Pneumatic Patents (Class 271/3.22)
  • Publication number: 20150096415
    Abstract: A suction conveyor device, comprising a suction arrangement having a suction side on which low pressure is generated, continuously rotating flexible conveying means made of flexible flat material having holes, an inner side enabling the conveying means to move along the suction side, and an outer side for receiving flat items in the active area of the suction side, where the conveying means moves in the transporting direction, the suction arrangement and the conveyor means designed with a transport path width in the active range perpendicular to the transporting direction. The conveying means includes continuously circulating individual, single-piece, flexible conveying means, both lateral edges thereof extending in the transporting direction at a distance from each other being at least the same as the total width of the transport path such that the individual, single-piece flexible conveyor means extend over the total width of the transport path.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2013
    Publication date: April 9, 2015
    Applicant: Will-Pemco GmbH
    Inventor: Frank Herpell
  • Patent number: 8960666
    Abstract: A device for the generation of a shingled stream of flat, flexible objects along a conveyor path, wherein successive objects develop an overlap with a length, includes a first and a second suction and conveyor device having a first and second unit, respectively, and each having at least one conveyor belt. The first and second units are each configured to generate a vacuum through a whirlwind to attract at least one of the objects and are each disposed in a casing having a suction aperture. The second suction and conveyor device is disposed downstream from the first suction and conveyor device in a direction of the conveyor path with a mutual offset corresponding to the length of the overlap and is disposed at an angle relative to the direction of the conveyor path. The first and second suction are separated by a spacing in a transversal direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: February 24, 2015
    Assignee: BDT Media Automation GmbH
    Inventors: Patrick Enderle, Peter Kearney, Andreas Wardak
  • Patent number: 8939445
    Abstract: A vacuum roll includes an inner rotor, an intermediate stator, and an outer shell roll. The inner rotor has open and closed portions and is adapted to rotate within the intermediate stator which is rotationally fixed and also has open and closed portions. The outer shell roll has open and closed portions and is adapted to move around the intermediate stator. Together the inner rotor and the intermediate stator define an internal rotary valve interface adapted to control fluid communication between the interior chamber and the outer shell.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2015
    Assignee: Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, Inc.
    Inventors: Adam Nicholas Schoultz, Steven Todd Moore, Joseph John Sina, Charles Robert Sample, Gerald Keith Sosalla
  • Publication number: 20140070478
    Abstract: Provided is a banknotes withdraw and transfer unit structural improvement. The banknotes withdraw and transfer unit structural improvement is used in automatic teller machines (ATMs), and comprises: an ATM rack, wherein a banknotes withdraw and transfer unit is fixed on the ATM rack. The banknotes withdraw and transfer unit comprises: a cover plate formed with a plurality of through holes that communicate with a negative-pressure system; a conveyor belt disposed under the cover plate and formed with a plurality of through holes that are designed to be offset from the through holes of the cover plate; and a banknotes accommodating unit disposed under the conveyor belt to accommodate banknotes, wherein the banknotes accommodating unit is equipped with a banknotes pushing system. Thereby, with the aforementioned structure, banknotes can be withdrawn and transferred.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 30, 2013
    Publication date: March 13, 2014
    Inventor: Chien Fa HUANG
  • Publication number: 20130292894
    Abstract: A device for the generation of a shingled stream of flat, flexible objects along a conveyor path, wherein successive objects develop an overlap with a length, includes a first and a second suction and conveyor device having a first and second unit, respectively, and each having at least one conveyor belt. The first and second units are each configured to generate a vacuum through a whirlwind to attract at least one of the objects and are each disposed in a casing having a suction aperture. The second suction and conveyor device is disposed downstream from the first suction and conveyor device in a direction of the conveyor path with a mutual offset corresponding to the length of the overlap and is disposed at an angle relative to the direction of the conveyor path. The first and second suction are separated by a spacing in a transversal direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2013
