Abstract: Apparatus for receiving sheets of corrugated paperboard or the like from a processing machine such as a slotter for transfer to another device such as a stacker including shifter rollers for longitudinal separation of each sheet, an inclinable belt conveyor for lateral separation of the sheet, and a belt conveyor adapted to be transiently stopped for the accumulation of the sheets, each conveyor having serial rolls along the upper surface of the conveyor belt to pass and restrain the sheets on the conveyor belt. Sheets divided in the slotter are separated crosswise and accumulated in order in the apparatus in accordance with the needs of the succeeding device.

Abstract: In sheet feeding apparatus of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,647, at least one conveyor chain extending in a closed loop is moved on supporting structure in a path having two reversing portions arcuate about respective axes of curvature, a feeding portion substantially straight and parallel to the plane of intended sheet movement, and a return portion, the feeding and return portions connecting the reversing portions. The axes of curvature of the reversing portions are obliquely or perpendicularly transverse to the plane of sheet movement. The conveyor chain has at least one sheet engaging dog fastened to a corresponding link of the chain in such a manner that the dog moves in the plane of sheet movement while the associated chain link moves in the feeding portion of its path, and the dog moves about the axes of curvature in respective arcs of smaller radii of curvature than those of the reversing path portions when the associated chain link moves in the latter.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding individual cardboard sheets to a rotary die cutting machine has two conveyor systems. The first system conveys a sheet from the bottom of a stack to a gap in a gate which passes only one sheet, and the second system conveys the sheet from the gap to the machine. Each system includes a perforated belt traveling in a closed loop over a suction box near the gate. The belt of the first system is shifted cyclically between an operative position of simultaneous engagement with the associated suction box and the bottom sheet of the stack and a retracted position and is accelerated and decelerated between a minimum speed in the retracted position and a maximum speed in the operative position, air being drawn from its suction box only in the operative belt position. The belt of the second system is driven continuously at a speed approximately equal to the maximum speed of the other belt, and air is drawn from its suction box only when the first belt is in the retracted position.

Abstract: Adhering scrap is trimmed from a punched cardboard blank by apparatus in which driven surface portions of two conveyors in a common plane define successive, spaced-apart parts of a path of travel for the blank. A roller rotatable between the conveyors has a resilient surface layer to which the path is tangential. A carrier is trained over two pulley assemblies of which one is separated from the roller by the path of the blank, and the carrier is guided by the second pulley assembly so that a portion of the carrier is spacedly parallel to the common plane. Ejectors on the carrier project into the path of the blank, displace adhering scrap and remain in the opening of the blank thus formed until the scrap is securely separated from the blank.

Abstract: Corrugated cardboard sheets are drawn individually from the bottom of a stack by two perforated, continuous belts downwardly bounding a receptacle space which is bounded in a forward direction by a gate. The front part of each belt under the receptacle space travels over a suction box while the rear part may be shifted between an operative position in which the front and rear parts are longitudinally aligned and an idling position in which the rear part is offset from the operative position downward and outward of the receptacle space.