Abstract: A conveyor system lifts advancing signatures from a conventional conveyor, conveys the lifted signatures along an upright path of travel, turns the advancing signatures from the upright path of travel to a downward path of travel, deposits the advancing signatures from the downward path of travel back onto the conventional conveyor, and rotates the advancing signatures 180° about an axis which is parallel to their path of travel during either their upward path of travel or their downward path of travel so that the signatures are turned over when deposited back onto the conventional conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus for sequentially feeding cards from the bottom of a vertical stack, which includes a card transport drum positioned below the stack so as to support the forward edge portion of the bottom of the stack. The drum includes a set of suction openings disposed transversely across the outer peripheral surface of the drum, and the openings are of oval outline. To sequentially feed the cards, the drum is rotated so that the openings move across the bottom of the lowermost card and the suction grips and holds the lowermost card on the surface of the drum, to thereby advance the lowermost card from the stack. The oval outline of the openings helps ensure that only the lowermost card is gripped and advanced by the suction openings.

Abstract: A presser assembly for a turning conveyor comprises multiple presser rollers that are mounted with the axis of rotation of each roller generally parallel to a radius of the turn and at sufficiently close spacings that each article is pressed against the conveyor by at least one of the presser rollers at all times during its traverse of the conveyance path around the turn. Positive turn-gripping of each article is attained by use of resiliently compressible presser rollers having significant width and which are tapered, sized and canted such that the presser-contact segment of its periphery is parallel to the underlying conveyance surface and moves in the same direction and at the same velocity as the underlying segment of the conveyor, across the full width of the roller, whereby each article is maintained in the same orientation relative to the underlying conveyor throughout the turn.

Abstract: Groups of differently printed advertising inserts are collated into stacks of at least two inserts each, and the stacks are advanced along a main predetermined path for feeding to a host machine having continuously moving pockets which contain newspaper jackets and which receive the collated stacks of inserts in order to marry the inserts and the jackets. Initially, at least two relatively tall stacked bundles of inserts are located above and are spaced laterally from the main path. Inserts are stripped from the tall bundles, are advanced laterally toward the main path and are stacked in two relatively short queues located above and spaced along the path. A first vacuum belt strips inserts from the upstream queue and advances such inserts in an upstream direction as a running shingle, which then reverses directions and proceeds downstream. As an incident thereto, successive leading inserts are stripped from the shingle and are advanced in spaced relation along the main path toward the host machine.

Abstract: A rotary drum with angularly spaced grippers delivers magazine signatures to the collating conveyor of a saddle stitch binding machine. The signatures are supplied to the drum in the form of a running shingle with successive leading signatures being pulled out of the shingle by successive grippers as the latter rotate through a transfer station.

Abstract: Magazine signatures which are manually loaded as a stack into a product hopper are stripped therefrom by conveyor belts and are conveyed as a running shingle having a relatively large setback and a relatively thin vertical cross-section. To assist in establishing such a shingle, lifters periodically raise an upper group of signatures of the stack in the hopper from the lower signatures to reduce the weight on the latter signatures and prevent the lowermost signature from pulling along the immediately overlying signature as the lowermost signature is stripped from the hopper.

Abstract: Magazine signatures which are manually loaded as a stack into a product hopper are stripped therefrom and are conveyed as a rough and non-uniform shingle to an accumulating hopper while being elevated from a low level to a substantially higher level. The signatures are stripped from the accumulating hopper and are formed into a thin and uniform running shingle with a comparatively large setback for transport along a horizontal path to a receiver hopper which is located at a relatively high elevation to feed the collating conveyor of a binding machine. The shingles are fed on an on-demand basis both to the accumulating hopper and to the receiver hopper in order to keep stacks of consistently low height and weight in the hoppers and thereby promote consistent stripping of shingle signatures from the hoppers.

Abstract: Magazines are re-oriented by turning each magazine through ninety degrees in a horizontal plane while the magazine is advanced continuously along a generally straight path. The re-orientation is effected by kicking each magazine laterally while switching control of the magazine from a first continuously moving conveyor to a second continuously moving conveyor which runs alongside the first conveyor.

Abstract: A quarter folder machine for accepting half fold signatures and converting them into quarter signatures. The machine receives half signatures in an incoming shingle running at relatively low velocity, strips and accelerates the signatures to travel seriatim in a high speed stream which passes through camming and crimping means to create the quarter fold. A decelerating and re-shingling section then converts the stream back into an output shingle which runs at relatively low linear velocity but at a high rate in terms of signatures per hour--for transport to some subsequent processing device. The machine is characterized by a very high throughput rate. It is flexibly adjustable to match to the velocity of and setback of an incoming shingle from various sources, and yet to determine by choice the setback and velocity of the output shingle.

Abstract: A quarter folder machine for accepting half fold signatures and converting them into quarter signatures. The machine receives half signatures in an incoming shingle running at relatively low velocity, strips and accelerates the signatures to travel seriatim in a high speed stream which passes through camming and crimping means to create the quarter fold. A decelerating and re-shingling section then converts the stream back into an output shingle which runs at relatively low linear velocity but at a high rate in terms of signatures per hour--for transport to some subsequent processing device. The machine is characterized by a very high throughput rate. It is flexibly adjustable to match to the velocity of and setback of an incoming shingle from various sources, and yet to determine by choice the setback and velocity of the output shingle.