    Publication date: November 7, 2013
    Inventors: Patrick Enderle, Peter Kearney, Andreas Wardak
  • Patent number: 8561987
    Abstract: The invention relates to a machine for processing sheets, having a deliverer for delivering the sheets which comprises a delivery drum that is acted on pneumatically. The delivery drum has vacuum applied to it. The delivery drum also has disks for carrying the sheets, each of the disks defining vacuum channels for holding the sheets. The vacuum channels have openings and a vacuum connection. The openings and the vacuum connection together form a rotary valve cyclically applying vacuum to the vacuum channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 9, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 22, 2013
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Detlev Berlingen, Ulrich Fellenberg, Frank Gunschera, Sven Lippardt, Frank Schramm
  • Patent number: 8434761
    Abstract: A sheet transportation apparatus includes at least one beltless vacuum transport (BVT) that has a plurality of adjacent rollers. Each of the rollers comprises a rounded external surface and an axis about which the external surface rotates. The external surfaces of the rollers are spaced from each other by gaps referred to as “inter-roller spaces.” A fan is positioned on a first side of the rollers. The fan draws air through the inter-roller spaces to create a vacuum force on a second side of the rollers. The vacuum force maintains the sheets of media in contact with the second side of the rollers. The external surface of each of the rollers comprises a plurality of first regions having a first diameter and a plurality of second regions having a second diameter different than the first diameter. The first regions and the second regions of the external surface are adjacent one another and alternate along the length of the external surface of each of the rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 4, 2011
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2013
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Erwin Ruiz, Melissa A. Monahan, Steven M. Russel
  • Publication number: 20120187619
    Abstract: A device (1) for conveying sheet documents between upstream and downstream sheet document processors is disclosed. The device (1) is independent from the upstream and downstream sheet document processors and comprises a receiving section (4) adapted to receive, in use, sheet documents discharged by the upstream sheet document processor into an output pocket of the upstream sheet document processor, and a transport (7, 8) extending from the receiving section (4) to an output section (26). The transport (7, 8) is adapted to convey sheet documents received at the receiving section (4) to the output section (26). The sheet documents are then discharged from the output section (26), in use, to the downstream sheet document processor. A corresponding method is also disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 28, 2010
    Publication date: July 26, 2012
    Applicant: CASH DYNAMICS LLP
    Inventor: Robert Wright
  • Patent number: 8177231
    Abstract: A conveying body that can attract and peel-off a recording medium by a simple mechanism, and an image forming device using the conveying body are provided. One end portions of through-holes of a drum are blocked by a blocking member, and a suction member and a blowing-out member are provided at other end portions of the through-holes. Due to a suction pump being operated and suction force being generated within the through-holes via a suction port of the suction member, the suction force passes through the through-holes and acts on long grooves of an outer peripheral surface of the drum, and a sheet can be attracted reliably to the outer peripheral surface of the drum. Further, because air is blown-out from the blowing-out member by operation of the suction pump, a leading end portion of a sheet can be reliably peeled-off from the outer peripheral surface of the drum.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Fujifilm Corporation
    Inventors: Takashi Fukui, Tatsuya Nitta
  • Publication number: 20110316216
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a sheet handling apparatus includes a take-out member to take out a sheet from a take-out position by rotating in a state in which a negative pressure is applied to the sheet at the take-out position and the sheet is adsorbed to the take-out member; a conveyor portion to receive and convey the sheet taken out from the take-out position by the take-out member; and a control portion to control the take-out member such that, when the sheet at the take-out position is being adsorbed to the take-out member, the take-out member is rotated at a circumferential speed that is slower than a conveying speed of the sheet at the conveyor portion, and when the sheet adsorbed to the take-out member is being transferred to the conveyor portion, the take-out member is rotated at a circumferential speed that is the same as a conveying speed of the conveyor portion at that time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 2, 2011
