Bulk handling apparatus

Abstract

A method and apparatus for stacking newspapers is disclosed which obviates the need to fasten individual stacks. Once ejected from a stacking device, stacks of newspapers pass through an assembly station where they are arranged into groups of three, called slugs, and compressed. The slug then enters a collector where a layer consisting of four slugs is positioned on a sliding table. This positioning requires lateral movement of slugs. Lateral support is provided throughout this movement to prevent the stacks from toppling over. Once a full layer has been accumulated, the sliding table is retracted, and the layer of newspapers falls onto a floating table below. This floating table, which serves as the bottom floor of the container in which it is housed, is automatically lowered by discrete amounts as layers are received. Extendible cylinders located below the collector vertically move the floating table. Since the four walls of the container provide the requisite lateral support, layers of unfastened stacks are able to be securely deposited on the floating table. Once the full container is removed from the collector, a fork lift raises the floating table by inserting its prongs into a gap created between the floating table and the open bottom of the container. In another aspect of the invention, bottom copy damage associated with lateral movement of newspapers is reduced by positioning the stacks so that the nose of the bottom group of newspapers in each stack points in the ultimate direction of lateral movement.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.