Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – Multiple discharge
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-20
2003-07-08
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
Multiple discharge
C399S404000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06588746
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a device for generating an offset of transported flexible sheet material, especially sheets of paper, with a feeding and a discharging transport path section and a transport path section which is assigned to the offset generating means.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One device for producing an offset can be used to deposit offset a certain number of sheets at a time in a delivery stack of a printing machine in order, for example, to separate the sheets of one job from another. But this offset can also be used to correct the deposition of individual sheet materials with respect to the exactness of the position in order to obtain a perfect delivery stack. There are devices of the initially mentioned type in the most varied versions. Side stops, crossover conveyor means with rollers or balls which are located transversely to the transport direction or slantwise to it or with transversely movable drums have been proposed. DE 43 13 840 C1 is named by way of example for the latter proposal.
These proposals generally require complex control and often return of the offset generating device which is made as a crossover conveyor means to its original position, as is the case in the subject matter of DE 43 13 840 C1. Many of these proposals are not independent of the paper format; this necessitates detection and consideration of the format.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore the object of the invention is to make available an easily adjustable device for generating an offset of transported flexible sheet material which works without the reset requirements and independently of format. The object is achieved by the offset generating device having at least two deflections which are parallel and which work in opposite directions and which can be moved to an angle &ggr; to the transport direction; this angle is measured in the plane of the feeding transport path section and is not equal to 90° projected onto this plane. The latter relates to the deflections which do not lie in the plane of the feeding transport path section.
In the approach in the invention it is possible to achieve a certain offset by setting a certain angle. In doing so the offset generating device is swiveled out of its initial position, in which the angle &ggr; to the transport direction of the material is 90°, by an angle &agr; in one direction or the other, depending on in which direction the material is to be displaced. A control means is not necessary for this purpose, since an offset caused thereby can be directly assigned to the angle. It is therefore enough to calibrate the angle setting with the amount of assigned offset. With this device, within a wide area for which the device can be used with respect to its size, flexible sheet materials can be displaced regardless of their format with respect to the location of their side edges without the need to set the device to the different formats. There is no need to reset the offset generating device after each sheet since the offset generating device works continuously. This also makes it possible to generate an offset not only in sheets, but also continuous webs. Since the mechanism need not be continually reset, it is simpler and less susceptible to problems.
Since it is generally a matter of displacing sheets of a material, the invention proposes that pairs of guide elements are arranged such that the sheets are always held and transported on both sides by at least one pair of guide elements. They can be held either on the outside edges, over the entire width or over the entire surface. If the device is made such that the feeding and discharging transport path sections do not lie on parallel planes, both parallel and also angular offset is achieved; the latter is dependent on the angular position of the planes. But the normal case is that a parallel offset is desired for one of the initially mentioned purposes. Therefore it is proposed that the feeding and discharging transport path sections lie on parallel planes.
One feasible embodiment of the invention calls for the offset generating device to be made as a unit which can be swiveled by an angle &agr;. Regardless of the specific configuration of the offset generating means, joint swiveling of all of the parts which must be swiveled to generate the offset can be done.
One embodiment calls for there to be two deflections, one deflection working opposite the other. These two deflections can be made as arc-shaped guides. Here it is possible for the two deflections to be lined up in succession in an S shape or there can be a flat transport path between the two deflections.
One alternative embodiment calls for there to be several deflections, at least two deflections deflecting in the first direction and at least two deflecting in the opposite direction. This configuration has the advantage that less dramatic deflections are necessary. This is advantageous especially for flexible materials such as cardboard. But a similar effect is also achieved by the arc-shaped guides having a correspondingly large radius.
One possible embodiment calls for the transport path section assigned to the offset generating device to have a flat surface which lies between the deflections and which runs at an angle &bgr; of 90° to the other transport path sections. In this embodiment the greatest offset is produced by adjustment by an angle &agr; to the transport direction. Here the amount of offset is dependent not only on the angle &agr;, but also on the distance h of the plane of the feeding transport path section to the plane of the discharging transport path section. The offset which can be produced is likewise increased by enlarging the indicated surface which extends perpendicularly vertical.
Another embodiment calls for the transport path section assigned to the offset generating device to have a surface which lies between the deflections and which runs at an angle &bgr; of less than 90° to the other transport path sections. This embodiment of the transport path of offset generating device as a slanted plane on the one hand leads to the attained offset becoming less, but on the other hand this has the advantage that the deflections take place at an obtuse angle and thus also less flexible material can be displaced by the device, as is the case for example for thick paper or cardboard. Here a combination with several deflections or with deflections with large radii is possible.
There are various possibilities for the configuration of the deflections. One proposal calls for the guide of the sheet material to consist of several pairs of rollers, some of the pairs of rollers being made as pairs of guide rollers and some of the pairs of rollers being made as pairs of deflection rollers and at least the latter with respect to their angle to the transport direction can be moved to an angle &agr; which is not equal to 90°. In this embodiment the pairs of rollers must be packed relatively tight and may have only so little angular offset that the material is always securely gripped by the next pair of rollers as it continues to be transported.
Another embodiment calls for the offset generating device to be made with deflections as the guideway with a guide gap between the guide surfaces. It can also be provided here that at the start and at the end of the guideway there is a pair of guide rollers which is used to convey the material by the guideway. These pairs of guide rollers can then be assigned to the offset generating device or the feeding transport path section or the discharging transport path section. The guideway can be sheet metal sections which can be made S shaped, also with a straight section, therefore a surface between the curves. The guideway can of course be composed of all possible materials which have low friction relative to the material to be transported and which can be made with a very smooth surface. For example, the guideway can be made as an aluminum extruded section and can have a special sliding surface of the guide surfaces.
Since there must be guide rollers for transpo
Dobrindt Dirk
Fischer Uwe
Bower Kenneth W
Kessler Lawrence P.
NexPress Solutions LLC
Walsh Donald P.
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