HK1115110A - A device for opening folders during transportation - Google Patents

Description

Device for opening folded articles during transport

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a device for opening a fold.

Background

SE-C-464757 shows a device by means of which a folder can be opened in a controlled portion-by-portion transfer process in order to feed one or more additives into the opened folder. In this regard, an endless conveyor carrying generally V-shaped pockets is utilized, each pocket receiving a fold, the back of which rests on the bottom of the pocket. At least one wall of the recess has one or more controllable clips at an outer free edge portion of the recess for gripping an end portion of the opened fold.

According to techniques well known in practice, the fold is formed so that half of the fold is slightly longer than the other half when calculated from the back. In this way, the shorter half of the fold can be flipped away from the longer half of the fold, for example for the following reasons: turning the recess under gravity will cause the shorter half of the fold to rest on the adjacent wall of the recess. Possibly, a shorter half of the fold can also be gripped by an appurtenant controllable gripper on the other adjacent recess wall. One or more additives can now be fed into the respective unfolded fold.

Possibly, a gripper clip may be provided at the bottom of the recess to retain the fold in the recess, where the recess would otherwise be at risk of falling out of the recess when it has such an orientation (e.g. facing downwards).

The fold conveyor with such a gripper or controllable gripper can be operated synchronously with the recess conveyor.

The opening of each fold is a critical process part. In practice, the folder may comprise newspapers from a newspaper carousel having a delivery of 10-15 copies of newspapers per second, and it may be desirable to perform 10-15 copies of folder opening per second to be able to provide one or more additions per copy of newspapers at the delivery from the newspaper carousel. Even if the insertion process takes place with the newspaper being transported offline, it is desirable to be able to carry out the opening of the fold at a correspondingly high speed.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a solution which allows the fold to be opened at the end edge of the fold at high speed, both when the fold is conveyed in portions by high throughput by the conveyor and when the folded sheet is completely overlapped at the end of the fold.

DE-a-1436585 discloses an insertion technique in which the folds are opened during individual transport in the respective pocket by being clamped against the pocket wall and by piercing a wedge into the side edge of the fold at a preselected distance from the supporting pocket wall in order to carry out the insertion. In this way, the fold can be opened in a well-defined position, even if the leaves of the fold are equal or completely overlapping each other. A disadvantage is that the wedge can only have a small width and that the slit between the leaves of the fold, at the area of penetration of the wedge, only spreads slowly along the free edge of the fold, since the wedge must have a small wedge angle and therefore must be introduced deep into the fold in order for the slit to spread. When the slit is finally also opened at the end of the folder, a threaded rod is introduced between the opened folder parts to further separate the opened folder parts and keep them separated during the subsequent transport of the folder to the position where the additive is embedded in the opened folder. The technique according to DE-A-1436585 is slow in itself and therefore cannot be used for the purposes according to the invention.

Disclosure of Invention

The above object is achieved by the present invention.

Accordingly, in one embodiment, the present invention is directed to an apparatus for opening a fold during transport, comprising: a folder conveying device comprising an endless chain having folder pockets arranged at equally spaced apart distances and having walls each running forward in a conveying direction, at a free edge, the chain having at least one gripper for gripping an end portion of an adjacent folder portion on the front wall; an opener arranged to travel with the front folder wall along at least a portion of the path of movement of the front folder wall, and comprising a jaw arranged to clamp the folder on the support member; and a wedge having a tip and being movable for guiding the tip into the edge of the fold at a selected distance from the support member. In this regard, the device is characterized in that the opener is arranged to run along a transversely central region of the fold end, said wedge having two supporting edges which are offset in a direction opposite to the insertion direction of the wedge, which are offset from each other in the plane of the fold and which are offset from a supporting element carried by the opener in the vicinity of the free edge of the front recess wall, so that the outer fold portions deflected when the wedge is inserted are supported along the fold end by the two wedge supporting edges which are separated, so that a gripper located on the front recess wall can secure the undeflected fold portions to said recess wall. The jaws of the opener are preferably arranged biased against the support member to hold the ends of the fold together at a laterally central region where the wedge tip is pierced. The wedge is pierced so that its two supporting edges support the deflected portion of the fold (in the region of extension of the fold) at separate locations along the fold end and at a distance from the fold edge, while the jaws keep the fold compressed at the fold end edge. In this way, the deflected fold portions form two triangular portions along the fold end, the tips of which are located at the lateral center edges of the fold end and at the jaws. To further support the controlled rolling up of the triangular edge portion of the deflected folder portion, the opener may further comprise a further jaw pressing the folder (and clamping the folder against the front recess wall) at a position above the deflection line of the triangular folder portion, which position is determined in this regard with the maximum lead-in state of the wedge. Thus, the further jaws are located on either side of the transverse centre of the fold and are spaced from the transverse centre of the fold. In the region below the bent-up upper triangular fold portion, the holder of the front recess wall can reliably press against the fold portion closest to the recess wall. The successive opening of the folds can be realized, for example, according to the implementation disclosed in the device of SE-C-464757. The insertion of the additive into the folder and the transport of the folder comprising the input additive away can also be realized according to prior art, for example as disclosed in SE-C-464757.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Drawings

Fig. 1 schematically shows a side view of an insertion device.

