Abstract: A conveying method permits conveying of printed products, particularly in the form of a scale flow, with a constant or variable speed over conveying distances of random length, which can also contain rising or falling portions in the conveying direction, as well as curves. The method is based on the fact that each individual printed product or small group of printed products is conveyed by a conveying a element over a step length (S) which is small compared with the entire conveying distance and is then taken over by the next conveying element, while the first conveying element is moved back to its starting point. This process is repeated in a time cycle with the cycle length (T). The corresponding apparatus comprises a fixed support and a plurality of conveying elements, which are driven in a timed manner. A conveying distance or section can comprise a plurality of conveying modules, no transfer units being required between the individual modules.

Abstract: A method and device for transferring lids into a machine for the sterile conditioning of containers, the device comprising two elongated parallel nipper-holding members extending with one end into a sterile container-conditioning enclosure, one of these two members being reciprocally movable with respect to the other nipper-holding member which remains stationary being held against translatory motion. The device is adapted to transferring, depositing and provisionally securing lids onto containers or cups filled with any product or foodstuff.

Abstract: This invention relates to the sheet transporting apparatus having a sheet storage device capable of storing sheets and provided in the middle of a sheet transport path; and a carriage unit with a sheet discharge mechanism for transporting a sheet to the sheet storage device and capable of reciprocating motion substantially above said sheet storage device.

Abstract: A card transport apparatus (12) carries cards along a card transport path through card processing stations (14, 74, 76). The transport apparatus (14) includes a vertically adjustable card carriage (16) for retaining cards along a card transport path throughout the entire card processing operation through the card processing stations (14, 74, 76). The card carriage (16) grips the cards with independently pivoting gripping arms (52, 54), actuated open by push solenoids (18, 20, 22) for picking up and releasing cards.

Abstract: A sheet delivery mechanism for delivering a sheet such as a stimulable phosphor sheet from a sheet storage unit such as a cassette or a magazine to a sheet feed system, includes suction cups movable toward and away from the sheet stored in the sheet storage unit for removing an end of the sheet from the sheet storage unit, and a feed roller pair movably disposed between the suction cups and the sheet feed system, the feed roller pair being movable toward the suction cups for holding the end of the sheet removed from the sheet storage unit, and then operable to feed the sheet to the sheet feed system.

Abstract: A link chain has alternating first and second links which are articulately connected to each other by universal joints. Each first link carries a gripper with a fixed jaw and a second jaw pivotable between first and second end positions through a dead-center intermediate position. Springs are provided to permanently bias each second jaw to either of the two end positions, and each second jaw is connected with a follower which can track a set of cams at two spaced-apart stations to move the second jaw between its end positions. Each link of the chain carries two shafts for pairs of roller followers which track the lateral edge faces of two flanges of an elongated guide rail having an H-shaped cross-sectional outline. The guide rail is bent and/or twisted, if necessary, to establish a helical, arcuate, looped and/or other complex path for advancement of successive links between the two stations.

Abstract: Article handling apparatus comprises a carriage mounted to a support for to and fro movement along a path (A). An article conveyor is mounted on the carriage defined by opposed conveying surfaces for conveying articles relative to the carriage along a transport path substantially parallel with the path of movement of the carriage relative to the support. First and second drives are provided for moving the carriage and actuating the article conveyor respectively, whereby in one operating mode, when the carriage is moved by the first drive, the second drive causes a compensatory movement of the article conveyor such that the opposed conveying surfaces defining the transport path remain substantially stationary. The carriage is movable to either of two dispense positions at opposite ends of the carriage path such that when the carriage is positioned at a dispense position articles held on the carriage may be dispensed by suitably opening the article conveyor.

Abstract: A gripper device on a sheet-fed rotary printing machine formed of a sheet gripper seat and a sheet gripper, and having a gripper housing with a gripper arm swivellable about a gripper shaft, comprising an articulation point with an elastic restoring force on the gripper arm, the articulation point being disposed close to the start of a gripper finger having a pressure surface located on one side of a connecting line between a middle point of a gripper shaft and a front edge of the gripper-finger pressure surface, the articulation point being disposed at a location in an area starting from the connecting line and extending over a side of the connecting line located opposite to the side thereof in which the gripper finger is located.

