US2157849A - Sheet feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Description

May 9, 1939- Y. A, F. DANIELssoN 2,157,849.

May 9, 1.939 Y. Ay F. DANn-:LssoN 2,157,849

SHEET FEEDING APPARATUS 'Filed 'July 26, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 9, 19394 UNITED STATES I. SHEET FEEDING APPARATUS Yngve A. F. Danielsson, Goteborg, Sweden, assignor toAktiebolaget Westerlin & Co., Goteborg. Sweden Application July 26, 1937,*Serial No, 155,771

3 Claims.

The principal object of this invention is a sheet feeding apparatus in conjunction with printing presses or similar machines which will enable sheets of various thicknesses to be fed with a high speed from a pile of sheets on to the printing press or such other machine to which the feeding device is applied. The modern printing presses usually operate rather quickly so that it is necessary that the sheets be fed into them with a rather l high speed. To accomplish this, feeding' devices have .been designed in which the individual sheets lare fed forward in an overlapped state viz. so that the next sheet is pushed ahead when the preceding sheet has been moved forward only a short .1 distance, and as a consequence the sheets will be displaced relatively to each other similarly to the scales of a fish.

In other appliances for the same purpose the individual sheets are moved forward' in such a way that their speed increases during the motiorr from thepile on to the printing press. Notwithstanding the'possibiiity of accelerating the feeding of the sheets by this last mentioned method experiencahas shown that such an accelerated ,speed makes it difficult to arrest the sheets when arriving at-the Stoppers or registers at the entrance into the printing press especially as rerds very thin sheets`which are pushed against said AStoppers so violently that their rather soft fore edges are liable to be bent br otherwise damaged. This invention combinesthe good features of the known highly eiiicient feeding methods but it avoids their inconveniences so .that it allows the sheet to be fed forward in an overlapped state with increased speed without hitting the Stoppers or registers ofJthe printing press so forcibly that their fore edges become injured. According to this invention the speed of the sheets when. pushed forward is varied periodically in such a way that the speed fluotuates between a maximum and a minimum, and so that the sheets arrive against the stoppers in the printing press with a moderate velocity only. This variable feeding speed is due to the characteristic .device which will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. A

In the drawings- Figure l is a broken sectional side the new feeding device, Figure 2 is a brokenplan view of the same device. f Figure 3 is a partial cross sectional view of Figure' l on-theline I-I seen-in direction of the arrows, and Figures 4-6 are diagrammatical side views of gears which ixnpel the new art of feeding motion on to the sheets which are to be carried ahead to the printing press.

`elevation of Notwithstanding that the present feeding de- \vice will be described below in combinationwith a printing press it mu'st be understood that this application has been chosen as an example only. as already mentioned in the preamble, and everywhere a printing press is mentioned ln this speciiication it must not be taken as a limitation of the invention and its application.

All parts of the same character willbe referred to with the same designations.' Y

Referring to Figures 1 to 3, the intake end of 1 the printing press is designated with A, and is indicated by vthe roller I which receives the sheets 2 as they arrive at the press, and .conveys them further into the press. The sheets 2 when arriving on the top of the roller I, are stopped by the known stopper or register 3 as clearly understood from Figures land 2.

The sheets 2 are stocked in the known way in a piled supported by a table 5, and they are sep- I arated from said pile one by one b means of some known implements 6, which, f rinstance -operate by aid of vacuum, which implement catches the uppermost sheet 2a near the rear edge thereof. Having been separated from the pile li by means of the implement E the sheet 2b gets advanced by some known feeding apparatus as indicated by 'l whereby the cooperation of separating implement 6 and feeding apparatus 'I is -such that the sheets 2 advance overlapped at a certain extent as clearly shown in Figures 1 and 2. Such an overlapped feeding of the sheets is known per se, and I do not claim the same.

When arriving to the left hand end of the feeding device the sheets 2 come in cooperation with a series of endless conveyer belts 8 moving in direction ofthe arrow in Figure 1 from a roller 9, and carried by another roller I0 journalled for instance in the printing press adjacent the intake end roller I.

The driving conveyer roller 9, which is'journalled in the frame II of the feeding device, carries on its shaft I2 a toothed gear wheel I3 which meshes with another toothed gear wheel I4 on a shaft I5 journalled inthe frame Ii.

The said gear wheel I4 meshes with another gear wheel I6 the shaft Il of which is journalled in the frame II and carries a feeding roller I8 between which and a press roller I9 the sheets 2 are fed forward. Shaft Il is surrounded by a hub 2l! of a link 2l the other end of which also forms a hub 22 surrounding a shaft 23 which is surrounded7 by another hub 25 of a substantially vertical link 26 the upper end of which forms a hub 2 1 around a shaft 28 which carries a gear wheel 29 that meshes with a gear wheel 30 which in turn meshes with a further gear wheel 3| on a shaft 32. The three gear wheels 29, 30, 3| are kept in cooperation by aid of a substantially horizontal link 33 with a hub 34 about shaft 28 and a hub 35 about shaft 32 which last mentioned shaft is journalledin frame II.

means of which the crank pin 38 can be stationarily fixed at any selected distance on each side from the centre of wheel 30 or in said centre proper. As shown in Figure 1 the slot 31 is somewhat longer on the one side of the centre of the wheel 39 than it is on the opposite side.A

Crank pin 38 is suspended at the lower end of a connecting rod 4|, the upper end of which-is pivoted onr a pin 42 in the frame I I substantially perpendicularly 'above the centre of wheel 30.