Abstract: Apparatus which takes stacks of pre-formed, stored printed signatures and forms them into a uniform shingle, running at extremely high velocity, for transport into a processing device such as a rotary trimmer or quarter folder. The apparatus, in certain major aspects, includes an input conveyor and a support table creating a vertical queue stack of signatures which is maintained at very low but essentially constant weight and height by photocell control of the speed of a conveyor which adds signatures to the top of the stack, a conveyor belt running beneath the bottom of the stack in a cut-out region of the stack-supporting table, with sequential vacuum clutching to the tail portions of successive signatures caused by spaced rows of holes extending across that belt and registerable with longitudinal slots in a vacuum shoe beneath the belt.

Abstract: A quarter folder machine for accepting half fold signatures and converting them into quarter signatures. The machine receives half signatures in an incoming shingle running at relatively low velocity, strips and accelerates the signatures to travel seriatim in a high speed stream which passes through camming and crimping means to create the quarter fold. A decelerating and re-shingling section then converts the stream back into an output shingle which runs at relatively low linear velocity but at a high rate in terms of signatures per hour--for transport to some subsequent processing device. The machine is characterized by a very high throughput rate. It is flexibly adjustable to match to the velocity of and setback of an incoming shingle from various sources, and yet to determine by choice the setback and velocity of the output shingle.

Abstract: A machine for feeding cards one by one from a vertical stack including a platform for supporting the trailing edge of the stack and a stripper type support for the leading edge corner portion of the stack in the form of a needle having a downwardly angled tip portion extending inwardly under the corner of the stack so that the leading edge of the bottom card rests against the tip portion of the needle. A suction cup is mounted for vertical movement between an upper position in which the cup is in engagement with the bottom card of the stack adjacent the needle and a downwardly retracted position which is below the tip portion of the needle so that the leading edge of the bottom card flicks past the tip of the needle as the card is drawn downwardly.

Abstract: A machine for feeding cards one by one from the bottom of a vertical stack into a receiving nip, the trailing edge portion of the stack being supported on a platform and the leading edge of the stack having a stripper type support in the form of a projection which extends under the corner of the stack, the platform being foreshortened to provide a window adjacent the projection. A suction cup supported on a sucker block faces upwardly into the window. The sucker block is mounted on a block carrier which is reciprocated in forward and retract directions. A cam surface and cam follower are interposed between the sucker block and the carrier and a striker is blockingly arranged in the path of retracting movement of the sucker block so that when the carrier is retracted the sucker block engages the striker causing the sucker block to be cammed upwardly completing an L-shaped path in which the suction cup suckingly engages the underside of the bottom card.

Abstract: Distillates are prepared from asphaltenes-rich feeds by a process comprising subjecting the feed to catalytic hydroconversion, and subjecting the distillation residue of the hydroconverted product to a combination of solvent deasphalting and thermal cracking.

Abstract: Distillates are prepared from asphaltenes-rich feeds by a process comprising subjecting the feed to thermal cracking, and subjecting the distillation residue of the cracked product to a combination of solvent deasphalting and catalytic hydroconversion.

Abstract: A jogger for aligning signatures fed in shingled relation on a delivery belt. The delivery belt is straddled by a pair of upstanding guide belts presenting opposed faces to the edges of the signatures. Each guide belt has an upstream sheave and a downstream sheave mounted on vertical shafts and which are driven in unison with one another and at the same speed as the delivery belt. The guide belts are convergently arranged, with the downstream sheaves being spaced to define between them a discharge opening having the width of the stream in the aligned state. The upstream sheaves are spread apart with respect to the downstream sheaves by substantially the same amount of offset to define a funnel-like entryway adequate to accommodate entry of the stream in non-aligned condition with individual signatures irregularly displaced from the stream.

Abstract: A bundling mechanism for receiving a stream of signatures in overlapping relation on a conveyor belt and for stacking them in register with one another preparatory to separation into bundles for transfer or storage. A twisting conveyor is provided for helically twisting the stream of signatures substantially 90 degrees so that the signatures are placed on edge. The outlet of the twisting conveyor is formed of a pair of vertically oriented rollers defining an outlet nip. A stop horizontally spaced from the nip arrests and accumulates the signatures thereby establishing the remote surface of the stack, the stack being supported on a table extending horizontally at right angles to the direction of the incoming stream. The near surface of the stack is horizontally spaced from the nip, the space being bridged by an auxiliary conveyor driven substantially at stream speed for incrementally conveying the trailing edge of each signature from the nip into a position which is flush with the near surface of the stack.

Abstract: A card inserter for inserting post cards in a series of bound volumes in motion in a production line which includes a pair of horizontally reciprocated feed plates and associated hoppers arranged on opposite sides of a substantially vertical feed plane. A conveyor is provided in the form of a pair of flat endless belts positioned face to face, the belts being trained about a pair of driven pulleys at the inlet end to define a nip at the feed plane as well as pulleys for maintaining the belts in face to face relation along an angular conveyance path. A V-shaped diverter extends downwardly into the nip. The feed plates are reciprocated inwardly and outwardly in synchronism and have one-way frictional driving connection for simultaneous feeding of the lowermost cards against the diverter and thence into the nip so that the cards are delivered to the volume in register with one another.

Abstract: An assembling and addressing machine for magazines which are differently assembled in a number of different versions for sending to individuals falling into different demographic categories based upon interest, occupation or the like. A plurality of signatures are produced which are capable, upon selection in predetermined combinations, of accommodating all of the different versions. A gathering device gathers the selected signatures to form a book. Books in various versions are stored in temporary storage stations. The device operates under the control of address labels which include the address and indication of the demographic category. Means are provided for reading the category and for triggering release of a book from the corresponding storage station and to which the label is then applied. It is one of the features of the invention that means are provided in each storage station for sensing depletion and for signaling the gathering device to produce a group of books to replenish the depleted station.