By Suction Retarder Patents (Class 271/183)
  • Patent number: 5018715
    Abstract: A fabric pickup device useful for a fabric handling system. The fabric pickup device includes a fluid operated cylinder and piston having four individual fabric clutches attached to the cylinder and aligned with and substantially equality spaced apart from the axis of the piston. Each clutch has a head portion having a plurality, preferably four, resilient pickup fingers spaced apart from one another. A substantially flat actuator plate is attached to the free end of the piston and is oriented perpendicular to the axis of the piston. The actuator plate has a series of apertures for receiving the individual pickup fingers. The openings in the actuator plate are sized such that when the plate is retracted by the action of the fluid cylinder, the resilient fingers of each pickup finger separate and, when the plate is extended, the finger are brought together to grip the top surface of a fabric piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 1989
    Date of Patent: May 28, 1991
    Assignee: Red Kap Industries
    Inventors: Allen Reeves, Michael O. Harbor, Patrick V. Reina, Richard T. Sandgren
  • Patent number: 5011125
    Abstract: A delivery sheet brake for a sheet-fed printing press having a suction element for gripping a sheet at a trailing edge thereof, the suction element being disposed on an adjustable slide for format adjustment and being guidably movable on a closed path loop extending through a transfer position and a release position for the sheet, and a step-up transmission connecting the suction element to a uniformly revolving drive element disposed likewise on the slide, said transmission including an articulated lever for accelerating the suction element to sheet travel speed before it reaches the transfer position and decelerating the suction element after sheet transfer until the suction element reaches the release position, including a chain wheel connected to the drive element disposed on the adjustable slide, a drive chain directly connecting the chain wheel with a chain wheel of a drive for the printing press, and a chain-storage device for the drive chain, the chain-storage device being in cooperative engagement wi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 1989
    Date of Patent: April 30, 1991
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Nikolaus Spiegel, Karl-Heinz Filsinger, Roland Hirth
  • Patent number: 4991832
    Abstract: A delivery sheet brake for sheet-fed printing presses having a sucker formed with a suction opening movable on a closed loop path at varying speed corresponding in a sheet-transfer position to travel speed of a sheet and then being deceleratable until a sheet-release position is reached above a pile of sheets at a delivery, elements of a drive connected to the sucker for imparting a horizontal motion component to the sucker which is simultaneously movable vertically, and control valves for controlling vacuum in a suction line connected to the sucker, the sucker including a piston disposed in a cylinder of a housing so as to be movable in direction of a longitudinal axis of the piston, the housing being connected to the drive and being disposed swivelingly on a shaft having an axis extending transversely to a direction of travel of the sheet and parallel to the sheet, the piston being reciprocatingly movable in the cylinder of the housing by the vacuum in the suction line to the sucker and being controllable b
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 1989
    Date of Patent: February 12, 1991
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Nikolaus Spiegel, Karl-Heinz Filsinger, Roland Hirth
  • Patent number: 4966521
    Abstract: A device for slowing cut sheets in seriatum flow by nipping the trailing edge of the sheets as they leave a high-speed conveyor system is provided whereby the sheets pass to a stacking pile at a slow speed. The nipping device is provided in several embodiments including a brush carrying roll, an oscillating roll on a lever arm and an air jet. Ream removal apparatus are also provided to remove reams of paper from the bottom of the stacking pile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 30, 1990
    Assignee: Beloit Corporation
    Inventors: Kenneth G. Frye, Donald C. Fitzpatrick, Donald R. Grody
  • Patent number: 4960361
    Abstract: Individual air permeably sheetlike structures are efficiently lifted from a pile by a vacuum lifter and deposited again at a processing station, the pile including as an alternate interlayer a sheet of air impermeable material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1989
    Date of Patent: October 2, 1990
    Assignee: BASF Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Jaroslav Melzer
  • Patent number: 4955506
    Abstract: A device for individually removing newspapers from an inclined stack, including a movable carriage which is placed over the stack, the carriage having an endless conveyor carrying spaced-apart grippers, the conveyor being connected to drive mechanisms to grip a topmost newspaper and feed it along the incline through a withdrawal slot.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 1989
    Date of Patent: September 11, 1990
    Inventor: Franz Schweiberer
  • Patent number: 4955656
    Abstract: A gripping device for nappy workpieces which is capable of handling both small and large pieces of textile materials. A gripping device is provided having a base part and a slidable part, between which is provided a substantially closed hollow to which pressurized gas is supplied through a series of slots. The slidable part is moved in such a manner that the slots are squeezed together and the gripping device grips the nap of the upper piece of textile material. Pressurized gas is led through the upper piece to the piece lying immediately below to ensure efficient separation of the upper piece from the piece below, and avoiding the inadvertant lifting of more than one piece at a time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 17, 1989
    Date of Patent: September 11, 1990
    Assignee: Tex-Matic ApS
    Inventors: Johan Krogstrup, Henning Nohr, Bruno Christensen, Frank Fosnaes