    Publication date: December 29, 2011
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Yusuke Mitsuya, Yoshihiko Naruoka, Toru Todoriki, Yukio Asari, Naruaki Hiramitsu
  • Patent number: 8056893
    Abstract: A system and method for transporting a sheet of media through a print zone including a media entrance station, a media exit station and a first media transport translatable in a reciprocal manner between the entrance and exit stations. A second media transport transports a sheet onto and off of the first media transport. The second media transport transports the sheet in a first direction as the first media transport is moving in a second opposite direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2010
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2011
    Assignee: Xerox Corporation
    Inventors: Barry P. Mandel, Linn C. Hoover
  • Publication number: 20110140344
    Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus including: a sheet loading table; and an adsorption conveyance section having: multiple belts with through-holes; and an air suction section in an inside of the belts and absorbs air through the through-holes; wherein the conveyance section sucks air, allows the sheet to be adsorbed to the belt, and conveys it; the adsorption conveyance section further includes: a first roller provides driving force to the belts; a second roller rotated by the belts, and a third roller between the first roller and the second roller and rotated by the belts, and the belts are supported by those rollers; and an outer surface of the belts mostly protrudes towards the sheets on the table at a central part of the third roller in a cross section perpendicular to the conveyance direction containing a shaft of the third roller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 7, 2010
    Publication date: June 16, 2011
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: Tomoo SUZUKI
  • Publication number: 20100258996
    Abstract: An air-suction sheet supplying device, including: a sheet stacking plate to stack recording sheets; an air-suction duct, arranged to face a top surface of the recording sheet stacked on the sheet stacking plate, and having an air-suction opening with a predetermined width; a belt member, rotatably arranged so as to cover the air-suction opening, and having plural areas having various distributions of suction holes in a direction perpendicular to a conveying direction; a driving section to rotate the belt member; a detecting section to detect a position of the belt member in a rotating direction; and a control section to operate the driving section so as to set a starting position of suction work, in a conveying direction of the belt member, on an area having suitable distribution of the suction holes, based on information detected by the detecting section.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 7, 2010
    Publication date: October 14, 2010
    Applicant: KONICA MINOLTA BUSINESS TECHNOLOGIES, INC.
    Inventor: Akira KOSUGI
  • Publication number: 20100148422
    Abstract: A sheet of paper is reliably held by suction at the front and rear of a turn guide on the transport path of the sheet according to paper transport conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 28, 2008
    Publication date: June 17, 2010
    Inventors: Akira Kawaguchi, Kazuya Yamamoto
  • Publication number: 20100084803
    Abstract: A sheet transfer mechanism for a printer 100 to form an image on a sheet 10 being transferred in a transfer route by propelling ink at ink heads 110a, includes: a transfer belt 160 that has a plurality of adhesion through-holes 165 for holding a sheet 10 and transfers the sheet 10 being held thereon; a platen 620 that slidably supports the transfer belt 160 in an area facing the ink heads 110a and has a plurality of suction through-holes 622 in an area through which the plurality of the adhesion through-holes 165 pass; a suction fan 650 that generates airflow with negative pressure for holding the sheet 10 on the transfer belt 160 through the plurality of the suction through-holes 622 and the plurality of the adhesion through-holes 165; and plugging plates 624 that adjust a number density of the suction through-holes 622 in the platen 620 depending on an arrangement of the ink heads 110a.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2009
    Publication date: April 8, 2010
    Applicant: RISO KAGAKU CORPORATION
    Inventors: Naoki AKIHIRO, Tomohiko SHIMODA, Hiroshi SUGITANI
  • Publication number: 20100038840
