially lift off the first product portion and the second product portion from one another;
said at least one gripper serving to grip both product portions at the open-edge region and said gripper jaws assuming thereby a closed position;
said gripper jaws in said closed position forming a slide gap for both product portions;
said bending means being structured for conjointly pre-bending both product portions engaged by said at least one gripper;
said slide gap having an open end facing said holding means and extending in a lengthwise direction;
and
said at least one gripper being provided with a pusher member movable in said lengthwise direction of said slide gap for acting upon the first product portion at the marginal lap thereof in order to push the open-edge region towards said open end of said slide gap until at least the second product portion leaves said slide gap.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.