Abstract: A sheet transfer device for a printing machine for taking over sheets which have been aligned at front lays and for transferring the sheets to a sheet-guiding drum includes a pregripper device swivellable between a sheet takeover and a sheet transfer position. Gripper pads are carried by the pregripper device, and a gripper shaft is swivel-mounted in the pregripper device and carries gripper fingers which are associated with the gripper pads. Also provided are a device for connecting the gripper shaft and the gripper fingers so that swivelling movements of the gripper shaft are transmitted to the gripper fingers, and a swivel device for swivelling the gripper shaft about a longitudinal axis thereof.

Abstract: A card transport apparatus (12) carries cards along a card transport path through card processing stations (14, 74, 76). The transport apparatus (14) includes a vertically adjustable card carriage (16) for retaining cards along a card transport path throughout the entire card processing operation through the card processing stations (14, 74, 76). The card carriage (16) grips the cards with independently pivoting gripping arms (52, 54), actuated open by push solenoids (18, 20, 22) for picking up and releasing cards.

Abstract: A device for stacking sheets, especially sheets of paper that arrive overlapped. The device has a layoff platform that can be raised and lowered, a separating mechanism that is positioned behind the stack, that can be raised and lowered, and that can be introduced into the vicinity of the top of the stack, especially between the uppermost sheet and the incoming stream of overlapping sheets, two compression jaws that are positioned at different heights at the rear of the stack, that can be raised and lowered, and that can be inserted into gaps created by the separating mechanism, and an auxiliary stacking platform that is positioned at the rear of the stack, that can be raised and lowered, and that can be introduced into the vicinity of the layoff platform immediately below the lower compression jaw. The object is to provide a device that is of particular advantage with respect to design.

Abstract: A gripper assembly for gripping sheet materials such as a folded newspaper includes a fixed jaw and a movable jaw for engaging opposite surfaces of the article. The jaws are supported on a base block for pivotal movement relative to each other. The movable jaw is made of spring wire and includes a pair of gripping tangs, a pair of spring coils associated one with each gripping tang, and a pressing element extending between the gripping tangs. The movable jaw is pivotally mounted on a shaft about which the spring coils are wrapped. The spring coils bias the clamp arm as a whole, and also the gripping tangs, independently of one another, into clamping relation toward the fixed clamp arm. The pressing element clamps and presses the lower folded edge of a folded newspaper being held in the gripper assembly. The movable clamp arm is made from a single continuous piece of spring wire.

Abstract: In a procedure for feeding two limp workpiece sheets intended to be treated together and/or connected with each other and positioning them with respect to each other, it is provided to clamp them in a planar suspended position in clips of trolleys guided by rails. They are moved by the trolleys to scan their contours in a scanning station and to align them relative to each other in an alignment station. The alignment position of the workpiece sheets is fixed through a coupling device, which acts upon clip holders on the trolleys and can be moved together with them. This simultaneously connects the trolleys assigned to each other in pairs into a structure moving as a unit. The workpiece sheets are subsequently guided in their fixed alignment position to a treatment or processing station.

Abstract: A printing press having novel sheet transport mechanisms which facilitate precise operation at high speeds. In the preferred embodiment, the press includes a printing bed which pivots forward and downward on parallel links to remove sheets of stock from forwardly opening grippers. Also in the preferred embodiment, novel mechanisms for opening and closing the grippers are provided, including a mechanism for closing the grippers which is inoperable until the grippers are in the proper position to grip the leading edge of a sheet of stock.