Fig. 2 schematically shows a cross-section along the line a-a in fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows a gripper of a gripper conveyor, by means of which a fold can be conveyed through an insertion device according to the invention.

Fig. 4 schematically shows a recess comprised in the insertion device.

Fig. 5 shows a variant of an insertion device with a further transport device comprising a fold of additive.

Figure 6 shows a schematic side view of a folder opener engaged with a folder end.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic cross-sectional view along the line VII-VII in fig. 6.

Figure 8 shows a view corresponding to figure 7 when the wedge of the opener has penetrated the end of the fold.

Fig. 9 shows a schematic cross section along the line IX-IX in fig. 7.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic view along the line X-X in fig. 8.

Figure 11 shows a plan view of the wedge and the arm of the opener.

Fig. 12 shows a view along line XII-XII in fig. 11.

Fig. 13 shows a side view along XIII-XIIIX in fig. 11.

Detailed Description

The arrangement according to fig. 1-4 corresponds approximately to the arrangement according to fig. 1-4 in SE-C-464757, but in fig. 1 and 2 a further transport device 90 is added, which transport device 90 carries the opener according to the invention for the fold transported in the insertion device. Also shown is a transfer device 90 associated with the device shown in fig. 5.

Fig. 1 schematically shows an endless conveyor 10 comprising a chain 11, which chain 11 runs over two sprockets 12, 13, of which at least one is driven in the direction shown to produce rotation. The conveyor 10 comprises two identical parts displaced in the axial direction of the sprockets 12, 13, wherein each part is a series of recesses 14 which open outwards away from the chain 11 and extend transversely to the longitudinal direction of the chain 11. Each recess 14 comprises a front wall 21, a rear wall 22 and a clip 23 at the outer end of the front wall 21. The endless conveyor 40 has controllable grippers 45 spaced apart by a distance (mutual distance) corresponding to the distance between adjacent recesses 14 of the chain 10. The conveyor chain 40 is guided by the guide shown so that the grippers 45 follow and approach a part of the travel path of the chain 11, for example the part shown. Each gripper 45 carries the back of a fold 20 and converges towards the chain 11, so that each fold is raised into an appurtenant pocket. Accordingly, the conveyor 40 and grippers 45 can exit the recess due to the separation of the conveyor chain 40 from the conveyor 10. The gripper 45 can be opened when the recess is substantially turned over above the horizontal. The additive 61 can be fed out of the storage means 60 and introduced into the folded object which is opened in a recess which is directed upwards, so that said holder 45 can be opened, whereby the additive 61 can be introduced into the back of the folded object, so that the additive 61 is reliably held in the folded object by the holder 45 during further transport. The conveyor 40 may be a conveyor that picks up the folded articles (newspapers) from a printing press or a corresponding production area.

Fig. 5 shows an embodiment in which the gripper 45' is fixedly attached to the conveyor 10 in the bottom region of the recess. In this case, the folded matter 20 is fed downward into the passing recess by the feeding device 200. Furthermore, two feeding devices 60, 61 are shown as additional components, and in addition, a device 70 is shown which closes the fold comprising the additive after the opening of the clamp 23 and, for example, places the fold in a predetermined position against the rear wall of the recess. In this way, the discharge conveyor 80 with gripper 83 can work synchronously with the conveyor 11 and grip the end of the closed fold comprising the additive for transport away.

In fig. 1 and 5, it is conceivable, by way of example, for the recess to have a front wall 21 lying approximately in a vertical plane when facing downwards, so that the unopened fold tends to lie next to this wall 21. It can be seen that the endless conveyor 90 carries openers 91 spaced apart by a distance corresponding to the spacing between the pockets 14, the conveyor 90 being synchronised with the conveyor 11 so that the openers 91 are located adjacent to and synchronously follow the outer ends of the front wall 21 of each pocket 14 by a selected distance. Fig. 2-4 show that the conveyor 11 may comprise two identical conveyor parts 14a and 14b, wherein a gripper 45 may run between said parts 14a and 14 b. In fig. 3, it can be seen that the gripper comprises supporting chutes 46, 47, the bottom line 49 of which corresponds to the bottom line of the recess 14. The gripper 45 further comprises a movable jaw 48 cooperating with a stationary jaw 47 shown as a wall in the support recess. Possibly, the walls of the recess may be mounted around a pivot 49 at the bottom of the recess, and the walls of the recess may be provided with drive means 25, 26 which cooperate with control elements which control the turning over of the walls 20, 21 when required during the transfer.