    Abstract: A sheet take-out apparatus includes an insertion portion configured to stack and insert a plurality of sheets in an upright state, a supply structure configured to move the plurality of inserted sheets in the stacking direction and supply a sheet at a leading edge in a moving direction to a take-out position at one end of the insertion portion, a take-out structure configured to rotate in contact with the sheet supplied to the take-out position, thereby take out the sheet in a direction almost perpendicular to the stacking direction, and a suction structure configured to permit an air current to act on the sheet, supplied to the take-out position by the supply structure, at the leading edge in the moving direction and absorb the sheet toward the take-out position. Wherein the suction structure, so as to raise the fallen sheet at the leading edge in the moving direction and permit it to face the take-out structure, makes a flow rate of the air current acting on the sheet different in a surface thereof.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 26, 2009
    Publication date: February 18, 2010
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventors: Tetsuo Watanabe, Yusuke Mitsuya, Yoshihiko Naruoka, Yukio Asari, Naruaki Hiramitsu
  • Patent number: 7014187
    Abstract: A new and improved article or mail-piece conveyor system has a vacuum plenum system integrally incorporated therein which effectively withdraws ambient air ahead or downstream of the oncoming conveyed articles or mail pieces such that the oncoming conveyed articles or mail pieces will not be subjected to tip vortices and/or other disruptive aerodynamic forces. In this manner, the articles or mail pieces will not be subjected to destabilizing aerodynamic circulation, currents, downflow, downwash, or momentum forces so as not to, in turn, exhibit flutter, fluctuations, or oscillation movements. Accordingly, extremely high speed conveyance of the articles or mail pieces, within the range of, for example, two hundred inches per second (200 ips) can in fact be achieved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2006
    Assignee: Lockheed Martin Corporation
    Inventors: Willson L. Mayerberg, II, Joe C. Bollinger, Jack E. Olson
  • Patent number: 6769677
    Abstract: A device for reading flat material having an endless perforated belt, guided over two rollers, one of which is driven. Material is brought from a feeder to an inlet arranged on both sides of the rollers and the belt transports the material to an outlet. The material is retained against the belt by vacuum. The device is adjustable relative to the feeder and, in one position, the entrance to the inlet is at the level of the feeder and, in the other position, the entrance to the inlet is at the level of the feeder. At least one reading device is provided, for reading the markings from the material being transported on the belt. On adjustment from the one position to the other, a reversal in the direction of rotation of the driven roller occurs and the reading device faces that side of the belt, the entrance to the inlet of which is at the level of the feeder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2004
    Assignee: Bowe Systec AG
    Inventor: Helmut Koelle
  • Patent number: 6572095
    Abstract: A sheet to be scanned is conveyed to a sheet holding device provided with a support member having an arcuate and concave sheet holding surface and a sheet holding mechanism for holding the sheet on the sheet holding surface in which the sheet is conveyed along the sheet holding surface in its circumferential direction and is positioned in a predetermined position on the sheet holding surface. Air is blown into between the sheet holding surface and the sheet when the sheet is conveyed to and out of the sheet holding device through an air blow hole formed in the sheet holding surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hirokazu Katou, Katsuaki Muraishi
  • Patent number: 6450496
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for holding recording media against a media support surface of an imaging system using an arrangement of variable cross-section vacuum grooves. Each vacuum groove has a continuously decreasing cross-section along its length. Each vacuum groove has a maximum cross-section adjacent a vacuum port and a minimum cross-section at a distal end of the vacuum groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2002
    Assignee: Agfa Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Hebert, Philip A. Rombult
  • Patent number: 6254091
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for holding recording media against a media support surface of an imaging system using an arrangement of variable cross-section vacuum grooves. Each vacuum groove has a continuously decreasing cross-section along its length. Each vacuum groove has a maximum cross-section adjacent a vacuum port and a minimum cross-section at a distal end of the vacuum groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2001
    Assignee: Agfa Corporation
    Inventors: James J. Hebert, Philip A. Rombult
  • Patent number: 6182959
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for conveyance of sheets, in which said sheets are advanced or slowed down in such a manner that a distance is altered. A value of said change in distance can be preselected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 1998
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2001
    Assignee: De La Rue Giori S.A.
    Inventors: Johann Emil Eitel, Johannes Georg Schaede