GB959857A - Improvements in or relating to devices for displacing units moving along conveyors - Google Patents

Abstract

959,857. Delivering sheets in counted batches. BROOKHIRST IGRANIC Ltd. April 11, 1962 [April 14, 1961], No. 13968/62. Heading B6H. A device for periodically displacing one of a number of sheets, e.g. newspapers, flowing along a conveyer 10 in overlapped relation comprises a counting and timing device 12 for indicating when a given sheet has passed under the counter, a roller 20 mounted above the conveyer for horizontal and vertical motion, springs 82 biasing the roller into engagement with the sheets, an air cylinder 18 which, in response to a signal from the counting and timing device, imparts a horizontal motion to the roller when the given sheet is positioned beneath the roller so as to displace the sheet from the line of flow, and an air cylinder 32 actuated by the horizontal movement of the roller so as to raise the roller 20 from the sheet, the cylinder 18 reversing the movement of the roller when the latter is out of contact with the sheet and the cylinder 32 being reversed so as to re-engage the sheets on the conveyer when the cylinder 18 has returned the roller to a position aligned with the conveyer. The roller 20 has a rubber surface to enable it to grip the sheets. Two pairs of rollers 24, 26 and 28, 30 engage the sheets immediately before and immediately behind the sheet displaced by the roller 20 to ensure that these sheets are not also displaced. The machine frame 75 carries bearing brackets 80 in which rods 79 are slidable. The rods 79 are connected to an arm 78, which is raised and lowered by the cylinder 32, and have collars 86 fixed thereto above the brackets 80. The shaft 34 of the roller 20 is journalled in bearing blocks 85 which are slidably mounted on the rods 79 and are urged downwards into contact with the collars 86 on the rods by the springs 82. Thus when the arm 78 is raised the roller 20 is also raised and when the arm is lowered the roller is lowered until it bears resiliently upon the sheets on the conveyer 10. The cylinder 18 is secured to the machine frame by a pin 68 and the piston rod thereof is connected to a bracket 44 horizontally slidable on pins 46, 48 carried by a stationary bracket 50 mounted on the machine frame. One end of the shaft 34 is rotatably but axially immovably mounted in a block 40 which is vertically slidable on a pin 42 secured to the bracket 44. When the cylinder 18 is operated the bracket 44 and hence the roller 20 is moved horizontally. The cylinders 18 and 32 are controlled by two solenoid-actuated four-way valves, the solenoids being energized by limit switches 15, 72, 74 actuated by the moving parts of the device.