The present invention is directed to a conveyor having an adjustable entrance nip, and more specifically, to a conveyor having an upper deck and a lower deck wherein a portion of the upper deck is shiftable to adjust the entrance nip.
A rotary die cut machine is a device for producing sheets of material, corrugated paperboard, for example, that are sometimes referred to as “blanks” or “boards.” The rotary die cut machine includes a pair of counterrotating drums that cut the sheets from a web of corrugated material and emit the sheets in a downstream direction where further processing equipment receives the sheets.
A layboy or other type of transfer conveyor is generally placed downstream of the rotary die cut machine to receive the sheets and guide them toward a further piece of downstream processing equipment such as a stacker. For various reasons, including the fact that the transfer conveyor may operate a different speed than the rotary die cut machine, it is generally desirable to set the distance between the exit nip of the rotary die cut machine and the entrance nip of the transfer conveyor based on the length of the sheet being processed—to a distance approximately equal to the length of the sheet, for example. This may prevent the sheet from being engaged by two nips for more than a brief time, which engagement could result in either the sheet being pulled from the rotary die cut machine by the transfer conveyor (if the transfer conveyor is running faster than the rotary die cut machine) or bend or otherwise damage the sheet from (if the transfer conveyor is running slower than the rotary die cut machine).
Different devices and methods are known for adjusting this distance. One such device and method are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,322,719 to Roth, which is incorporated herein by reference. Another device and method are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,771,227 to Allen, Jr. which is also incorporated herein by reference.
The present application discloses an improved device and method of adjusting the distance between the exit nip of a first device such as a rotary die cut machine and the entry nip of a downstream processing device such as a transfer conveyor. A first aspect of the disclosure comprises a conveyor configured to transport sheets in a longitudinal direction along a transport path from an input end to a discharge end. The conveyor includes a frame, a carriage supported by the frame for sliding movement in the longitudinal direction, a lower conveyor deck and an upper conveyor deck. The lower conveyor deck is supported by the frame and includes a plurality of contact elements each having a contact surface movable around a first closed path from a first contact region to a first non-contact region, and the first contact regions lie in a first plane or are bounded by the first plane. The upper deck includes a rear portion having a plurality of longitudinally extending transversely spaced first belts each supported by a plurality of first pulleys and a front portion having a plurality of longitudinally extending transversely spaced second belts each supported by a plurality of second pulleys. The plurality of second pulleys includes a first second pulley and a second second pulley, and the first second pulley and the second second pulley are supported by the carriage for movement with the carriage relative to the frame.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein the showings are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the invention only and not for the purpose of limiting same,
The frame 12 supports a lower deck 22 comprising a plurality of wheels 24 (contact elements). Upper or contact portions of the wheels 24 lie in a first plane and form a support surface for sheets of material moving through the transfer conveyor 10. The first plane defines the lower boundary of a sheet transport path through the conveyor section 10. The first wheel downstream from the upstream-most wheel is a nip wheel 26. Instead of wheels, contact elements in the form of belts supported by pulleys (not illustrated) can be used to form the support surface of the lower deck 22. The transfer conveyor 10 also includes an upper deck 28 that has an upstream portion 30 supported by the carriage 20 and a downstream portion 32.
The downstream portion 32 of the upper deck 28 includes a plurality of pulleys 34 supporting a plurality of downstream belts 36 (first belts) arranged transversely across the transfer conveyor 10. These pulley 34 and belts 36 are mounted on shafts 35 that are fixed relative to the frame 12. The shafts 35 are connected to a drive (not illustrated) for rotating the shafts 35 and the downstream belts 36 supported by the shafts 35.
The upstream portion 30 of the upper deck 28 comprises a plurality of pulleys that support a plurality of upstream belts 40 arranged transversely across the transfer conveyor 10. Each of the belts 40 is supported by a first pulley 48, a second pulley 50, a third pulley 46, a fourth pulley 44 and a fifth pulley 42. The fourth pulley 44 and the fifth pulley 42 are mounted on shafts 43 that are fixed relative to the frame 12 and which help guide and maintain tension on the belts 40. The first pulley 48, second pulley 50 and third pulley 46 are mounted to a depending wall portion 52 of the carriage 20 and are movable with the carriage 20 relative to the frame 12 (and relative to the fourth and fifth pulleys 44, 42).
The third pulley 46 forms a nose pulley and is the frontmost or upstream-most one of all the pulleys of the upstream portion 30 of the upper deck 28. The first pulley 48 is a nip pulley and is located downward and rearward of the nose pulley 46. The second pulley 50 forms the rearmost pulley of all the pulleys of the upstream portion 30. The portion of the belt 40 that extends from the first pulley 48 to the second pulley 50 lies in a second plane that is parallel to the first plane and that defines an upper boundary of the sheet transport path. The drive (not illustrated) is also operatively connected to the fourth pulley 44 and/or the fifth pulley 42 to rotate the upstream belts 40.
From
An actuator 62 for shifting the carriage 20 from the front position to the rear position is illustrated from above in
In use, a controller 70, which is connected via wires or wirelessly to the actuator 62, controls the actuator 62 to move the movable rod 66 and thus the carriage 20 and the nip 54 to a desired location to establish a required gap between an upstream piece of equipment and the transfer conveyor 10.
The present invention has been described above in terms of presently preferred embodiments. Modifications and additions to these embodiments will become apparent to persons of ordinary skill in the art upon a reading of the foregoing description, and it is intended that all such modifications form a part of the present disclosure to the extent they fall within the scope of the several claims appended hereto.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/229,137, filed Aug. 4, 2021, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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2467423 | Bruker | Apr 1949 | A |
4189965 | Kollann | Feb 1980 | A |
4385537 | Wolf | May 1983 | A |
7052009 | Roth | May 2006 | B2 |
8322719 | Roth | Dec 2012 | B1 |
9771227 | Allen, Jr. et al. | Sep 2017 | B2 |
20040245071 | Giffin | Dec 2004 | A1 |
20060263195 | Furthmueller | Nov 2006 | A1 |
20110285080 | Gendreau et al. | Nov 2011 | A1 |
20120053035 | Diehr | Mar 2012 | A1 |
20130074457 | Brown | Mar 2013 | A1 |
20180105382 | Allen, Jr. | Apr 2018 | A1 |
20230264917 | Favre | Aug 2023 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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3456668 | Mar 2019 | EP |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20230038400 A1 | Feb 2023 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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63229137 | Aug 2021 | US |