The opener conveyor may be assumed to be located between the conveyor sections 10a, 10b, as shown. Fig. 6 schematically shows an opener 91 of the transfer device 90. In fig. 6, the end 24 of the fold 20 can be seen. The fold 20 abuts a front recess wall 21 which lies in the plane 26 shown. The opener 91 includes a body 92, which is fitted in the conveying chain 90. Via a pivot mounting 109, the body 92 carries an arm 110 which is provided at one end with a support plate 111 and which has a follower 112, for example a follower roller guided by a guide path, so that the support plate 111 can be lowered to allow the folder end 24 to enter and exit the position shown without being obstructed by the plate 111. Furthermore, the plate 111 should be in the exact end position, which is shown in fig. 6 and which is preferably located near the plane 26. In addition, the body 92 carries via a pivot mounting 119 an arm 120 which can be rotated to and from the position shown. The arm 120 is shown carrying a jaw 121 which is connected to the arm 120 via a pivot mounting part 122. The spring 123, which rests against the arm 120, urges the jaw 121 into an outer end position. When the arms 110, 120 have been in their end positions shown, the pivot mounting part 122 and the spring 123 may bring the clamping jaw 121 in end positions at different distances from the support plate 111.

The arm 120 can be pivoted about the mounting member 119 to a folded-up position so that the folder end 24 can be more easily guided into the position shown relative to the body 92.

The arm 120 is shown with a tracker 124, for example in the form of a roller, which is guided by an auxiliary guide path, not shown in more detail, which is formed for bringing the arm 120 into different rotational positions during transport.

The arms 120 and possibly also the arms 110 of the opener can be turned away so that the opener deviates from the path of movement of the recess without interfering with each other. The free folder portion 20b abuts against the rear folder wall 22 and is rolled up towards the horizontal, i.e. for example at the left end of the conveyor according to fig. 5. If it is desired to retain the end edges of both of the folder portions 20a, 20b on the recess walls during the insertion operation, a clip located at the outer edge of the rear recess wall 22 can grip the end of the folder portion 20b in a manner known per se.

For example, in fig. 5, it can be seen that the conveyor 90 comprises an endless chain 92 running around two sprockets 93, at least one of which is driven. One running path of the chain extends along the path of movement of the free edge of the recess turned downwards and the spacing between the openers 91 corresponds to the spacing between the recesses 14.

Furthermore, the body 92 is shown with a guide member 130 for a bar 131, whereby the bar 131 is movable in a direction parallel to the support surface of the support plate 111 and thus in a direction parallel to the main surface of the fold. The rod 131 is provided at one end thereof with a wedge 132 having a leading lip 134. The lip 134 is preferably parallel to the support surface of the support plate 111 and is substantially perpendicular to the linear direction of movement of the rod 131. The wedge-shaped portion front surface facing the support plate 111 is preferably parallel to the support surface of the support plate. The rod 131 is shown with a tracker 139 in the form of a roller which is guided by a guide path (not shown) along the path of movement of the opener and recess, whereby the rod 131 is imparted a selective reciprocating movement by which the wedge 132 penetrates into the folder tip 24. In this manner, the wedge 132 allows the end of the fold to open. By adjusting the distance between the support plate 111 and the wedge 132 along the chain of the conveyor 90, the position at which the wedge penetrates the end of the fold, i.e. between which pages the fold is to be slit, can be accurately selected. The wedge 132 pierces the fold tip between the support plate 111 and the spring-loaded clamping plate 121. It can be seen in figure 9 that when the wedge 132 with the rod attached thereto penetrates the fold ends, the jaws 121 still hold the fold ends together.