Abstract: A method of extracting and accelerating flat objects such as postal items which are presented in the outlet position of an unstacking head for use by a machine downstream therefrom, the method making use of a clamp for grasping postal items one-by-one and of various sensors (7) such as photoelectric cells, serving to indicate the presence of a postal item in the outlet position of the unstacking head, or in the field of action of the clamp, or serving to indicate that the clamp is in a waiting position or in an end-of-stroke position, the method being characterized in that it essentially comprises the following stages:moving the clamp to a waiting position;when the presence of a postal item is expected in the outlet position from the unstacking head, driving the carriage towards the outlet position of the unstacking head;when the presence of the postal item is detected within the field of action of the clamp, the clamp is closed and the carriage is driven towards the downstream machine;as soon as the presence

Abstract: A method for feeding a blocked sheet unit for continuously taking out a blocked sheet unit from a sheet unit forming section and feeding the blocked sheet unit to a subsequent step, the method for feeding a blocked sheet unit comprises a first step of taking out a generally half length of the blocked sheet unit from the sheet unit forming section. A subsequent stop includes forming a state where a lower surface of a front portion of a blocked sheet unit subsequently fed is partially superposed on an upper surface of a rear portion of a blocked sheet unit precedingly fed. The preceding blocked sheet unit and subsequent blocked sheet unit are clamped at the superposed portion together and simultaneously taking out the generally half length of the blocked sheet units. The final steps include subsequently separating the preceding blocked sheet unit from the subsequent blocked sheet unit one after another and feeding thereof to the subsequent step.

Abstract: An automated system for selectively providing a limp material segment, e.g., fabric, to a joining apparatus includes at least one picker actuation mechanism ("PAM") for manipulating and transporting the segment. The PAM has an end effector for picking up the segment and an independently operable clamp for holding the segment while the PAM itself is transported between work stations.

Abstract: A stacking machine includes a pair of gripping jaws that are openable and closable to grip a leading edge of an article and move it to a stacking position. The jaws are moved between a gripping position and a release position by a fluid cylinder assembly and are automatically moved to an intermediate position when the jaws are moved to receive an article. Air flow is used to straighten the trailing part of the article on the stack. The gripping jaws are moved between an article receiving position and an article discharge position by a pneumatic cylinder assembly that will accommodate variations in stack height.

Abstract: A roll feed apparatus has first and second rolls for gripping a plate when rotated in first directions and moving from each other when rotated in second directions, and first and second brake pieces for fixing the plate during rotation in the second direction. A pivot body has support portions along its length for rotatably supporting a first roll shaft at opposite ends. A pair of pivot shafts parallel to the first roll shaft are rotatably connected to the pivot body and a housing and eccentric with respect to each other. First and second adjusting arms are fixed to the shafts; third and fourth adjusting arms are pivotally fitted to the support portions and support the first brake piece. A first adjusting device with first and second links coupled to the first and second adjusting arms moves portions of the first roll and first brake piece located next to first and second arms towards or away from the second roll and the second brake piece by pivoting these arms.

Abstract: Apparatus for laminating a film onto a carrier. A carrier, such as, for example, a printed circuit board, a multi-layer lamination, a metal plate or a carrier layer with metal layers coated on both sides, is heated in a horizontal position on both sides over its entire surface in a heating station and is guided up to a photoresist film which is fixed vertically on suction plates of vacuum tables and which also spans a laminating station located between the vacuum tables. The photoresist film is drawn off from a single supply roll by means of a gripper bar and is guided over the vacuum tables and the laminating station. A cutting device cuts through the photoresist film transversely to its longitudinal direction.

Abstract: Two shearing blades disposed along two lines which intersect each other are carried on the bottom edges of two adjacent walls of a four-sided ram structure. The ram is supported at four points whereby to provide greater stability. The workpiece is carried on the aligned top surfaces of a fixed bed and a movable carriage. The movable carriages is movable in a first direction. Finger grippers, joined by a connecting bar, are movable in slots along the top surface of the movable carriage in a second direction. Thus, the workpiece is moved in the first direction by movement of the movable carriage and in the second direction by movement of the finger grippers. The workpiece may be precisely and accurately positioned under the shearing blades making use of sensors in each of the finger grippers and a lateral sensor at the end of the movable carriage.