  • Patent number: 4909890
    Abstract: Method and apparatus for improving the performance of laminating protective plastic to a document using a machine of the type in which plastic laminating film from a roll is drawn over a guide member surface and between laminating pressure rollers by a film drive means wherein wrinkles that form naturally at the location of the guide member surface are eliminated by locating a vacuum means in the path of the film at or near the guide surface to create a generally uniform drag force across substantially the entire width of the film in opposition to the force drawing the film through the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1988
    Date of Patent: March 20, 1990
    Inventor: Arthur W. Bonnyman
  • Patent number: 4900297
    Abstract: A downstacker assembly in which paperboard blanks, received from a die cutter station, are passed sequentially through a trim removal station, a feed station, a stacker assembly partially disposed in a pit, and a stack retrieval assembly. The stacker assembly is disposed in a drop chute beneath a vacuum conveyor assembly which drops the blanks from the feed station into the drop chute, assisted by a pair of twin blank striker assemblies which selectively separate the blank therefrom. The stacking blanks are tamped using a semiflexible tamper plate assembly against flexible curtains on a descending elevator assembly. A stack staging assembly serves as a temporary cradle to catch the falling blanks once a predetermined stack height is achieved until the stacks can be removed via the stack retrieval assembly. A dunnage holding assembly provides multiple-tier load forming as the stacks are discharged from the downstacker assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1988
    Date of Patent: February 13, 1990
    Assignee: ASC Machine Tools, Inc.
    Inventors: Terry Frost, Terry B. Smith, Jennings A. Jones
  • Patent number: 4892298
    Abstract: A pickup device for a piece of sheet-form flexible fabric or the like includes first and second fabric gripping elements that come together at the face of the fabric piece to grip a localized portion of the fabric, a support for resiliently biasing the fabric gripping elements together in a gripping position, and an actuatable separator for applying force to overcome the biasing to move the fabric gripping elements apart. Upon deactuation of the separator, the support is adapted to resiliently return the gripping elements to the gripping position. A pickup system and method for loosening and removing a single face piece of fabric from a stack of pieces aligned at an edge are also described in which a vacuum stabilizing system is combined with a jet directing air under the raised edge of a fabric piece.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 1986
    Date of Patent: January 9, 1990
    Assignee: Richard R. Walton
    Inventors: Richard R. Walton, George E. Munchbach
  • Patent number: 4886263
    Abstract: A method for sorting paperboard blanks into groups of identical length blanks. When an order chanber is effected, the succeeding blanks formed in accordance with the new order are accumulated upon the preceding blanks in an orderly manner by intermittently driving a first conveyor so that the reduction ratio or speed differential becomes relatively small when a blank formed in accordance with the new order arrives at the first conveyor. In an alternate method, the succeeding blanks are positively disposed upon the preceding blanks fed to a first conveyor having a vacuum suction area defined therein by moving each preceding blank a desired distance, so that the vacuum suction area may be exposed behing the preceding blanks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 1988
    Date of Patent: December 12, 1989
    Inventor: Minoru Naito
  • Patent number: 4878658
    Abstract: In a printing machine, a sheet delivery device having pneumatic braking devices of substantially bipartite construction on a chain delivery arranged as rotating brake rollers on a traverse extending beneath the chain delivery transversely to a sheet conveying direction through the printing machine and upstream of a sheet pile, as viewed in the sheet conveying direction, for braking and drawing-out a sheet exiting from the printing maching includes separate suction units with suction air feeding devices operatively associated with the brake rollers for feeding suction air to lateral faces of the brake rollers, at least one of the suction units being selectively associated operatively with at least one lateral face of each of the brake rollers, each of the brake rollers having a sheet-carrying peripheral surface formed with recesses distributed over the periphery of the respective brake roller and extending over a region of the width of the respective brake roller encompassing a lateral edge of the sheet-carryi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 1985
    Date of Patent: November 7, 1989
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Gerhard Pollich
  • Patent number: 4871161
    Abstract: Apparatus for the seriatim separation and feeding of garment parts from a shingled stack of the parts to a predetermined destination. Comprising the apparatus is a picker head containing a depending array of needles adapted to positively engage the leading edge of the uppermost part on the stack. The picker head is supported for arcuate motion in the course of effecting separation of the engaged first part, and is arcuately displaced at a high rate of acceleration to aid in overcoming the resistance to separation between the first and second parts in the stack. Following separation, the separated part is transferred to a second location at which the head is withdrawn from the transferred part. Operable concomitantly with part separation by the picker head is a hold down clamp for applying a predetermined downward force on the remaining stacked parts while a vacuum force is being applied from underneath for retarding this displacement in the course of the engaged part being separated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: October 3, 1989
    Assignee: Levi Strauss & Co.
