The present invention relates to an apparatus for conveying planar objects, in particular printed products accrued in an overlapping formation.
An apparatus of this type is known, for example, from patent specifications CH 617 408 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,201,377. Placed downstream of a feed conveyor is an evacuating conveyor running at an angle thereto. The outlet of the feed conveyor is disposed on one side of the evacuating conveyor and, at a distance from the outlet of the feed conveyor, above the evacuating conveyor, there is assigned to the latter a circumferential deflection member, which forms with the evacuating conveyor a transport gap that tapers in the feed direction of the feed conveyor and acts in transport terms equidirectionally with (i.e., in a direction parallel to) the evacuation direction of the evacuating conveyor. The apparatus is suitable, in particular, for conveying printed products accrued in an overlapping stream, since the overlapping stream is maintained, while only the orientation of the individual printed products within the overlapping stream changes.
In addition, from EP 0 718 226 A, a feed deflection apparatus for at least partially folded newspapers and magazines is known, in which the feed direction of the newspapers is deflected through 90°. The apparatus has a pair of stop cylinders and a pair of acceleration cylinders, which pairs lie substantially in one plane but at an angle of 90° to each other. They are provided with sector-shaped lugs in order to keep the newspaper or magazine between them pressed when the lugs of both cylinders of the cylinder pairs are on a line between the center axes. By means of the stop cylinders, the respective newspaper or magazine is arrested or stopped by controlled slowing of the cylinders such that no slippage of the newspapers between the pair of stop cylinders occurs. The pair of acceleration cylinders grasps the side margin, viewed in the feed direction, of the newspaper or magazine at the moment at which the newspaper or magazine is stopped by means of the pair of stop cylinders. This feed deflection apparatus is suitable solely for handling newspapers or magazines which accrue at a distance apart one behind the other. The object of the present invention is to refine the apparatus of the generic type such that the accrued objects are deflected in a timed manner.
This object is achieved with an apparatus in which a deflection member and a further deflection member interacting therewith form a passage gap through which the respective supplied object can be conveyed with its leading edge against a stop. This ensures that the object adopts a defined position. In synchronization with the cycle of the feed conveyor, the two deflection members for the respective object bearing against the stop form a transport gap so as to feed this object to the evacuating conveyor. The objects are thus deflected in time with the feed conveyor and fed to the evacuating conveyor. Since the deflection members take hold of the respective object in a marginal portion adjacent to the leading edge, the conveyance and timed deflection of objects accrued in an overlapping formation, in particular printed products, is enabled.
The invention is described in greater detail below with reference to illustrative embodiments represented in the drawing, wherein, in purely schematic representation.
The deflecting device 14 has a stop 20, formed by a stop bar 18, for the leading edge 16 of the objects 12. The stop bar 18 runs at right angles to the feed direction Z and thus at least approximately parallel to the leading edge 16 of the supplied objects 12 and is disposed at a distance A from the outlet 22 of the feed conveyor 10 which is at least equal in size to the extent (length) L of the objects measured in the feed direction Z. Preferably, the distance A is, for example, 5 to 10% greater than the extent L.
In addition, the deflecting device 14 has two deflection member pairs 24, 24′, which—viewed in the feed direction Z—are disposed at a distance B from the outlet 22 and upstream of the stop bar 18. The distance B is preferably somewhat smaller than the extent L of the objects 12.
Each deflection member pair 24, 24′ has two pulley-like deflection members 26, 26′ disposed one above the other in the vertical direction, which are mounted rotatably about rotation axes 28 running parallel to the feed direction Z and thus at right angles to the leading edge 16 of the objects 12. As shall be described further below, the deflection members 26, 26′ of each deflection pair 24, 24′, coordinated with the cycle of the objects 12 supplied by the feed conveyor 10, and starting from a passage gap, form a transport gap through which the objects 12 are transported equidirectionally with (i.e., in a direction parallel to) the evacuation direction W of an evacuating conveyor 30. The feed conveyor 10 and the evacuating conveyor 30 are arranged at an angle a of 90° to each other, so that the feed direction Z and the evacuation direction W run at a right angle to each other. The inlet 32 of the evacuating conveyor 30 is located, viewed in the evacuation direction W, downstream of the deflecting device 14, and at such a distance from that side edge 34 of the objects 12 fed to the deflecting device 14 in the feed direction Z which is facing the evacuating conveyor 30 that these objects, without action of the deflecting device 14, are not influenced by the evacuating conveyor 30.
Both the feed conveyor 10 and the evacuating conveyor 30 are configured as a belt conveyor, with which, close to the outlet 22 and inlet 32 respectively, two weight rollers 36 interact.
The objects 12 supplied in the work cycle of the deflecting device 14, having butted against the stop 20, are deflected by means of the deflection member pair 24, 24′ and fed in the evacuation direction W to the evacuating conveyor 30, the objects 12 maintaining a mutually parallel position. As a result of the deflection, the side edge 34 thus becomes the leading edge. Since the evacuating conveyor 30 is driven continuously and at an evacuation velocity v2 matched to the feed velocity v1, and the objects 12 are deflected by means of the deflecting device 14 in a timed manner, an again regular, timed overlapping stream S′ is formed.
