Automatic stacking and folding apparatus

• US 4,616,815 A
• Filed: 03/05/1985
• Issued: 10/14/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/1985
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Michael Vijuk
• Original Assignee: Vijuk Bindery Equipment Incorporated
• Inventors: Vijuk, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Eickholt, E. H.
• Application Number:
  US06/708,300
• Time in Patent Office: 588 Days
• Field of Search: 270/45-46, 270/59, 270/12, 270/15, 270/17, 271/210-211, 271/221-222, 271/3, 271/1, 271/94, 271/99
• US Class Current: 270/45
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 3/48 Air blast acting on edges of, or under, articles
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 31/36 Auxiliary devices for contacting each article with a front stop as it is piled
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 45/14 Buckling folders

Abstract

The in-line web printing press 15 will be discharging shingled sheets at a rate set the press operator and operator of the stacking and folding machine 10 will set its speed of operation to match that of the web printing press. To this end, it is preferred to have an electric counter device 260 (FIG. 1) connected to a photocell 262 with the photocell actually counting each sheet passing underneath it on the alignment conveyor 22. A digital counter 264 on the electric counter device displays the operating speed so that the operator can match the speed precisely to that of the in-line web printing press. An electric motor control 266 has an adjustable knob 268 which changes the speed of the motor 270 which has its motor drive shaft 126 (FIG. 10) driving the side joggers 30 and the rear joggers 26. A motor 272 (FIG. 1) drives the alignment conveyor 22 and its speed may be adjusted by the operator at motor control device 274 having a control adjustment knob 276. The speed of the operation of the vacuum cylinder 40, the alignment conveyor 22 and the joggers 30 and 26 may be correlated and adjusted to the speed of the web printing press. The press speed is also varied for different types of paper to achieve the best performance and the speed control knobs 268 and 276 may be operated to vary the speeds in fine increments by the stacking and folding machine operator as well as the count on the digital counter 264.

Claims

1. An apparatus for stacking thin, non-folded, flexible sheets, feeding sheets from the stack and for folding the sheets comprising the combination of:

a conveyor for continuously feeding a stream of shingled sheets at a predetermined speed into a stacking station and for dropping the sheets while still shingled one by one on top of the other to form a stack of sheets at the stacking station,

a front stop in the stacking station abutted by the imcoming sheets to limit their forward travel and to define the forward location of the stack of sheets,

a back jogger means located at the back of the stack for jogging the rearward edges of the incoming sheets and the sheets in the stack toward and against the front stop,

side jogger means for jogging the incoming lateral sides of the sheets to align the sheets with their lateral edges aligned within the stack,

air levitating means for providing a layer of air between sheets in the stacking station for separating the lowermost sheets in the stack by air while the sheets are being jogged,

bottom suction feed means including a continuously rotating suction roller for gripping the leading end of the bottom sheet of the stack while incoming sheets are being stacked on top of the stack in the stacking station,

means defining a gap at the lower front end of the stacking station to allow passage of only the lowermost sheet through the gap,

a continuously operating conveyor means for conveying each sheet from the stacking station to a folding station,

adjustable speed conrol means to adjust the speed of the vacuum cylinder and conveyor means relative to that of said conveyor continuously feeding shingled sheets to said stacking station to prevent an over or under accumulation of sheets in the stacking station, and

folding means at the folding station for folding a continuous stream of sheets being fed from the stack hy the conveyor means.

2. An apparatus in accordance with claim 1 in which the back jogger includes a pair of oscillating jogger fingers mounted on a shaft and cam means for oscillating the shaft to oscillate the fingers against the rearward edges of the sheets.

3. An apparatus in accordance with claim 2 in which the side jogger means comprises a jogger plate extending longitudinally along each of the lateral sides of the sheets and movable in the lateral direction toward and from the adjacent sheet edge.

4. An apparatus in accordance with claim 3 in which the side jogger means include side jogger shafts each supporting one of said side jogger plates with the shafts being moved to and fro in a lateral direction, and cam means for alternatively moving each of the side jogger shafts to move side jogger plates thereon to jog the lateral sides of the sheets in the stack.

5. An apparatus in accordance with claim 1 in which the air levitating means comprises a pair of side air bars each extending laterally along the lateral edge of the sheets with air outlets disposed adjacent the bottom of the stack and adjacent side edges of the sheets for levitating the sheets at the bottom of the stack.

6. An apparatus in accordance with claim 5 in which the air levitating means includes a rear air discharge means for discharging air under pressure at the rear portions of the sheets to assist the side air bars in levitating the sheets.

7. An apparatus in accordance with claim 5 in which said side air bars include a plurality of adjustable air valves for controlling the amount of airflow to levitate the stack.