Abstract: A silk screen printer includes a cylindrical printing table for applying print to a sheet material and a stencil which is stretched in a frame. The stencil is adapted for reciprocating movement in response to reciprocating movement of the printing table and a squeege arrangement is included for urging the stencil towards the printing table to thereby transfer print onto sheet material located between the printing table and the stencil. A gripping device is provided for gripping the forward end of the material. The gripping device is movable with the frame in the direction of the longitudinal extent of the frame. A spring device urges the gripping device towards a movement-damping member whereby the gripping member is registered in relation to the chassis of the printer. The registration of the gripping device relative to the chassis is independent of the stop position of the frame and the printing table.

Abstract: A cloth pickup device comprising, first and second elongated jaws. The pickup device has a device for pivotally mounting the jaws about first and second axes substantially parallel to each other and spaced so that the jaws are pivotable from a first position wherein they are in operative clamping position with respect to each other to clamp a piece of cloth therebetween, to a second position wherein they are in an unobstructive open position to allow a piece of cloth to freely pass into a position between the jaws. The pickup device has an overcenter spring device acting directly on the jaws for maintaining the jaws in either the first or second position thereof once moved to that position. The pickup device has a device for moving the jaws from the first position to the second position, and a device for actuating the jaws and moving them from the second position to the first position.

Abstract: A process is described in which an oscillating gripper unit is utilized, having a gripper foot for the oscillating gripper member carried angularly fixed by the respective control shaft; during the return stroke of the gripper unit from the rotating cylinder of the printing machine towards the table carrying the sheets, the gripper foot is turned eccentrically with respect to the axis of its control shaft making this latter turn with appropriate means in a directional sense in concordance with that of the rotation of the whole unit in such a way as to produce a raising of it with respect to the gripper member such as to carry it out of the path of this latter while the axis of oscillation of the unit is maintained stationery with respect to that of the cylinder.

Abstract: A lead-frame separating apparatus includes an inclined stationary stocker placed with a plurality of rectangular sheet-type lead-frames in alignment, and a chuck unit capable of taking two positions consisting of a stand-by position above conveying rails where it swings within a vertical plane and extends beneath the stocker, and a chuck position where it adjoins the first lead-frame on the stocker. At the chuck position, the chuck unit holds and takes out the first lead-frame, which is released at the stand-by position and transferred onto the conveying rails.

Abstract: The disclosed apparatus has a data reading head and an elastomer ring on a driven rotor within stationary arcuate outer guide means for driving a sheet along a path starting and ending at a common location and passing the reading head. The elastomer ring and the outer guide are shaped so that their cooperation biases sheets against and into edgewise alignment with side guide means along portions of the path approaching the reading head and departing from the reading head. The sheet feeding path is arched away from the elastomer ring in the region of the elastomer ring, and the guide means has a light-absorbing channel that is uninterrupted by the elastomer ring disposed opposite the data reading head. The entire apparatus is readily opened up for service virtually without resort to tools and restored to operative condition without need for adjustments.

Abstract: An installation for feeding sheet-metal blanks to a first working stage of a multi-stage press, in which the blanks fed individually by way of a suspension conveyor into the area of an intermediate deposit station are to be transferred to active gripping devices attached at the transfer rails. For avoiding standstill periods of the transfer rails during the closing of the active gripping devices, the blank is lifted during the lifting of the transfer rail synchronously therewith. A carriage adapted to be lifted and lowered serves for that purpose which is synchronized by way of a crank drive at least in the lifting phase of the transfer rails with the lifting-lowering drive of the transfer rails.

Abstract: The size of the gap separating first and second jaw members (26, 28) comprising a gripper arm is made adjustable by the provision of a translatable bracket (80) upon which an actuator (30) is supported. As the bracket (80) translates, so do the actuator (30) and a linkage (32) which connects a pivotable jaw member (28) to the actuator (30). Translation of the actuator (30) and linkage (32) changes the size of the gap separating the pivotable jaw member (28) and the other jaw member (26), thereby permitting the gripper arm to accommodate and engage articles of differing thicknesses.

