GB1298582A - Jogger stacker machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1298582 Delivering sheets BELOIT CORP 18 May 1970 [21 May 1969] 23980/70 Heading B8R In a method of and apparatus for continuously forming stacks of aligned signatures, a stream of signatures is conveyed through a first zone in which the signatures are jogged to align their side edges and are then conveyed through a second zone in which the spacing of the signatures is increased, the signatures then being collected to form a stack with the leading, trailing and side edges of the signatures being aligned by joggers, conveyance in the second zone being intermittent and that in the first zone being reducable and capable of being stopped to facilitate stack removal. Overlapping signatures, e.g. from a printing press, are transported through the first zone, comprising endless belts 10, 12, their sides being jogged by plates 20 and their folded edges being compressed by an endless belt 26, to the second zone comprising a serrated endless belt 14, an adjustable blade 38 spacing each signature, e.g. so that it overlaps about one half of the preceding signature. Each signature is then accelerated by passing through the nip of guide wheels 60, 62 and is momentarily curved by forming wheels (66), Fig. 2 (not shown), e.g. brush wheels, coaxial with the guide wheels 60 but of greater diameter, so as to impart some rigidity to them as they are discharged onto the support bars 74 of a receptacle comprising jogger side plates 78, an adjustable, fixed front plate 80 and a jogging back plate 82. Wire brushes 84 rotate and engage the top signatures of the stack to depress them and aid alignment. A detector switch 55 indexes the support bars 74 down as the stack forms until, at a certain stack height, a switch (65), Fig. 3 (not shown), causes the conveyers 10, 12 to slow down and conveyer 14 to stop, the support bars 74 being rapidly lowered to a conveyer 86, the belts 87 of which remove the stack. Conveyers 10, 12 are then stopped, the previously fed signatures being piled up by the blade 38 until the bars 74 return to their original position when the conveyers 10, 12, 14 are again driven at normal speed. Stacks are indexed by conveyer 86 beneath the platen (92), Fig. 7 (not shown), of a compressor 90 which compresses the stack to aid subsequent processing.