Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into – within,... – Stack forming apparatus
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-01
2001-05-29
Fischetti, Joseph A. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving intersupporting articles into, within,...
Stack forming apparatus
C414S789700, C414S272000, C414S797000, C198S435000, C271S009070
Reexamination Certificate
active
06238175
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Our present invention relates to a destacking apparatus and, more particularly, to an apparatus for removing individual foil sheets from a foil stack at a stack station and depositing the destacked foil sheets at a deposition station. More particularly, the invention relates to a destacking apparatus of this type in which a transfer station is provided between the stack station and the deposition station and has a suction beam which can pick up a foil sheet and which is vertically shiftable, for example, between stacks at the stack station.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
When it is desired to apply a foil to compressed board or other substrate, which itself may be a laminate, for subsequent pressing of the resulting stack in a laminating press which can consolidate the substrate in the case of pressed board, the foil layer is generally drawn from a stack and transferred to a deposition station for application to the charge to be laminated with that foil before the resulting unit is fed to the press.
In such systems, a stack station can be provided with one or more stacks of the foil layers, hereinafter referred to as foil sheets, foils or, simply sheets, and the stacks of such foils are generally provided in vertically-spaced relationship, i.e. at a distance one above another.
Between the stack station and the deposition station, a suction beam is displaceable for removing a foil sheet from one of the stacks and depositing it upon the deposition station.
The suction beam can usually be swingable vertically to the height of the respective stack sheet so that it can withdraw the foil from one or another of the stacks thereof.
Between the stack station and the deposition station, a transfer platform can be provided.
The foil can be used as the outer foil or patterning, coloring or finishing member of a construction laminate, such as pressed board, especially chip board, fiber board or the like and can be the outermost layer for a paper stack or can be composed of paper, plastic-coated paper or the like which is printed or otherwise decorated. The pressed product is broadly referred to as a laminate and more than one foil can form part of the laminate. The foils, when laminated together, may be stacked in the same direction or in opposite or alternately transverse directions.
The earlier apparatus for this purpose provides between a stack station and the deposition station, a transport carriage for the suction beam and mounts the transport carriage on a rocker which can be swingable by a piston and cylinder arrangement.
Usually a plurality of servomotors and measuring and control devices are required to align the suction beam with a foil to be picked up and frequently spindle-type drives are required for positioning the suction beam. Reference may be had to German patent document DE 34 18 258.
For a number of reasons, these systems have been found to be excessively complex and costly both to make and operate. In addition, the reliability of such systems may require improvement and the output of the system may be insufficient for mass production purposes.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for the destacking of foils and the deposition of the destacked foils at a deposition station which is simpler than earlier systems, of lighter weight and of greater reliability and precision with respect to the orientations and alignments of the destacked sheets, has reduced mass of the moving parts and greater speed of the suction beam than can be attained with earlier systems.
It is, more specifically, an object of this invention, therefore, to provide a destacking apparatus and a laminate-building apparatus utilizing the destacked foil sheets which is free from the drawbacks of earlier systems and has, therefore, higher reliability and productivity than the systems known to date.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a destacking arrangement which minimizes the mass which must be raised and lowered and reciprocated to remove individual foil sheets from a stack of such foils and carry them onto the deposition station.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the invention, in a destacking apparatus which comprises:
a stack station provided with means for holding at least one stack of foil sheets;
a deposition station horizontally spaced from the stack station and provided with holding means for receiving foil sheets; and
a transfer station between the stack station and the deposition station, the transfer station comprising:
a transfer platform extending between the deposition station and the stack station,
a pair of guide rails flanking the transfer platform,
a suction beam extending between the guide rails and displaceable thereon back and forth between the stations for withdrawing a foil sheet from the stack onto the transfer platform and along the transfer platform to the deposition station,
means forming a pivot axis for the transfer platform, the guide rails and the suction beam at a downstream side of the transfer station and at a side of the deposition station adjoining the transfer station for enabling upward and downward swinging of an upstream side of the transfer station relative to the stacking station and relative vertical displacement of the suction beam and the holding means.
More particularly, the invention provides a destacker in which the transfer platform is flanked by guide rails with drives for the suction beam and which spans across the guide rails transversely thereto, i.e. across the full width of the platform and which is displaceable back and forth on the guide rails across the length of the platform, i.e. from one side to the other thereof in the direction of displacement of the foil sheets during the destacking movement.
According to the invention, moreover, the suction beam, which engages the foil sheet, the guide rails and the platform together form a swingable unit which is displaceable about an axis along the downstream side of the platform and preferably on the deposition station, located in a horizontal plane which is between the stacks of foil sheets and from which the foil sheets can be selectably withdrawn by positioning of the beam adjacent one or the other of the stacks. As a consequence, the assembly can be swung upwardly and downwardly in the cadence of withdrawal of the foil sheets from the stacks to withdraw a foil sheet first from one stack and then from the other so that the suction beam can withdraw the foil sheets uniformly from the respective stacks and can compensate, by the different angular positions, for the varying stack heights.
The withdrawal of the foil sheets, therefore, does not require that the stack station be raised and lowered or that the individual stacks be raised and lowered on a rack or the like. The simple swinging upwardly and downwardly of the assembly formed by the platform, the guide rails and the beam with the application of suction to the suction orifices or nozzles of the suction beam allows the foil sheets to be individually withdrawn from the different stacks.
The alignment of the foil sheet can be effected on the transfer platform utilizing stationary sensors and control systems, i.e. sensors and control systems carried by the platform and thus not moveable with respect to the latter. The alignment can involve rotation of the foil sheet on the platform or angular displacement at each corner or edge of the foil sheet by effectors, for example, piston-and-cylinder units which can be disposed at angles to one another at one or more locations engageable with the foil sheet.
The alignment or positioning of the foil sheet is thus maintained when the foil sheet is fed to the deposition station where it can be laid upon another body to form the laminate stack which can be pressed as described above.
To the extent that only two foil stacks are used, the foil stacks can be mounted at a predetermined spacing one above the other and the
de Weldige Eggert
Gotz Wolfgang
Schrömges Guido
Dubno Herbert
Fischetti Joseph A.
G. Siempelkamp GmbH & Co.
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