    Inventors: Hubert Blessing, Richard L. Harrington
  • Patent number: 4838536
    Abstract: A fabric picking and transferring device for transferring one or more top fabric plies from a stack of such plies. The device comprises a support body having a fabric engaging end. The housing is displaced toward the stack to position the fabric engaging end on an uppermost ply of the stack. At least two picking needles are supported by the body and each has a pointed engaging end portion. The needles are disposed in opposed offset facing relationship and at a shallow angle with respect to the plane of the uppermost ply, with the pointed engaging end portion retracted inside the fabric engaging end of the body. An actuating mechanism is provided for moving the fabric engaging end of the needles a predetermined distance outwardly of the fabric engaging end with the fabric engaging ends crossing one another, and wherein the needles will penetrate in each of the one or more uppermost fabric plies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 13, 1987
    Date of Patent: June 13, 1989
    Inventor: Nabil Kamal
  • Patent number: 4830355
    Abstract: A sheet transfer system on a rotary printing press has an apparatus provided beneath the delivered sheets to slow down the sheets at their trailing end by means of conveyor belts which are guided by drive and deflector rollers, and between which, beneath the conveyor belt, there is a suction chamber, whereby even with a tight sheet sequence and high machine speed, a collison of the sheets during the deceleration process is prevented so that the sheets are slowed down and lowered onto the sheet delivery stack.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 1987
    Date of Patent: May 16, 1989
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Aktiegesellschaft
    Inventor: Willi Jeschke
  • Patent number: 4824092
    Abstract: The sailing and floating of the sheets which has occurred uncontrollably at certain speeds is avoided so that an exact stacking is permitted at high speeds. The vacuum conveyor is a vacuum belt conveyor whose vacuum box with circulating vacuum belts extends over the entire stacking location and the brake device. The brake device comprises an upper circulating belt supported by a vacuum chamber whose upper strand reaches up to the stacking location. Thus the sheets during the stacking process are guided precisely and do not float freely.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1987
    Date of Patent: April 25, 1989
    Assignee: Babcock-Bsh Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Horst Kriefall, Helmut Rohrbach, Siegfried Fischer
  • Patent number: 4822020
    Abstract: The present invention relates to an apparatus for gripping layers of flexible material, comprising a head (14) provided with a contact surface, a clearance (16) in the said surface, a needle (103) mobile with respect to the head, a thin groove (15) in the head and kinematic guide means for the needle in the plane of the groove (15). According to the present invention the contact surface is provided with a step (102) and has a recessed area (100) and a protruding area (101). Two contact pins (110, 111) are in a preferred embodiment located either side of the groove (15) level with the recessed area. These measures improve the superficial catching conditions of the upper layer of the flexible material to be seized and avoid the risk of seizing the layer below.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 1987
    Date of Patent: April 18, 1989
    Inventors: Alain Rouleau, Patrick Rouleau, Jean-Pierre Touret
  • Patent number: 4805949
    Abstract: Improved material handling device for selective pick up, holding, and release of material is disclosed. The device includes arcuate talons mounted to a first shaft capable of pivotal movement about an offset centerline and by means of talons mounted to a second shaft exhibiting pivotal movement about an offset centerline. The talons, which move in arcuate paths, pierce a plane parallel to a plane defined by the offset centerlines substantially at right angles. The talons diverge after penetrating the pierceable material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 19, 1987
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1989
    Assignee: Prab Robots, Inc.
    Inventor: Kevin Conway
  • Patent number: 4802948
    Abstract: An interior trim component 1 for a motor vehicle comprises a base 2 of a fibrous base material of approximately 80% wood fibers and approximately 20% synthetic resin fibers, which is compressed and consolidated by the action of pressure and heat into the desired shape. Padding and/or a fabric insert 5 may be placed over selected areas of the surface of the base 2 and a sheet 7 of plastic material is bonded over the whole of the visible side of the base 2, the parts of the plastic sheet 7 overlying the insert 5 having a continuous impressed separation so that they may be removed. The fibrous base material which is in the form of fibrous fleece mats of approximately 20 to 30 mm thickness is consolidatd in a hot-pressing shaping tool at 4000 N/M.sup.2 and approximately 200.degree. C.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1986
    Date of Patent: February 7, 1989
    Assignee: Ford Motor Company
    Inventors: Willibald Zimmermann, Klaus Hartmann, Heinz Wessel
  • Patent number: 4781091
    Abstract: A conveyor system for conveying veneer sheets with spacings therebetween comprising a sheet supply conveyor for feeding a train of cut veneer sheets of a predetermined length in contact with one another, the cut sheet length measured in the direction of sheet feed; at least first and second conveyors arranged downstream of the supply conveyor to carry the cut sheets; a stick-and-carry conveyor spanning between the downstream end of the supply conveyor and the upstream end of the second conveyor, the circumferential length of the stick-and-carry conveyor being equal to an even number of times the specified length of the cut sheet, the stick-and-carry conveyor having nailing, or sticking, areas and non-nailing areas arranged alternately at the interval of the specified cut sheet length, the nailing area having a large number of nails embedded therein the stick-and-carry conveyor being driven so that the front of the nailing area will meet the front end of the cut sheet at a sticking operation start position; an
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1987
    Date of Patent: November 1, 1988
    Assignee: Meinan Machinery Works, Inc.
