GB1373036A - Gathering machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1373036 Feeding and delivering sheets HARRIS CORP 16 Feb 1972 [5 April 1971] 7177/72 Heading B8R Collating sheets.-A plurality of V-shaped pockets 12, Figs. 1 and 2, are moved by a rotating turret 10 below a plurality of stationary feed stations 21a-21f and through a delivery station 41. In normal operation, each pocket is moved in succession past each feed station and receives thereat one sheet such as a folded newspaper section, the complete newspaper being removed from the pocket at the delivery station. At the delivery station, a cam 45, Figs. 1 and 4, acts on a cam follower 46 to move a pivoted plate 66 clockwise. The plate 66 carries a pivoted bell-crank lever 70, an arm 70a of which engages in a notch 65a of an arm 65 so as to rotate the arm 65 clockwise and thereby rotate the back wall 50 of the pocket which is at the delivery station, so as to open the bottom of the pocket and allow the assembled sheets therein to drop on to a delivery conveyer. If a sheet has not been fed into a particular pocket at a particular feed station, then, by means of an electronic control circuit including a memory, when the pocket reaches the delivery station, a solenoid 68 causes a cam 76 to be moved into an operative position in which it acts on a cam follower 74 to swing the arm 70a clear of the notch 65a, so that the faulty sheet assembly is not delivered. Also, by means of the control circuit, when the absence of a sheet being fed is detached at a feed station, all the feeding means at the remaining feed stations are rendered inoperative in turn as the particular pocket reaches the stations, until the pocket comes again to the station where the misfeed occurs, at which station the feeding is resumed, so that a correct assembly can finally be delivered. Feeding sheets.-Each feeding station comprises a hopper 19, Fig. 2, in which a pile of sheets is supported on a ledge 28 and on a movable shoe 29. In normal cyclic operation, for the feed of each sheet, the shoe 29 is withdrawn to free the front edge of a sheet, a vacuum suction 33 pulls the sheet downwardly, and a finger 23 on a rotating drum 22 grips the leading edge of the sheet to withdraw it from the pile and carry it round the drum, the finger 23 opening to drop the sheet into a pocket 12. When the absence of a sheet is sensed by a caliper-type detector 34, suction is cut off from the suckers 33 of the remaining feed stations as the pocket reaches them, to prevent feed into a pocket containing a faulty assembly of sheets and the solenoid 88, Fig. 4, is energized to preventoperation of the delivery means when the pocket reaches the delivery station. In the event of double feed, the detector may operate a warning signal or stop the apparatus.