8. An automatic stacking and folding apparatus for thin, flexible non-folded sheets comprising:

sheets and to deposit shingled sheets in a stacking station,

means defining the stacking station for receiving incoming sheets and for holding a series of stacked sheets with the sheets incoming onto the top of the stack and being fed automatically from the bottom of the stack,

means for engaging the forward edge of the incoming sheets to limit their forward travel and to define the forward end of the stack of sheets in the stacking station,

side jogger means for jogging at least one side of the incoming sheets to align the lateral sides of the sheets within the stack,

rear jogger means for jogging the rear edge of the incoming sheets to align the rear sheet edges within the stack,

air levitating means for levitating sheets within the stack,

bottom feed means including a continuously rotating suction roller for removing the bottom sheet from the stack and for feeding the sheet forwardly to a folding station,

a continuously operating conveyor means for feeding sheets removed from the bottom of stack to the folding station means for adjusting the speed of the continuously rotating suction roller and the speed of the continuously operating conveyor means to prevent an over or under accumulation of sheets in the stacking station, variable adjustable speed matched to the incoming conveyor means speed,

folding means at a folding station to fold the sheets being received from said conveyor means.

9. An apparatus in accordance with claim 8 in which said means for engaging the forward edge of the incoming sheets is a stationary stop and in which said rear jogger means continuously pushes the sheets forwardly against the stop.

10. An apparatus in accordance with claim 9 in which a transfer conveyor feeds a continuous stream of shingled sheets into the stacking station and in which said side jogger means extends along the transfer conveyor to jog sheets thereon.

11. A method of feeding thin, unfolded sheets from a web press to a folding station for folding comprising the steps of:

conveying a continuous stream of shingled sheets at a predetermined rate in excess of 10,000 sheets per hour from a printing press to a stacking station, and discharging sheets while still shingled onto the top of stack of sheets in the stacking station,

jogging the incoming singled sheets, at the top stack and the stack of sheets to align the edges of the sheets in the stack in the stacking station,

levitating the sheets in the bottom of the stack with air to separate the sheets at the bottom for feeding from the stack,

bottom feeding the bottom sheet from the stack by continuously rotating a suction roller which grips the leading edge of the lowermost sheet from the stack and pulls the sheet forwardly from the stack,

conveying a continuous stream of sheets on a conveyor means from the stacking station to a folding station,

adjusting the speed of the rotating suction roller and of the conveyor means to remove and carry sheets from the stacking station at a rate to prevent over or under accumulation of sheets in the stacking station, and

folding the sheets while they are continuously moving through the folding station.

12. A method in accordance with claim 11 including the step of separating and suspending the sheets in the stacks with air.

13. A method in accordance with claim 12 including the steps of feeding the folded signatures from the folding station in a shingled manner to a signature stacking station and stacking the incoming signatures in the stacking station.

14. A method in accordance with claim 13 including the step of compressing the folded signatures prior to stacking and counting the number of signatures and forming stacks of equal counts at the stacking station.

15. An apparatus for stacking thin, unfolded, flexible sheets, feeding sheets from the stack and for folding the sheets into signatures and for forming stacks of signatures, said apparatus comprising the combination of:

a conveyor for continuously feeding a stream of shingled sheets into a stacking station and for dropping the sheets one by one on top of the other to form a stack of sheets at the stacking station,

a front stop in the stacking station abutted by the incoming sheets to limit their forward travel and to define the forward location of the stack of sheets,

a back jogger means located at the back of the stack for jogging the rearward edges of the incoming sheets and the sheets in the stack toward and against the front stop,

side jogger means for jogging the incoming lateral sides of the sheets to align the sheets with their lateral edges aligned within the stack,

air levitating means for providing a layer of air between sheets in the stacking station for separating the sheets by air at the bottom of the stack while the sheets are being jogged,

caliper means adjusted with a caliper precision adjustment for precisely sizing a gap at the bottom of the front stop through which a single sheet may pass with the sheet thereabove being held against removal,

bottom suction feed means including a rotating suction roller for gripping the bottom sheet of the stack and for feeding each bottom sheet from the stack while incoming sheets are being stacked on top of the stack in the stacking station,

a continuously moving conveyer means for removing the sheets from the stack after being started from the stack by the suction roller for conveying each sheets from the stacking station to a folding station, and

folding means at the folding station for folding a continuous stream of sheets being fed from the stack by the conveyor means into signatures,

signature conveyor means for conveying the signatures to a signature stacking station, and

stacking means in the signature stacking station for stacking the incoming signatures into a stack.

16. An apparatus in accordance with claim 15 in which means counts the signatures and forms each signature stack with the same number of signatures therein.