    Inventor: Takashi Nakaya
  • Patent number: 4776577
    Abstract: A vacuum shingler for a plurality of sheets (9) traveling in succession through an upstream infeed nip (13) is provided with a vacuum modulating control which applies sheet slow-down forces primarily to only the tail ends of the sheets. In one embodiment, the control provides a substantially "on-off" vacuum operation, with the vacuum "off" when the leading end portion of the sheet is adjacent the vacuum plenum opening(s) (39), and with the vacuum "on" when the tail end portion of the sheet is adjacent the opening(s). In another embodiment, the control modulates the vacuum so that it is at a basically unshingling low or reduced level when the leading end portion of the sheet is adjacent the opening(s), and is at a substantially increased high level when the tail end portion of the sheet is adjacent the opening(s) so that basic shingling occurs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 1987
    Date of Patent: October 11, 1988
    Assignee: Marquip, Inc.
    Inventors: Carl R. Marschke, Richard H. Thomas, Dennis W. Rodewald
  • Patent number: 4765214
    Abstract: Veneer handling apparatus having a veneer clipper at one end thereof and a veneer sheet stacker at the other end is disclosed. Veneer sheets cut into a format size by the clipper are sorted so as to allow defective sheets to be discharged from the apparatus. Sound veneer sheets sorted from the defective sheets are distributed selectively into two ways alternately. Two conveyors arranged one above the other and converging at a position adjacent their downstream ends are provided in the apparatus, and one sheet is distributed to the upper conveyor and stopped at a predetermined position thereon until its succeeding sheet distributed to the lower conveyor is moved to another predetermined position. The sheet on the upper conveyor is allowed to move again at such controlled time that it is combined at the converging position with the succeeding sheet moving on the lower conveyor into a pair with one sheet placed over the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 1987
    Date of Patent: August 23, 1988
    Assignee: Meinan Machinery Works, Inc.
    Inventor: Takashi Nakaya
  • Patent number: 4761027
    Abstract: The device for picking up flat articles or shapes has a gripping mechanism secured to the end of a moving arm, which is for example part of a robot. The gripping mechanism consists of at least two grippers that face each other in a plane on a frame and have gripper pins mounted on them. To allow gripping procedures to be carried out automatically the grippers are mounted in such a way that they can rotate, so that, during an appropriate rotation, the pins, which are in the shape of the arc of a circle and oriented in the form of a multiple screw thread, will be inserted into and extracted from the flat articles or shapes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1987
    Date of Patent: August 2, 1988
    Assignee: Hoesch Maschinenfabrik Deutschland AG
    Inventor: Heinz Gehrig
  • Patent number: 4740193
    Abstract: An improved downstacker assembly in which paperboard blanks, received from a die cutter station, are passed sequentially through a trim removal station, a feed station, a stacker assembly partially disposed in a pit, and a stack retrieval assembly. The stacker assembly is disposed in a drop chute beneath a vacuum conveyor assembly which drops the blanks from the feed station into the drop chute, assisted by an impacting assembly which selectively separates the blanks therefrom. The stacking blanks are tamped against flexible curtains on a descending elevator assembly. A stack staging assembly serves as a temporary cradle to catch the falling blanks once a predetermined stack height is achieved until the stacks can be removed via a stack retrieval assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 1986
    Date of Patent: April 26, 1988
    Assignee: ASC Machine Tools, Inc.