The dashed arrow W′ indicates that the evacuating conveyor 30, viewed in the feed direction Z, can be disposed on the other side in order to evacuate the deflected objects 12 in the evacuation direction W′ opposite to the evacuation direction W. For this purpose, of course, the rotational directions of the deflection members 26 are reversed. It is also conceivable to provide two evacuating conveyors 30, whereof one acts in the evacuation direction W and the other in the evacuation direction W′. This allows an evacuation of the deflected objects 12 in the evacuation direction W or W′, depending on the working direction of the deflecting device 14.
In the case of the objects 12 shown with solid lines, the extent L is greater than the width measured at right angles to the feed direction Z. It is also possible, however, to handle rectangular objects 12 whose extent L is smaller than the width, as is indicated with the printed products 12′ shown in dash-dot representation. For adaptation to those formats of the objects 12 which are to be handled, the distances A, B between the outlet 22 of the feed conveyor 10 and the stop 20 and deflection members 26 respectively are adjustable.
Also in the embodiment shown in
The feed conveyor 10 configured as a belt conveyor preferably has two or more parallel-guided ribbons 38, of which one is visible in
The weight rollers 36 which interact with the ribbons 38 in the region of the outlet rolls 48 are each mounted in a freely rotatable manner on the free end of a lever 58, which at the other end is disposed in a freely pivotable manner on a bearing shaft 60. The bearing shaft 60 spans the feed conveyor 10 and is fastened on both sides to a shield 62 protruding upward from the slide 56.
The weight rollers 36 roll on the top side of the objects 12 and ensure that these are transported by the feed conveyor 10, without slippage, up to the point of release close to the outlet 22.
Extending horizontally between the feed conveyor 10 and the deflecting device 14 is a supporting plate 64, which forms a stationary rest surface 64′ for the objects 12. In order that the friction between the object 12 released from the feed conveyor 10 and fed to the deflecting device 14—which object, in
In the end region facing the feed conveyor 10, the supporting plate 64 has recesses 66, into which the slide 56 can telescope with the outlet rolls 48. Further recesses on the supporting plate 64 are provided close to the deflecting device 14 to allow the respectively bottom-situated further deflection members 26′ of the two deflection member pairs 24, 24′ to reach through.
As emerges in particular from
In the shown example and viewed in projection, the two top-situated deflection members 26 are driven clockwise and the lower further deflection members 26 counterclockwise. The drive is realized continuously and synchronously by means of a further electric motor 42′. In the rotation position indicated with dash-dot lines in
In order to maintain the greatest possible friction between the transport-active surfaces 76 of the conveyor pulley 68 which are in the shape of a cylinder casing segment, in the illustrative embodiment shown in
The deflection members 26 and further deflection members 26′ are each fastened on the end face to a drive shaft 80 which is arranged coaxially to the particular rotation axis 28 and which, for its part, is mounted in parallel-axial arrangement on bearings 84 fastened to an end shield 82 of the machine frame 40 (see also
For the sake of completeness, it should be mentioned that the stop bar 18 is fastened to the supporting plate 64 and, viewed in the feed direction Z, is disposed downstream of the deflection members 26 and the particular conveyor pulleys 68, as well as between these and a protective wall 90 of the machine frame 40, which protective wall is penetrated by the drive shafts 80. The transport gap 72 acts in the evacuation direction W of the evacuating conveyor 30.
The evacuating conveyor 30 is preferably configured the same as the feed conveyor 10 and is driven by the further electric motor 42′. For the sake of greater clarity, of the evacuating conveyor 30 only an inlet roll 48′, which corresponds to the outlet roll 48 of the feed conveyor 10 and is mounted in a freely rotatable manner on the slide of the evacuating conveyor 30 and around which a ribbon 38′ is guided, as well as the particular weight roller 36 which interacts with this ribbon 38′, is represented in
As shown in
In
The planar objects 12 are fed in a regular overlapping formation S by means of the feed conveyor 10 in the machine cycle of the deflecting device 14. Within one machine cycle, the deflection members 26 and further deflection members 26′ make a 180° rotation in the rotation directions indicated with arrows in
It is also conceivable to recess respectively just a single segment on the conveyor pulleys 68. In this case, however, the deflection members 26 and further deflection members 26′ must perform a complete rotation in each machine cycle, which means that the diameter of the conveyor pulleys 68 must be chosen to be half as large as in the embodiment according to
It is further conceivable to configure the bottom-situated conveyor pulleys 68 of the further deflection members 26′ as solid pulleys, without cut-away segments, and to configure the conveyor pulleys 68 of the top-situated deflection members 26 with one or two cut-away segments.
It should be mentioned that it is also possible to configure the conveyor pulleys 68 both of the deflection members 26 and of the further deflection members 26′ as solid pulleys and to move conveyor pulleys 68 of the deflection member pairs 24, 24′, in the machine cycle, up to and away from each other to form, at the least distance apart, the transport gap, and at a comparatively greater distance apart, the passage gap.
The apparatus according to the invention functions also with a single deflection member pair.
It is also possible to provide all conveyor pulleys 68 with a flexible lining 78.
With the apparatus according to the invention, in addition to newspapers, magazines and the like, single sheets and other planar objects which are also accrued in an overlapping stream can be handled. The objects 12 can also be supplied and deflected singly, at a mutual distance apart. The single evacuation and the formation of an overlapping stream S′ is herein possible. By planar object should also be understood an object consisting of two or more parts arranged one on top of the other. Should these have different formats, their leading edges will preferably lie close together.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2007 1698/07 | Nov 2007 | CH | national |