Sheet deceleration apparatus and method
AssigneeJ & L Development, Inc.
InventorCurtis A. Roth
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method for decelerating a sheet of material for use in a sheet stacking or other application. The apparatus includes a pair of rollers moveable toward and away from one another to nip the sheet traveling between them. The method includes delivering a sheet between a pair of rollers and moving the rollers toward one another to nip, and thus decelerate, the speed of the sheet.
Claims20
A sheet deceleration apparatus for reducing the speed of a sheet of material moving along a travel path at a first speed, said apparatus comprising:
- a first rotatable roller being rotatable about a first axis, said first axis being substantially perpendicular to the travel path and said first roller being positioned on one side of the travel path;
- a second rotatable roller being rotatable about a second axis, said second axis being substantially perpendicular to the travel path and said second roller being positioned on the other side of the travel path and spaced from said first roller so that the sheet of material can pass between said first and second rollers wherein one of said first and second rollers is driven and the other of said first and second rollers is not driven;
- at least one of said first and second rollers being moveable relative to and toward the other of said first and second rollers to nip the sheet between said first and second rollers during at least a portion of the travel of the sheet past said first and second rollers wherein said at least one roller is moveable between a retracted position in which said at least one roller is sufficiently spaced from the other roller so as to not nip the sheet of material and an extended position in which said at least one roller is moved toward the other roller a distance sufficient to nip the sheet of material;
- and
- a drive mechanism comprising a servo drive for moving said at least one roller from said retracted position to said extended position and for moving said at least one roller from said extended position to said retracted position.
A combination sheet stacking and deceleration apparatus comprising:
- an entry conveyor for delivering sheets of material along a travel path toward a discharge end of said conveyor;
- a stacking hopper positioned downstream from the discharge end of said entry conveyor;
- and
- a sheet deceleration apparatus positioned between the discharge end of said entry conveyor and said stacking hopper, said sheet deceleration apparatus including a driven roller assembly comprised of a plurality of laterally spaced driven rollers positioned below the travel path and a non-driven roller assembly comprised of a plurality of laterally spaced non-driven rollers positioned above the travel path, said driven rollers being mounted on a driven shaft and said non-driven rollers being moveable toward and away from corresponding ones of said driven rollers between a retracted position in which said at one roller is sufficiently spaced from the other roller so as to not nip the sheet of material and an extended position in which said at least one roller is moved toward the other roller a distance sufficient to nip the sheet of material.
A method for decelerating a sheet of material traveling along a travel path at a line speed, said method comprising:
- delivering said sheet of material between a driven roller and a non-driven roller, said driven and non-driven rollers being rotatable on first and second axes, respectively, said first and second axes being substantially perpendicular to said travel path and parallel to one another;
- and
- driving at least one of said driven and non-driven rollers toward the other with a servo drive to nip said sheet of material during at least a portion of the sheet travel between said rollers, said servo drive comprised of a servo motor and a drive linkage positioned between said servo motor and said at least one roller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.