    Inventors: Terry Frost, Terry B. Smith, Jennings Jones
  • Patent number: 4740129
    Abstract: A device for separating slices of bread from sliced loaves of bread and for transferring the separated slices one by one to a conveyor for further processing. The device incorporates an inclined, intermittently driven infeed conveyor for conveying the slices of bread in generally upright positions and in surface-to-surface contact with one another to a separating and transfer position. The separating and transfer position incorporates a primary rotatable member which rotates about its horizontally extending central axis. The primary rotatable member carries a plurality, for example, four, of secondary rotatable members, each of which rotates about its longitudinal central axis, which is spaced outwardly from and extends generally parallel to, the longitudinal central axis of the primary rotatable member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1986
    Date of Patent: April 26, 1988
    Inventor: Harold P. Sponseller
  • Patent number: 4717141
    Abstract: A rotatable sheet brake roller, whose peripheral speed is varied in response to the speed of a printed sheet transport means, is disclosed. Initially, the sheet brake roller runs at a peripheral speed generally the same as the sheet transport speed. Once the sheet is released from its transport, the sheet brake roller decelerates to slow the sheet to a sheet delivery speed. A dampening unit is associated with the sheet brake roller which has a surface that repels printing ink. The dampening unit removes ink particles from the surface of the sheet brake roller to eliminate smearing which would otherwise occur, particularly in recto and verso printing when a freshly printed surface of the printed sheet contacts the surface of the sheet brake roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: January 5, 1988
    Assignee: Koenig & Bauer Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventor: Albrecht J. Germann
  • Patent number: 4694748
    Abstract: A device for moving offset plates from a stack of such plates to a fixing device by grasping a plurality of offset plates having positioning engagement holes from a stack and moving them through a print-through device to a fixing device utilizing a transport mechanism having positioning pins to receive the engagement holes of the offset plates and to release them when the offset plates have completed the desired movement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 22, 1987
    Assignee: Fujirex Company, Limited
    Inventors: Kunio Fujisawa, Toyoji Tanaka, Toshio Mochizuki, Norio Nakamura, Seiji Kaya
  • Patent number: 4693462
    Abstract: The invention relates to a sheet delivery apparatus on printing presses which is fitted with pneumatically operating braking mechanisms and the function of which is to retard and tighten the merging sheet which is to be deposited. The pneumatic braking mechanisms may be of unipatite or bipartite construction and are fitted with braking rollers pressurized with suction air and adjusted to run on print-free areas of the printed image in order to prevent set-off of the newly printed underside of the sheet. In order to allow for adaptation of the braking force of the braking rollers to various types of paper and bearing in mind the varying width of the print-free areas of the sheet, depending upon the printed product, the braking rollers are disposed on a support shaft below the chain delivery and in front of the delivery pile and can readily be interchanged with others having wider or narrower sheet support areas.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1980
    Date of Patent: September 15, 1987
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Gerhard Pollich
  • Patent number: 4690393
    Abstract: A machine for separating single plies of fabric from a stack of fabric plies uses a roller provided with a fabric ply engaging mechanism. The roller engages the top ply of fabric and removes it with a rolling action. The engaging mechanism comprises a pivotable rod mounted on the roller and provided with protruding pins which engage the top ply of fabric from the stack as the rod is pivoted. The machine can be arranged to sort alternate plies of fabric from one stack into separate stacks. The machine can be provided with an adjustable support for holding the stack and with a detector for detecting the presence of a single fabric ply on the roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 10, 1985
    Date of Patent: September 1, 1987
    Assignee: Chesebrough-Pond's, Inc.
    Inventor: Elbert Engle
  • Patent number: 4688837
    Abstract: An end effector mechanism is provided which is adapted to be attached to a robot having means for moving the end effector mechanism in at least up and down and forward and reverse paths of travel. The end effector mechanism is characterized by a construction for gripping a generally flat textile article in a predetermined orientation and holding the textile article while maintaining at least one edge thereof in such predetermined orientation during transportation of the textile article by the robot and subsequently releasing the textile article. The end effector mechanism is in the form of a generally U-shaped member having a flat bottom surface for contact with the textile article and having needle gripping devices mounted for inward and outward movement from the forward free ends of the U-shaped member for gripping and releasing the textile article, while holding at least one edge thereof taut and in a predetermined orientation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1987
    Assignee: Fieldcrest Cannon, Inc.
    Inventors: Gregory A. Ball, Byron E. Moore, Dennis L. Starnes
  • Patent number: 4688781
    Abstract: Stacked fabric parts are separated and fed seriatim by apparatus having an endless conveyor which feeds the stack into position for separating the uppermost part from the stack. A mechanism having a knife edge bar or opposed fabric engaging needles is lowered and engages the part for dragging the part to be separated off of the stack. The second part on the stack is held with the stack by a pressure force by a series of vacuum providing orifices or recesses in a horizontally disposed support surface and/or by retractable fabric piercing needles. The part separating and translating bar is connected to a support plate which may be vibrated in a generally horizontal plane to assist in breaking the frictional connection between the part to be separated and the remaining parts in the stack as they are separated from each other. The separated parts are presented seriatim to a guide surface which guides the part under the conveyance of an air jet stream along a feed path to another work station.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 1984
    Date of Patent: August 25, 1987
    Assignee: Levi Strauss & Co.
