Methods and systems for controlling the feeding of stacked sheet material
AssigneePrim Hall Enterprises, Inc.
InventorsJohn E. Prim, David F. Hall, Berend Doane
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods and systems employing belt conveyors adapted to feed signatures to a collating conveyor and a control system that regulates the operation of the belt conveyors are provided. The control system is adapted to regulate the speed of the belt conveyors in response to the speed of the collating conveyor, for example, proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor, to minimize or eliminate signature misfeeds. The control system may implement a mathematical algorithm that defines a relationship between the collating conveyor speed and the belt conveyor speeds. The systems and methods may include ancillary feeding devices such as joggers and speeder wheels to optimize the transfer of signatures.
Claims22
A system for loading signatures on to a collating conveyor, the system comprising:
- a first belt conveyor;
- a second belt conveyor positioned to receive signatures from the first belt conveyor and discharge the signatures to a hopper;
- a feeder adapted to transfer signatures from the hopper to the collating conveyor;
- and
- a control system adapted to control the speed of at least one of the first belt conveyor and the second belt conveyor proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor to minimize misfeeding of signatures;
- wherein the speed, SC, of one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor is proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor, SCC, by the following relationship:
- SC=K×SCC,
- wherein
- K=SMAX1×T×K1;
- wherein
- SMAX1 is the maximum speed of the first conveyor;
- T is the typical thickness of the signatures;
- and
- K1 is a constant ranging from 0.10 to 10.0.
A system for loading signatures on to a collating conveyor, the system comprising:
- a first belt conveyor;
- a second belt conveyor positioned to receive signatures from the first belt conveyor and discharge the signatures to a hopper;
- a feeder adapted to transfer signatures from the hopper to the collating conveyor;
- and
- a control system adapted to control the speed of at least one of the first belt conveyor and the second belt conveyor proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor to minimize misfeeding of signatures;
- wherein the speed, SC, of one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor is related to the speed of the collating conveyor, SCC, by the following relationship:
- SC=K×SCC,
- wherein
- K=SMAX1×K2;
- wherein
- SMAX1 is the maximum speed of the first conveyor;
- and
- K2 is a constant ranging from 0.10 to 10.0.
A method for loading signatures on to a collating conveyor, the method comprising:
- conveying signatures from a signature loading position using a first conveyor to a second conveyor;
- conveying the signatures with the second conveyor to a hopper;
- transferring the signatures from the hopper to the collating conveyor;
- and
- controlling the speed of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor to minimize misfeeding of signatures;
- wherein controlling the speed, SC, of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor, SCC, comprises controlling the speed of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor according to the following relationship:
- SC=K×SCC,
- wherein
- K=SMAX1×T×K1;
- wherein
- SMAX1 is the maximum speed of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor;
- T is the typical thickness of the signatures;
- and
- K1 is a constant ranging from 0.10 to 10.0.
A method for loading signatures on to a collating conveyor, the method comprising:
- conveying signatures from a signature loading position using a first conveyor to a second conveyor;
- conveying the signatures with the second conveyor to a hopper;
- transferring the signatures from the hopper to the collating conveyor;
- and
- controlling the speed of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor to minimize misfeeding of signatures;
- wherein controlling the speed, SC, of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor proportional to the speed of the collating conveyor, SCC, comprises controlling the speed of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor according to the following relationship:
- SC=K×SCC,
- wherein
- K=SMAX1×K2;
- wherein
- SMAX1 is the maximum speed of at least one of the first conveyor and the second conveyor;
- and
- K2 is a constant ranging from 0.10 to 10.0.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.