Shaft 23 carries a gear Wheel 43 which meshes with gear wheel I6 as well as with gear Wheel 29. The diameter of conveyer roller 9 is smaller than the diameter of. roller I8 so much as is the thickness of the conveyer belts 8 for the purpose to invest the very same speed to the operative surface of said belts as is the periphery speed of roller I8 notwithstanding the diameters of the gear wheels I3 and I 6 which both mesh with the same gear wheel I4 are equal.

The Figures 4, 5 and 6 demonstrate diagrammatically how the gears operate when feeding sheets 2 into the printing press, and this operation will now be described in connectioniwith an explanation of the operation of the whole apparatus. It must then be understood that the links, shafts and gear wheels shown in Figures 1 and 2 are present on the opposite side of the apparatus also which is removed in Figure 2.

In Figure 1 as well as in all the diagrammatical Figures 4, 5, 6 theadjustable crank pin 438 is supposed to be fixed in one of its extreme positions viz. at the most rerrrote end of slot 31. From the' preceding description it is evident that only the shafts I5, I1 and 32 are journalled in fixed bearings in frame I I while the shafts 23 and 25 as well as the nonvisible shaft of gear wheel 30 are carried by the movable systems composed of the three links 2|, 26 and 33 as also of the connecting rod 4I and the crank pin 38. The drivingvmotion is supplied to the apparatus Lby aid of 'the shaft 32 and gear wheel 3| which of the link 2| upon shaft I1 as pivot.

revolves the ger wheel 30, and this motion is transmitted to the gear- wheels 29, 43, I6, I4 and I3 so that the conveyer belts 8 are put in motion. O n account of the movable link systems 33, 26, 2| and the suspension thereof in the connecting rod 4| on crank pin 38 the link 33 will swing up and down with its left hand end around the shaft 32 as a pivot, as well as the right hand end That is clearly shown by Figures 5 and 6. As a result of these swinging motions the gear wheel rolls to and from along a portion of the periphery of gear wheellBI as also vdoes the gear wheel 43 in relation to gear wheel I6 simultaneously as they revolve around their respective centres, as the arrows in Figures 4 6 indicate. It is clearly understood that the amplitude of the swings of the links 33, 2| stand in relation to the displacement of the crank pin 38 in the slot 31 so that ln the position exemplified in Figures 4-6 the amplitude has its maximum and will be zero if the crank pin 38 is removed exactly into the Acentre of wheel 30. When moved to the opposite end of slot 31 a similar swinging motion will occur but with another ratio.

- On account of said rolling motion between the wheels 30, 3| as also between the wheels 43,

I6 the revolving of the rollers I8 and 9 will beA irregular notwithstanding the regular revolving of the driving shaft 32, which also results in an irregular motion of the conveying belts 8. This irregularity is such that the sheets 2 when they pass along between rollers I8 and I9 and on the conveyer belts 8, are given a speed which varies "periodically between a maximum and a minimum, and so that they arrive on to'the Stoppers orregisters 3 with a rather moderate speed which does not involve any'undue hit when the sheets getarrested thereby notwithstanding the mathematical medium of the speed during the whole movement from the pile 4 until the entrance into the printing press will be consider-A ably above that which is possible to attain by feeding apparatuses hitherto known.

The aforesaid reduced diameter of roller 9 in relation to roller I8 makes the conveying of the sheets upon the conveyer belts 8 smooth and even so that no wear on the sheets will take place when they are transferred from the rollers I8, I9 on to the conveyer belts 8.

What I claim is- 1. A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a sheet separator'and a main feeding device, a feeding roller and conveyer belts combined so as to produce an overlapping motion to the sheets fed thereto at regular intervals, means for giving an irregular feeding speed to-the sheets and comprising pivotal links, a train of circular gear wheels on the links, the gear at the free end of the links geared to the feed roller and conveyer belts, a connecting rod pivoted to a fixed pivot at one end and having a crank pin on the oppo-4 site end engaging in a longitudinal slot provided in one of said wheels causing the links to oscillate, resulting in a periodical variation of the speed of the sheets, whereby said main feeding device passes a sheet over said feeding roller to the conveyer belts.

2. A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a sheet separator, a main feeding device, speed reducing means consisting of a feeding roller and conveyer belts combined so as to produce an overlapping motion to ythe sheets fed thereto at regular intervals, pivotal links and gears revolubly mounted thereon, the gear at the free end of the links geared to the feed roller and conveyer belts, a connecting rod pivoted to a fixed point at one end and having va crank pin on the opposite end for controlling the relative position of said links, the crank pin being radially adjustable on one of said gears so as to lmpel an irregular feeding motion to the sheets, resulting in a periodical variation of the speed of the sheets, whereby said main feeding device passes a sheet over said feeding roller onto said conveyer belts.

3."A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a shetseparator and a main feeding device, conveyer belts'and a driving roller therefor combined so as to produce an overlapping motion, to the sheets fed thereto at regular intervals, and means for imipelling an irregular feeding motion to the sheets so that the speed thereof changes periodically from that given by the main feeding device, and a feeding roller for the sheet positioned adjacent the conveyer belts and adapted to have the same surface feed as the belts, the drivingroller for the belts having a correspondingly smaller diameter than that of said feeding roller, whereby a sheet from said separator is passed from the main feeding device over the feeding roller onto said conveyer belts.

" YNGVE A. F. DANIEISSON.

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