    Inventor: Hubert Blessing
  • Patent number: 4687241
    Abstract: A gripper head for the pick-up of a single piece of material from a stack of such pieces. The gripper head is provided with curved needles mounted on the ends of two concentric hollow cylinders. Each hollow cylinder comprises a spiral guide slit. The pitch direction of the guide slit of one cylinder is opposite the pitch direction of the guide slit of the other cylinder. The guide slits cooperate with the gripper head casing to produce rotation of the cylinders in directions opposite to one another during axial advancement of the cylinders within the casing. The cylinders are advanced within the casing by means of a pressure bolt connected to the cylinders. The magnitude of the advancement is determined by the position of an adjustable stop ring located within the casing. In operation, the two sets of curved needles extend from the casing edge and simultaneously rotate in opposite directions in an adjustable and retractable fashion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1985
    Date of Patent: August 18, 1987
    Assignee: Polytex AG
    Inventor: Ferenc Schell
  • Patent number: 4684120
    Abstract: A picking and separating device and method of operation for picking one or more upper ones of sheet-like material, such as fabric plies from a stack. The device comprises a frame supporting a picker mechanism which is secured thereto. The mechanism has a fabric engaging member having a flat picker surface. A plurality of angulated aligned needles are movable in and out of the surface by a movable support frame. The support frame and needles are displaced along an angulated fixed axis for engaging one or more upper ones of the sheet-like material in a stack of sheet-like material.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 25, 1986
    Date of Patent: August 4, 1987
    Inventor: Nabil Kamal
  • Patent number: 4681002
    Abstract: A conveyor system for conveying veneer sheets with spacings therebetween comprising a sheet supply conveyor for feeding a train of cut veneer sheets of a predetermined length in contact with one another, the cut sheet length measured in the direction of sheet feed; at least first and second conveyors arranged downstream of the supply conveyor to carry the cut sheets; a stick-and-carry conveyor spanning between the downstream end of the supply conveyor and the upstream end of the second conveyor, the circumferential length of the stick-and-carry conveyor being equal to an even number of times the specified length of the cut sheet, the stick-and-carry conveyor having nailing, or sticking, areas and non-nailing areas arranged alternately at the interval of the specified cut sheet length, the nailing area having a large number of nails embedded therein the stick-and-carry conveyor being driven so that the front of the nailing area will meet the front end of the cut sheet at a sticking operation start position; an
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 1986
    Date of Patent: July 21, 1987
    Assignee: Meinan Machinery Works, Inc.
    Inventor: Takashi Nakaya
  • Patent number: 4679784
    Abstract: A fabric pickup device which separates single layers from a stack of fabric layers comprises a mounting plate (1) by which it may be secured to a table (2), an angled bracket (6) extending the full width of the device, and a pickup assembly (8). The pickup assembly (8) is supplied with compressed air to operate three double-acting pneumatic cylinders (20, 21, 22). Two pickup plates (29, 30) have on their lower surfaces needles (39, 40 respectively). Operation of the cylinders (20, 21) causes the plates to be pivoted between a standby position, a pickup position in which a fabric layer is picked up on the needles, and a release position by means of a cam plate (53). Operation of cylinder (22) causes the pickup assembly to be raised so that the fabric layer picked up may be separated from the needles (39, 40).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 6, 1985
    Date of Patent: July 14, 1987
    Assignee: Univ. of Leeds Industrial Services Limited
    Inventors: Itzchak Porat, Percy Grosberg, Magid N. Moghaddassi
  • Patent number: 4678173
    Abstract: An apparatus is provided for automatically and continuously feeding and folding successive textile articles, such as towels and the like, from a supply stack of such textile articles. The apparatus includes a supply mechanism for successively receiving a first stack of textile articles in a non-feeding position, moving the first stack into a feeding position, and receiving a second supply stack of textile articles in a non-feeding position for being moved into the feeding position when the first stack of textile articles is depleted. A folding mechanism successively receives the textile articles and folds the textile articles in the desired folded condition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 1985
    Date of Patent: July 7, 1987
    Assignee: Fieldcrest Cannon, Inc.