In fig. 11, 12, 13, it can be understood that the wedge 132 has a pointed end 138, which is thin and has a lip parallel to the plane of development of the fold. The wedge also has two arms 136 that extend from the tip portion in opposite directions and away from the plane defined by the wall 21. The arms 136 each have a guide edge 137 on their upper side facing the end of the fold. Said leading edge extends from the tip 138 and is substantially symmetrically offset from the plane of the wall 21 and is remote from the tip and from the wedge-driving rod 131, which is shown extending in the displacement direction of the wedge. Wedge 132 is shown carried by a rod 131 which lies in the plane of symmetry of the wedge, so that leading edge 137 is plane-symmetric with respect to the plane. Since the arm 136 extends generally in the plane of the fold at the portion closest to the bar 131 and does not have a portion extending across the plane of the fold until a relatively large distance from the bar 131, the upper fold end portion 24A will be carried at a relatively large distance from the tip 138. When the leading edge reaches a level above the end of the fold as shown in fig. 7, the leading edge 137 endeavours to roll up the outer fold end portion and, because the active portions of the leading edge 137 are at a relatively large distance from each other, a stable bending up of the outer fold portion 24B is obtained, which stable bending up brings the clip 23 into engagement with the adjacent fold end portion 24B. Since the clamping jaw 121 and the support plate 111 always hold the fold ends together at their lower edges, the bent-up outer fold end portion 24A will assume a triangular tongue-like shape, as shown for example in fig. 8, when the central portion of the wedge 132 is introduced into the middle fold end portion. In this manner, the upturned outer fold end portion 24A is further stabilized. Possibly, a member, schematically indicated for example by 144 in fig. 8, can temporarily press the support shoulder against the free main surface of the fold in the region above the bent-up folder end portion 24A, so that the folder end portion 24A is again subjected to an additional stabilizing action during the time period when the clip 23 should be pressed. Once the clip 23 has gripped the folder end portion 24B, the wedge 132 can be retracted and the opener completes its work. In fig. 13, it can be seen that the wedge tip 138 has a small width and has a sharp lip 134 extending parallel to the plane of development of the fold, the side of the wedge tip facing the wall 21 being parallel to the plane of development of the fold, while the corresponding surface 135 of the wedge tip converges towards the lip 134 with respect to the surface 133.

Claims (8)

1. An apparatus for opening a fold during transport, comprising: a folder conveyor (11, 12, 13) having an endless chain with folder pockets (14) arranged at spaced apart distances and having walls (21) each running forward in the conveying direction, at a free edge at a folder end, the chain having at least one clip (23) for clipping an end portion (24) of an adjacent folder portion (24B) against a pocket wall (21); an opener (91) arranged to run with the recess along at least a part of the path of movement of the recess, and comprising a jaw (121) arranged to clamp the fold on the support member (111); and a wedge (132) having a pointed end and being movable for guiding the pointed end (138) into the edge of the fold at a selected distance from the support member, characterized in that an opener (91) is provided running along a laterally central region of the end of the fold, a support member (111) being carried by said opener, the wedge has two support edges (137) which are offset from the wedge tip (138) in the opposite direction to the direction in which the wedge penetrates the fold, are offset from each other in the plane of the fold and are offset from the support part (111), so that the deflected outer fold portion (24A) when the wedge is pierced is supported by two wedge supporting edges (137) separated along the fold end, and exposing adjacent inner fold portions (24B) so that clips (23) on the front recess wall can secure the undeflected fold portions to the recess wall.

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the jaws (121) of the opener (91) are spring-loaded towards the support part, so as to hold together the ends of the fold at a laterally central region where the wedge tip (132) penetrates and where the wedge has a small thickness in the thickness direction of the fold.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the wedge (132) is arranged to penetrate into the fold to such a depth that its two supporting edges support the deflected outer fold portion (24A) at separate locations along the fold end and at a distance from the fold edge on the major surface of the fold, while the jaws hold the fold in compression at the fold end edge so that the deflected outer fold portion (24A) forms two triangular areas whose apex intersects the fold end edge.

4. A device according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that the recess wall carries two clips (23) which are separated along the free edge of the recess wall.

5. A device according to any one of claims 1-4, characterised in that the support member (111) is rotatably arranged on the body (92) so as to be brought into and out of its supporting position.

6. A device according to any one of claims 1-5, characterised in that the clamping jaw (121) is pivotally mounted (122) and spring-supported on an arm (120) which is pivotally mounted (119) on the body (92) so that end positions are reached and withdrawn in which the clamping jaw (121) can be brought into different spring-loaded rotational positions relative to the arm (120).

7. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the arm (110) carrying the support part (111), the wedge (132) and the arm (120) carrying the clamping jaw (121) each have a tracker (112, 137, 122) cooperating with an appurtenant guide path for guiding the movement of the body (92) relative to the body (92) along its path of movement.

8. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that at least one opener (91) is carried by an endless conveyor (90) which runs the opener together with the running recess (14) in order to open the fold during its transport.