Abstract: Document sheet handling apparatus for a copier for sequentially feeding document sheets on to and off of the copying platen with a document feeder frictionally engaging a document sheet inserted at a first side of the platen and transporting a document sheet over the platen by continued engagement, and a flexible platen cover integrally connecting to the document feeder for movement therewith over the platen, and a reel system, including a retracting spring for reeling up the flexible platen cover into a scroll adjacent the first side of the platen and above the document sheet input, so that a document sheet may be fed under the scroll, the flexible platen cover being unreeled to extend over the platen by the movement of the integral document feeder to overly the platen and provide an opague and light reflective platen cover, and a releasable latch adjacent the opposite side of the platen for latching the document feeder and the flexible platen cover over the platen in a position for copying the document, and

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for gripping and advancing a workpiece for processing. The apparatus includes a flexible tension member and guide pulleys for supporting the tension member. The tension member is entrained about the guide pulleys for movement on the guide pulleys in a workpiece advancing direction and in a direction opposite thereto. A gripping assembly is provided for gripping the workpiece, and the gripping assembly is operably connected to the tension member for operation between an open position and a closed position. A tensioning mechanism is provided for selectively tensioning and untensioning the tension member for operating the gripping assembly from between one of the open and closed positions and the other of the positions. A drive arrangement is provided for selectively moving the tension member on the guide pulleys to move the gripping assembly selectively in the advancing and opposite directions.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus includes an edge aligning device for aligning an edge of individually fed sheets with respect to an underlying table. A tray overlies the table and has an upper sheet-receiving surface for receiving the individually fed sheets. An aligning member mounted to overly the tray includes an aligning wall having a knife edge lightly engageable with the tray. The tray is reciprocated by a reciprocating drive through a forward stroke positioning the tray to receive a sheet on its sheet-receiving surface laterally of the knife edge, and a return stroke moving the sheet-receiving surface towards the knife edge to move the sheet thereon against the knife edge, thereby to align the sheet therewith, and then past the knife edge while further movement of the sheet is arrested by the knife edge, thereby permitting the sheet to drop onto the underlying table.

Abstract: An improved sheet gripper system disposed on the impression cylinder of a printing press having regular sheet grippers mounted on a gripper shaft on the impression cylinder with additional grippers provided in the spaces between the regular grippers, which spaces are intended for cooperating transfer grippers, the additional grippers being adapted to retract into a gripper channel and extend out into the gripper plane only in one zone of the movement of the impression cylinder in which the between-gripper spaces are freed of the cooperating transfer grippers so that the front edge of a sheet is held by both the regular grippers, as it passes through the printing zone, and the additional grippers and the tension to which the printing material is subjected is greatly reduced, and the registry and print quality are improved.

Abstract: An infrared dryer is provided for a printing press which uses a series of carriers, each comprising one or more gripper bars, on a conveyor to respectively carry printed sheets past the dryer. The sensor produces different binary signals in response to the presence or absence of material, viz, a gripper bar structure or carried sheets in the path, each carrier producing a predetermined number of transitions between the presence and absence signals, the only change between an empty carrier and one carrying a sheet being the duration of the presence and absence signals. A microprocessor is programmed to cyclically count from zero to the predetermined number of transitions, with each count cycle representing the passage of a carrier. The microprocessor also measures and compares the total durations of the presence and absence signals during each count cycle. If the presence signal duration exceeds the absence signal duration, then the heater is actuated to a preselected operating intensity.

Abstract: Gripper, whose tongs are formed by two oscillating jaws, is distinguished by the fact that, on the one hand, these jaws are solid in rotation with two shafts rotating in bearings carried by a frame solid with the rod of a jack and, on the other hand, the rotation of this shaft is caused by the angular movement of a maneuvering part connecting each shaft to a stationary part.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for detecting article engagement errors and for calibrating engagement error detection apparatus associated with a plurality of gripper arms (16) of an insertion machine (10). Gripper arms (16) at each of a plurality of insert stations S comprise a first jaw member (24) and a second jaw member (26) which selectively engage articles therebetween. Field-generating means (420) is mounted on one jaw member while a Hall Effect sensor (400) is connected on the other jaw member. The sensed flux density of the generated field is a function of the relative displacement of the first and second jaw members (24,26). A signal generated by the sensor (400) operated in a slide-by mode is related to the separation of the first jaw member (24) and second jaw member (26). If the sensor-generated signal is within predetermined limits of a stored reference signal a proper number of articles are engaged between the first and second jaw members (24,26).

