GB1459572A - Sheet orienting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1459572 Registering sheets PITNEY-BOWES Inc 7 Nov 1974 [8 Nov 1973] 48260/74 Heading B8R A sheet, e.g. fed by rollers from an electrostatic copying machine, is laterally and longitudinally registered, with respect to feed direction, on a support plate 12 whilst being held substantially flat thereon by overhead wire guide fingers before being fed on by grippers (22), (24), Fig 2 (not shown), e.g. to a lithographic printing press. When a photoelectric cell 183 senses the front edge of a sheet on the support plate 12, a motor 104 is energized to rotate a cam shaft 102. The cams on this shaft cause, via followers and suitable linkage, the following sequential operations: clockwise rotation of a shaft 128 and consequential lowering of normally raised rear guide fingers 124 thereby holding the sheet flat; (2) inward movement of a longitudinally extending side registering plate 30 towards a fixed counter plate 33, causing the sheet therebetween to buckle longitudinally, and subsequent outward movement of plate 30 so that it is spaced from the counterplate a distance equal to the width of the sheet; (3) longitudinal movement of the fingers 156 of a rear registering device, the fingers protruding from slots 158 in the support plate and urging the front edge of the sheet against stops (25) provided on the grippers (22), (24); and (4) clockwise rotation of a shaft 122 and consequential raising of normally lowered front guide fingers 120 which hold the sheet flat. The grippers are controlled by the operation of the printing press, and operate in timed relationship with the registering means to feed the sheet to grippers provided on the master cylinder of the press. A vacuum drying device may be located above the support plate.