Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With work feeding or handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-25
2001-05-22
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With work feeding or handling means
C156S564000, C156S567000, C156S569000, C156S570000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06234231
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Priority is claimed with respect to European application No. 97810905.6 filed Nov. 25, 1997, in the European Patent Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for attaching a supplement to an exposed surface of signatures, which are transported one after another on a guide arrangement. Such a device includes a rotating gripping roller for picking up the supplements at the circumference by means of a controlled gripping tool. The rotating gripping roller has a rotational axis arranged approximately at a right angle to the transporting direction and at least approximately parallel to the exposed surface of the transported signatures. The device furthermore comprises an adhesive feeding device provided along the path for transporting the supplements.
German patent document DE-C-22 28 231 discloses a device of the type described above which is used with a gathering and wire-stitching machine. With this device, signatures are deposited on a saddle-shaped guide arrangement such that they straddle it and are conveyed along.
Such a device is also suitable for the processing of signatures into glued-together, thread-stitched or side-stitched book blocks. Prior to the binding of the book back, the signatures are deposited one above the other in a collection channel supplied by signature feeders, or in a gathering machine and are then conveyed further. In this procedure, the supplements are attached during transport toward the collection channel or inside the latter.
Increasingly, hard items are used as supplements. Such hard items, which include, among other things, CD's or product samples that are suitable as supplements for publications because of their flat shape, cannot be supplied with the known devices. Owing to their stiffness, they require a different processing method from that of flexible items.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to create a device of the aforementioned type which permits the unrestricted processing of flat and stiff items as supplements.
The above and other objects are accomplished according to the invention by the provision of a device for attaching a supplement to an exposed surface of signatures transported one after another in a transporting direction along a guide arrangement, including: a rotating gripping roller, having a circumference and including a controlled gripping tool having a circulation path, for picking up the supplements at the circumference of the rotating gripping roller with the controlled gripping tool, the rotating gripping roller having a rotational axis arranged approximately at a right angle to the transporting direction and at least approximately parallel to the exposed surface of the transported signatures; an adhesive feeder, provided along a transporting path for the supplements; and a forward feed operatively arranged with the rotating gripping roller to operate in cycle with the rotating gripping roller for placing the supplements approximately tangentially with respect to the rotating gripping roller so that the supplements are on the circulation path for the controlled gripping tool.
The solution according to the invention thus provides a synchronously operating forward feed to the gripping roller which is used to push the supplements approximately tangentially toward the circular path of an opened gripping tool which is driven in the same direction. This solution offers a reliable, automatic processing of flat, stiff items as supplements, the use of proven individual parts, as well as the option of selectively supplying either hard or soft items.
It is advantageous if the supplements in this case are arranged such that they are stacked approximately perpendicular to the pushing movement, so that little space is required for providing them and they are in a favorable position for removal.
If the items are provided with the aid of a stacking hopper, a sliding plate is advantageously used to supply the gripping roller, which sliding plate fits flush against the underside of the supplement stack, can be moved back and forth, and holds the respectively lowest supplement in the stack.
The rear edge of the sliding plate can be designed to have a carrier for gripping the deposited supplement in a form-fitting manner, but which is adjusted to be less high than the supplement, so that the carrier can move without interruption when pushing a supplement underneath the following supplement or the one positioned above it. During the return movement of the sliding plate, the following supplement initially rests on the carrier, that is until the carrier has assumed the starting position in which the supplement is deposited on the sliding plate.
Alternatively, the sliding plate facing the supplement stack can be provided with openings connected to a vacuum source, wherein during the feeding movement of the sliding plate, a negative pressure is generated with controlled valves between the sliding plate and the supplement resting thereon. A pressure is generated in between after the supplement is transferred.
The back and forth movement of the sliding plate can be achieved simply by using a crank mechanism and connecting rod.
It makes sense if the supplements are attached to the signatures by a feeding device that is connected downstream of the gripping roller, takes over the supplements from the latter and attaches them to the signatures.
According to one embodiment, the feeding device comprises a driven belt guide that picks up the supplements at the gripping roller and a contact pressure roller which is drive-connected to the belt guide and faces the signatures passing by.
The belt guide is preferably formed by a segment of two endlessly circulating belts, fitting flush against each other between the gripping roller and the contact pressure roller so that a straight transfer segment is created to ensure an exact attachment of the supplements to the signatures.
The belt guide is arranged such that it is displaced to the side of the circular path for the gripping tool for the purpose of a trouble-free acceptance of the supplements by the gripping tool, wherein a belt guide is preferably provided on both sides of the circular path for the gripping tool.
The release of the supplements to the belt guide/belt guides can be made easier if a belt forming the belt guide at the circular path for the gripping tool is drive-connected with the gripping roller on the one hand and the contact pressure roller on the other hand.
It is possible to achieve a uniform operational sequence for attaching the supplements to the signatures by having a belt guide that ends downstream at the contact pressure roller.
The device for applying adhesive (glue) to the supplements is preferably arranged in front of the belt guide, as seen in the transporting direction of the supplements, where the supplement is always in a stable position. The adhesive can be applied either through direct or indirect contact of the supplement with the adhesive feeding device.
The device according to the invention can be combined to form one unit with a known feeder system to allow for an optional processing of hard or stiff supplements or flexible (soft) supplements.
It is preferable if a feeder for flexible supplements is arranged at the circular path for the gripping tools, displaced counter-clockwise relative to the forward feed for stiff supplements according to the above described invention. This feeder is provided with a separating device, connected such that it operates in the same cycle as the gripping roller for the device, for removing the individual supplements from the stack underside. That is to say, while the above described forward feed according to the invention for separating stiff supplements is turned off, the feeder for flexible supplements can be switched on to run synchronously with the gripping roller.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3826706 (1974-07-01), Muller
patent: 4293365 (1981-10-01), Geyser et al.
patent: 4457801 (
Boss Christian
Luethi Ernst
Crispino Richard
Grapha-Holding AG
Kinberg Robert
Purvis Sue A.
Venable
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