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.

Abstract: A feeder for introducing and feeding plates into a machine tool, comprising a positioning station in which the plates are positioned one after the other with respect to orthogonal axes, a transfer section between the machine tool and the positioning station, two feeding carriages provided with grippers for seizing an edge of the plates and adapted to be adjusted along two parallel first guides between the positioning station and the machine tool by first feeding drives, with the two first guides guided by a second guide, the axis of which extends orthogonally with respect to the axis of the first guides, and adapted to be adjusted each by a second feeding drive of their own; and an automatic control controlling the feeding drives in such a manner that a plate is fed into a first processing position before the machine tool after the last working stroke for the preceding plate and before the machine tool performs a further working stroke.

Abstract: A conveyor belt transfer section moves printed sheets at constant speed from a printer to a platen type die-cutter, this constant speed being equal to the printer speed. The die-cutter is provided with an intermittently operated sheet conveyor having a gripper bar that is moved intermittently so as to fully stop in succession at a plurality of locations including an infeed station and a working station downstream of the infeed station. When the bar is stopped at the infeed station, sheet grippers mounted thereon are opened and are kept open while the bar is accelerated in the downstream direction. As a sheet approaches the infeed station, the bar begins to move away from the infeed station at an acceleration rate which permits the sheet to enter the open grippers on the moving bar. These grippers are closed to hold the sheet when sheet speed and gripper bar speed are essentially equal.

Abstract: A machine for inserting and taking up long and flat textile pieces into and from a drying and ironing machine comprises an oscillating outfit provided with a longitudinal beam, a slide fixed to this beam, two rolling pieces rolling in opposite directions and maintained in the slide, and two movable and symmetrically shaped carriages. Each of these carriages comprises a U-shaped rigid frame with opposed cheeks. One carriage bears a gripper for the prehension of the textile piece, and one of the two carriages is provided with an operating handle which bears a block which comes into friction contact against the edge of the longitudinal beam in order to maintain the front edge of the textile piece longitudinally tensioned.

Abstract: An apparatus for the automatic feeding of a carrier to a laminating station. The apparatus has a gripper device which is fastened to two guide rods and which is movable t o anf fro horizontally. Each of the guide rods is guided in a linear guide and is mounted in supports which are connected to one another by means of an angular cross-strut. A pneumatic cylinder is articulated centrally to the angular cross-strut by a lengthened piston rod. The gripper device grips the carrier at a predetermined distance (X.sub.min) from the front edge, to transport it in the direction of a laminating station. A sensor for detecting the front edge of the carrier which is transported into the gripper device is located on a holding bracket fastened to a displaceable holding block. The upper and lower gripper strips each have a perforation in the center of their bevelled strip part.

Abstract: A screen printing apparatus is provided for transferring sheet materials from a supply area to a printing table. The apparatus has a pair of grippers which are guided jointly over the printing table in a timed manner in order to grip a blank sheet at a feeding table and pull it over the printing table. The two grippers are separately guided above the printing table in such a way that their movements take place in opposite directions to one another and that one of the gripper fails passes over the other one in the area of the center of the printing table. This design has the advantage that during the transport by a first gripper of a sheet to be printed on the printing table, a second gripper rail already returns to its starting position. Therefore, when the printed sheet is removed from the printing table, a new sheet can be placed thereupon immediately. Idle times for the conveying of the sheets to be printed are eliminated with the use of only two grippers.