    Inventors: David M. Basinger, Gary L. Hatley, Billy J. Kiser, James N. Moser
  • Patent number: 4645193
    Abstract: A pickup device for sheet-form flexible fabric comprising first and second gripping elements which move laterally in the plane of the fabric in an angle to the direction of clamping, whereby the fabric is tensioned before clamping. Preferably the clamping elements of the teeth have vertical frontal edges, the teeth arranged to come together during final motion, and preferably the teeth being in matching parallel lines. Jets of air are employed to assist in separation, either blowing down at the gripping lines, or between pairs of devices that tension the fabric, or, in regions where the fabric droops below a lifting pickup, using a device that moves the jets closely against the drooping fabric portion. An array of such pickups is rotated about an axis to turn upside down or end for end. All features can be achieved simply by lines of teeth carried on elongated spring arms that are cammed together.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 1984
    Date of Patent: February 24, 1987
    Assignee: Richard R. Walton
    Inventors: Richard R. Walton, George E. Munchbach
  • Patent number: 4643414
    Abstract: A control and regulating apparatus for a sheet-delivery device for sheet-processing machines, and in particular, for sheet-printing machines, is provided.Several of the adjustable elements of the delivery device have separate control motors with feedback of the setting attained to a reference-value-setting meansor they have electromagnetic valves. The reference-value-setting means is provided with a respective input means for paper weight, sheet format and speed of rotation of the machine, and it is connected to or integrated with a computer which supplies to the reference-value-setting means the reference values in respect of all settings of the feeder, such reference values being empirically determined for each operating condition and stored in the form of a family or characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1985
    Date of Patent: February 17, 1987
    Assignee: Miller-Johannisberg Druckmaschinen GmbH
    Inventor: Willi Weisgerber
  • Patent number: 4641826
    Abstract: A machine is disclosed for lifting flexible flat workpieces such as fabric from a support surface. The machine includes a needle holder onto which a circular needle is mounted. The leading edge of the needle holder initially extends through a slit in the housing to push down on the workpiece when the machine is first placed thereon to prevent folds from occurring in the slit. Thereafter, the needle holder is rotated so that the circular needle perforates the top workpiece whereby the machine can be raised to lift the workpiece and move it to a desired location. When the needle holder returns to its rest position the needle is pulled out of the workpiece allowing it to fall from the grasp of the machine.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 14, 1985
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1987
    Assignee: Beisler GmbH
    Inventor: Egbert J. van der Weide
  • Patent number: 4641827
    Abstract: A fabric component pickup apparatus or the like having first and second fabric gripping elements defining first and second opposed gripping lines in the plane of the face of the fabric component, the fabric gripping elements adapted for movement relative to each other essentially in the plane with simultaneous components of motion closing the distance between the gripping lines and displacing one gripping line laterally in the plane of the fabric at an angle to the closing motion. As the fabric lying between gripping lines is tensioned by the component of lateral displacement motion of the gripping elements, the fabric is simultaneously gathered by the component of closing motion. In one preferred embodiment, an air blast is directed through the porosity created by tensioning the fabric to impinge upon the underlying layer of fabric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 1983
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1987
    Assignee: Richard R. Walton
    Inventors: Richard R. Walton, George E. Munchbach
  • Patent number: 4635917
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for feeding sheets, particularly fabrics, from a stack comprises an arrangement for: engaging the opposite edges of the upper sheet of the stack by a pair of restrainer members, bringing a pick-up head into engagement with the upper sheet of the stack while producing air streams from the pick-up head directed outwardly across the opposite edges of the upper sheet of the stack, lowering the pick-up head to depress the stack below the restrainer members whereby the air streams cause the opposite edges of the upper sheet of the stack to curl upwardly to clear the restrainer members, lifting the upper sheet from the stack, and permitting the stack to rise so as to bring the next sheet into engagement with the restrainer members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 1984
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1987
    Assignee: State of Israel, Ministry of Defense, Rafael Armament
    Inventors: Daniel Granot, Ahron Siev, Freddy Derfler
  • Patent number: 4635918
    Abstract: A process for gripping flexible layers arranged in a stack of layers in order to separate one or more upper layers from the other layers of the stack makes use of a needle (23) moving with respect to a contact surface (14a) with a clearance (16). The motion of the needle (23) is implemented in such a manner that during the displacement of its end, said needle thrusts the upper flexible layer toward the clearance (16) to form a corrugation in said clearance; during the final stage of the motion, the needle crosses said corrugation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 1985
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1987
    Inventors: Alain Rouleau, Patrick Rouleau, Jean-Pierre Touret
  • Patent number: 4625956
    Abstract: In the case of an apparatus for forming a stack of sheets comprising a brake means placed at (in terms of sheet motion) the leading edge of the stack and downstream from a sheet transport means, the brake means having at least one brake roller driven at a lower peripheral speed than the speed of transport of the sheets and a timed sheet nip member adapted to engage a sheet and move it towards the brake roller, one aim of the invention is to ensure reliable retardation and straightening of the sheets without damage to them.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 19, 1985
    Date of Patent: December 2, 1986
    Assignee: Fa. Georg Spiess GmbH
    Inventors: Josef Marass, Rudolf Liepert, Klaus Weyrich
  • Patent number: 4613123
    Abstract: An end effector for use with automatic machines for handing flexible materials including a flat base plate having openings therein, at least two barbs, holders positioning each of said barbs adjacent one of said openings, an arrangement for moving each of said barbs through the adjacent one of the openings along a path which forms an angle of less than forty five degrees with the face of the plate, the arrangement for moving each of the barbs through the adjacent one of the openings limiting the travel of the barb along the path and being adapted to move each of the barbs in a direction generally opposite to the directions of the path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 18, 1984
    Date of Patent: September 23, 1986
    Assignees: The Singer Company, AVG Productions, Inc.
