Apparatus for stacking flat articles on-edge
AssigneeW+D Direct Marketing Solutions GmbH
InventorsArne Dörrie, Gerald Benders, Horst Kostrzewa, Wilfried Wieneke
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for stacking flat articles on-edge has a helical drive assembly with spaced-apart helical screws. The helical screws receive and hold the articles on-edge therebetween, and eject the articles towards a stack holding unit. The stack holding unit is configured to hold a stack of articles on-edge separately from the helical screws. The apparatus includes a conveyor that supports the lower edges of the articles during their transport to the stack holding unit. The stack holding unit has an article entry opening with a height that is smaller than a height of the articles to be stacked during operation, and the height of the article entry opening is preferably adjustable.
Claims20
A method of stacking flat articles on-edge, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a stack holding unit configured to hold a stack of the articles on-edge, the stack holding unit having an article entry opening for receiving the articles, the article entry opening having a height that is smaller than a height of the articles to be stacked during operation;
- providing a helical drive assembly with spaced-apart helical screws disposed separately from the stack holding unit and configured to receive the articles therebetween;
- providing a conveyor configured to support lower edges of the articles during transport to the stack holding unit and driving the conveyor at an instantaneous conveying speed;
- receiving the articles between the helical screws in an on-edge orientation and repositioning each of the articles from a first angular position with respect to a transport path to a different second angular position with respect to the transport path;
- and
- ejecting each of the articles from the helical drive assembly towards the stack holding unit at a higher speed than the instantaneous conveying speed of the conveyor.
A method for processing flat articles, the method comprising the steps of:
- providing a stack holding unit configured to hold a stack of the articles on-edge, the stack holding unit having an article entry opening for receiving the articles, the article entry opening having a height that is smaller than a height of the articles to be stacked during operation;
- providing a helical drive assembly with spaced-apart helical screws disposed separately from the stack holding unit and configured to receive the articles therebetween;
- providing a conveyor configured to support lower edges of the articles during transport to the stack holding unit and driving the conveyor at an instantaneous conveying speed;
- feeding the flat articles on-edge to the spaced-apart helical screws and thereby turning the articles by way of an article rotation assembly having flat endless belts arranged to convey articles therebetween;
- and
- supporting a back side of an article during transfer into the helical drive assembly by way of a downstream belt section of the feeding unit disposed to reach to a position opposite the helical drive assembly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.