Abstract: A gripper arm includes jaw members (24,26) between which articles are engaged and from which engaged articles are released in precise placement upon a transport means. Jaw (26) is actuated by solenoid actuating means (28) acting through linkage means (30) to perform the engagement and release operations. The activation of the solenoid actuating means (28) is controlled to be dependent upon the operating speed of a machine in conjunction with which the gripper arm is used. The solenoid actuating means (28) is assisted by biasing means (122) which is preloaded to facilitate the application of a desired holding force on articles engaged between the jaw members (24,26). The jaw member (24) has a piece (162) of high coefficient of friction material embedded in a surface oriented to contact articles engaged between the jaws (24, 26).

Abstract: Apparatus for clamping and transferring to another location stacks of bags or other products of varying sizes. The apparatus preferably includes sets of clamping jaws for grasping the stacks of bags. The jaws are designed for movement in more than one direction in substantially the same plane so that mechanisms for delivering and receiving bags can be used even if the bags from one stack vary in size from that in the next stack. Each set of clamping jaws supports as well as clamps each stack of bags, a lower support jaw being extended to a sufficient length to provide such support. The device can also accommodate bags or other products of varying wall thicknesses.

Abstract: A device for shearing, welding and aligning two sheets of thin material includes two segmented tables arranged on opposite sides of a vertically moveably welding head. Substantially parallel shears are equally spaced on opposite sides of the welding head. The sheets of material are arranged so that their uneven ends lie between the welding head and the respective shears. Clamping bars are arranged to clamp the sheets of material snugly against moveable segments within each of the segmented tables. The uneven ends are clamped in position and then sheared off. The moveable segments and the clamping bars move the two sheets of material inwardly toward the welding head. The distance that the moveable segments move slightly exceeds the distance between the welding head and respective shears so that the sheared ends overlap a preselected distance. A deflector arranged in the proximity of one of the shears assures that one of the sheets overlaps the other sheet.

Abstract: A cam drive is used to drive the auxiliary gripper on a sheet-fed printing machine having a control cam and an auxiliary cam and associated cam followers. In order to use a minimum amount of pages and eliminate any bending moments from the forces between the cams, the control cam and the auxiliary cam are disposed in a common plane on two parallel shafts and the control lever and associated followers are disposed in the same plane between the cams.

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.

Abstract: An apparatus is disclosed for transferring a sheet of deformable material such as cloth on a first conveyer to a second conveyer at a right angle to the first conveyor. The apparatus includes a full-length clamp having an elongated support surface for grasping and supporting the sheet along a side edge adjacent to the second conveyor and aligned with the direction of movement of first conveyor. The clamp is supported on a carriage which is movable in the direction of movement of the second conveyer and means are provided to move the carriage between a clamping location where the clamp grasps the sheet and a release location spaced from the first conveyor.

Abstract: An apparatus automatically transfers printed circuit base plates from a loading to a printing zone by using pliers elements for gripping the base plate arranged in the loading zone, removing it from the reference dowels and transferring it automatically to the printing zone where the base plate is automatically positioned on reference dowels. The plier elements return to their initial position for gripping a new base plate loaded in the meantime.

Abstract: The movable jaw on a gripper mechanism is engaged by a bowed spring feeler element to effect a change in its lateral deflection thereof at a maximum magnification ratio to displacement of the movable jaw from an operative position gripping a single sheet of paper. Deformation of the feeler element is regulated by a bearing abutment spaced from a contact sensing assembly through which the intermediate portion of the element extends to monitor the paper gripping operation.

Abstract: There is provided a sheet pile replenishment apparatus in the form of a cined unstacking and restacking device for lifting a sub-pile of sheets from a supply pile of sheets, conveying and depositing the sub-pile on a pile of sheets on a feed pile plate of a sheet feeder of a processing machine, such as an envelope or bag machine. The apparatus includes a separating roller, disposed at an adjustable angle, which separates the sub-pile from the supply pile of sheets, a clamp for engaging the sub-pile, a table of comb-like construction for conveying the sub-pile, vibrating aligning pins for exactly aligning the sub-pile, and means for depositing the sub-pile in an exact position on the pile of sheets ready for feeding by the sheet feeder to the processing machine.