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US 5,511,769 AGranted
Sheet material collating apparatus
AssigneeAM International, Inc.
InventorsRichard D. Wamsley, Gary Cooper, Jr.
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAM International, Inc.
InventorsRichard D. Wamsley, Gary Cooper, Jr.
Estimating the term…
A sheet material collating apparatus includes a conveyor and a plurality of hoppers which hold sheet material articles. Feed drums are operable to sequentially feed sheet material articles from each of the hoppers to sheet material receiving locations on the conveyor. Each of a plurality of feed drum drive systems includes a transmission which is operable to drive a feed drum at either a first speed or a second speed which is greater than the first speed. A control system for the transmissions may include a detector which is operable to detect when a pusher element in the conveyor is at predetermined location relative to a feed drum by detecting either the pusher element itself or the trailing edge of a sheet material article being pushed by the pusher element. A signal generator, such as an encoder or pulse generator, may be used to indicate the position of a pusher element in the conveyor relative to the feed drums.
A sheet material collating apparatus comprising a sheet material conveyor having a plurality of sheet material receiving locations, a plurality of hoppers disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said hoppers holding a plurality of sheet material articles, a plurality of feed drums which are operable to sequentially feed sheet material articles from each of said hoppers to the sheet material receiving locations in said sheet material conveyor, a main drive system, a plurality of secondary drive systems which are connected with said main drive system and said feed drums and are operable to transmit force from said main drive system to said feed drums, each of said secondary drive systems including a transmission which is connected with said main drive system and with one of said feed drums and is operable between an initial condition in which said transmission is ineffective to transmit force to drive said one of said feed drums, a first condition in which said transmission is effective to transmit force to drive said one of said feed drums at a first speed, and a second condition in which said transmission is effective to transmit force to drive said one of said feed drums at a second speed which is greater than the first speed, and control means for controlling operation of said plurality of transmissions, said control means being selectively operable to effect operation of each of said transmissions between said initial, first and second conditions.
A sheet material collating apparatus comprising a sheet material conveyor having a plurality of sheet material receiving locations, a plurality of hoppers disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said hoppers holding a plurality of sheet material articles, a conveyor drive system connected with said sheet material conveyor and operable to drive said sheet material conveyor to sequentially move said sheet material receiving locations past said hoppers, a plurality of rotatable feed drums which are operable to sequentially feed sheet material articles from each of said hoppers to the sheet material receiving locations in said sheet material conveyor during operation of said conveyor drive system and movement of said sheet material receiving locations past said hoppers, a plurality of detectors disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said detectors being operable to detect when a sheet material receiving location has moved to a predetermined position relative to one of said hoppers, and control means for effecting operation of said conveyor drive system between an operating condition and a nonoperating condition in which said conveyor drive system is ineffective to drive said sheet material conveyor, said control means being operable to effect operation of said sheet material conveyor drive system to the nonoperating condition in response to one of said detectors detecting that a sheet material receiving location has moved to a predetermined position relative to one of said hoppers.
A sheet material collating apparatus comprising a sheet material conveyor having a plurality of sheet material receiving locations, said sheet material conveyor includes an elongated sheet material support and a plurality of pusher elements which are engageable with trailing edge portions of sheet material articles and which push the sheet material articles along said elongated sheet material support during operation of said sheet material conveyor, a plurality of hoppers disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said hoppers holding a plurality of sheet material articles, a conveyor drive system connected with said sheet material conveyor and operable to drive said sheet material conveyor to sequentially move said sheet material receiving locations past said hoppers, a plurality of rotatable feed drums which are operable to sequentially feed sheet material articles from each of said hoppers to the sheet material receiving locations in said sheet material conveyor during operation of said conveyor drive system and movement of said sheet material receiving locations past said hoppers, and a plurality of detectors disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said detectors being operable to detect when a pusher element has moved to a predetermined position relative to one of said hoppers of said plurality of hoppers.
A sheet material collating apparatus comprising a sheet material conveyor having a plurality of sheet material receiving locations, a plurality of hoppers disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said hoppers holding a plurality of sheet material articles, a conveyor drive system connected with said sheet material conveyor and operable between an operating condition in which said conveyor drive system is effective to drive said sheet material conveyor to sequentially move said sheet material receiving locations past said hoppers and a nonoperating condition in which said conveyor drive system is ineffective to drive said sheet material conveyor, a plurality of feed drums which are operable to sequentially feed sheet material articles from each of said hoppers to the sheet material receiving locations during operation of said conveyor drive system and movement of said sheet material receiving locations past said hoppers, a signal generator connected with said conveyor drive system for providing an output indicative of movement of a sheet material receiving location to a predetermined position relative to one of said hoppers during operation of said conveyor, and control means for effecting operation of said conveyor drive system from the operating condition to the nonoperating condition in response to the output from said signal generator indicating that a sheet material receiving location has moved to a predetermined position relative to one of said hoppers.
A sheet material collating apparatus comprising a sheet material conveyor having a plurality of sheet material receiving locations, a plurality of hoppers disposed at spaced apart locations along said sheet material conveyor, each of said hoppers holding a plurality of sheet material articles, a plurality of feed drums which are operable to sequentially feed sheet material articles from each of said hoppers to sheet material receiving locations in said sheet material conveyor, and drive means connected with said feed drums for rotating a first plurality of said feed drums at a first speed to feed sheet material articles from each hopper of a first plurality of hoppers to sheet material receiving locations in said sheet material conveyor at a first rate and for rotating a second plurality of said feed drums at a second speed which is greater than said first speed to feed sheet material articles from each hopper of a second plurality of hoppers to sheet material receiving locations in said sheet material conveyor at a second rate which is greater than said first rate, said drive means includes a main drive system, a plurality of secondary drive systems each of which is operable to transmit force from said main drive system to one of said feed drums, each of said secondary drive systems including a transmission which is connected with said main drive system and with one of said feed drums and is operable between an initial condition in which said transmission is ineffective to transmit force to drive one of said feed drums, a first condition in which said transmission is effective to transmit force to drive said one of said feed drums at the first speed, and a second condition in which said transmission is effective to transmit force to drive said one of said drums at the second speed, and control means for controlling operation of each of said transmissions between said initial, first and second conditions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.