Apparatus for sheet singling and alignment on the top side of a sheet pile

Apparatus for sheet singling and alignment on a top side of a sheet pile of a rotary printing press, comprising a suction device extending transversely to sheet transport direction in the vicinity of the leading edge of the sheet pile, said suction device being intermittently activatable with suction air, a scanning device for scanning a height of the sheet pile, said scanning device extending across the entire width of the pile and having a member movable towards and away from the top side of the pile for scanning the height thereof, swivelable levers adjacent said pile-height scanning member, an element for laterally aligning single sheets of the sheet pile axially displaceably mounted on said swivelable levers, said element for laterally aligning the single sheets being shaped as a rod and being at least Partly provided with a friction coating, means for directing an air stream onto the leading edge of the sheet pile so as to lift off a leading-edge region of the respective single sheets from the pile, side walls, profiled elements mounted in said side walls, and rounded contact heads formed at respective end regions of said rod-shaped aligning element, said contact heads being in cooperative engagement with said profiled elements during a swiveling movement of said swivelable levers.