    Inventor: Franke, Sr., John
  • Patent number: 4605216
    Abstract: An improved material pick-up device to allow sheets of material of varying texture and resiliency to be picked up and moved without piercing and without damage thereto. A pair of support members having saw-tooth shaped projections thereon are guided and supported to be relatively reciprocated along side by side paths to move the projections together and apart. The reciprocation is carefully controlled and adjusted by an adjusting device cooperably with the device powering the reciprocation so that the spacing of the respective pairs of teeth in the support members may be carefully controlled to define a gripping position and a release position. Thus, the gripping position may be varied in accordance with the texture and resiliency of the material to be gripped such that the surface of the material is pinched without piercing and can be moved without damage thereto. In one embodiment, a pair of coaxial cylindrical supports are nested together and one rotates relative to the other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 24, 1984
    Date of Patent: August 12, 1986
    Assignee: General Motors Corporation
    Inventors: Albert C. DeWitt, Donald W. Herriges, Donald Stanner
  • Patent number: 4601463
    Abstract: A cloth gripping device including a pressing member having a portion for pressing a cloth to grip the same and a claw member for cooperating with the pressing member to grip the cloth therebetween. A pressing face is formed on the bottom of the pressing member for pressing the cloth. A retracted face is located at a position retracted by a distance corresponding to the thickness of a single cloth from the pressing face relative to the cloth. A substantially vertical gripping wall is provided by a step between the pressing face and the retracted face. A gripping groove is formed which is sufficiently wide but not too wide to receive a bent portion of the cloth therein when only one cloth is picked up adjacent a boundary between the pressing face and the retracted face. The retracted face includes a guide groove formed therein for guiding the claw member toward the gripping groove.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 1984
    Date of Patent: July 22, 1986
    Assignee: Matsuya Hoseikiki Hanbai Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidetaka Goto, Tetsuo Nakamura
  • Patent number: 4598901
    Abstract: A conveyor system wherein sheets (10) are conveyed from a cutter (9) or the like at a given speed, are increased in speed before passing through a vacuum conveyor shingling section (5), are slowed down at the shingling section and then normally proceed at the slowed-down speed to a stacker (8) which is adapted to stack a fixed number of sheets before discharging a stack. The sheets are basically handled in accordance with the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,276. To prevent scattering of the sheets during shingling due to high input conveyor speeds and the like, the vacuum conveyor shingling section (5) includes a second (or pre-shingling) conveyor (38) upstream of the original shingling conveyor (15). The pre-shingling conveyor operates at a relatively high rate of speed while the original shingling conveyor operates at a relatively low rate of speed (which nevertheless may be as high as the device of the patent) relative to the sheet input speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 1984
    Date of Patent: July 8, 1986
    Assignee: Marquip, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard H. Thomas
  • Patent number: 4579331
    Abstract: A method and apparatus for gripping lifting and transporting a sheet, especially a textile sheet, from a stack of sheets. The apparatus has a plurality of substantially vertically oriented gripping mounted under and depending downward from a substantially horizontal holder. Each device has at its downward terminal end a pair of clamping jaws. Each clamping jaw has a plurality of pointed tip members depending downwardly from its edge adjacent the other jaw. A plurality of spaced-apart finger grippers are rotatably disposable to a position beneath the clamping jaws. Each gripping device is preferably arranged with respect to another so that its downward terminal end is in a different horizontal plane from each other juxtaposed device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 1983
    Date of Patent: April 1, 1986
    Assignee: VEB Textil- und Konfektionsbetrieb
    Inventors: Dietmar Nestler, Bernd Litzkow
  • Patent number: 4572357
    Abstract: A material unloading conveyor is arranged in overlapping relation to the discharge end of a bristle conveyor and includes an endless belt which has a plurality of U-shaped staples secured to its surface to pivot relative thereto. The staples move in combing relation to the bristles, which comprise the bristle conveyor, and the material supporting surface defined by the bristles to lift sheet material from the bristle conveyor and onto the unloading conveyor as the material is discharged by the bristle conveyor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 1984
    Date of Patent: February 25, 1986
    Assignee: Gerber Garment Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: David R. Pearl
  • Patent number: 4557698
    Abstract: An apparatus for supplying cardboard is provided. The apparatus comprises a frame, a cardboard stack support means provided on said frame to detect a position of the front of the cardboard stack, cardboard stack support drive means, cardboard raising mechanisms mounted in said frame and capable of being in contact with the front of the cardboard stack at a reference position, a pair of feed rollers provided in said frame and above said cardboard stack raising mechanisms and compressed air jetting means facing the opposite sides of the laminar cardboard stack. The apparatus for supplying cardboards, which has the means described above, can readily and reliably supply laminar pulp cardboards one by one.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 1983
    Date of Patent: December 10, 1985
    Assignee: The Japan Tobacco & Salt Public Corporation
    Inventors: Hiroshi Nishida, Kouichi Hizawa, Taiichi Mine