Mccain Manufacturing, Inc.

Mccain Manufacturing Co.

George D Higgins

William B McCain

James Wrona

James F Cosgrove

Raymond I Bulka

Thomas A Nelson, Jr

Raymond A Bulka

Head strap for holding a telephone

Cyclically operable signature machine having a one-way drive to incrementally advance a signature infeeding conveyor synchronously to the action of an oscillating suction finger for withdrawing a signature from a stack in a hopper; in a cycle where a signature is not to be fed, the suction finger is latched and simultaneously the one-way drive is disabled to prevent the stack from being compacted.

Signature machine

A saddle binding system is provided with a reject device which removes misformed books from the gathering chain and transports them to a tray for recycling. The reject device includes an arm pivotally mounted adjacent the chain on a frame. The arm is normally located in a rest position out of engagement with passing books. An actuator is connected to the arm and is operable to pivot the arm to a raised, book-engaging position. In the raised position the arm elevates the leading edge portion of a misformed book off of the gathering chain, thereby rotating the book. This rotation advances the trailing edge of the book out of engagement with the pusher pin of the gathering chain. A tape-and-roller take-away mechanism is positioned above the chain to engage an elevated edge portion of a book. The take-away mechanism is angled such that it moves the book longitudinally and vertically of the gathering chain, as well as laterally. The book is discharged to a reject tray.

Reject device for a signature gathering machine

A sheet feeder has a supply station wherein signatures fresh from the printing press are stacked. The stack is supported such that the signatures are in an arched, non-planar configuration. A sheet stripper extracts signatures successively from the stack and feeds them in a constant stream to a transfer conveyor. The stripper grips the sheets with a suction device which applies a constant but locally intermittent vacuum. The transfer conveyor carries the signatures to a delivery station. The delivery station includes fingers which arch the signatures. Arching the signatures in the supply and delivery stations prevents rolling of the signatures.

Signature feeder having improved signature extraction

Signature gathering machine in which signatures are extracted by an extracting cylinder successively from a hopper, released at a register gauge, opened by grippers on opposed opening cylinders and then those grippers are opened to drop the signature onto a saddle conveyor; wipers rotate with the extracting cylinder and are actuated in timed relation to arrival of the signature at the register gauge so as to force the free edges of the signature into the space between the opening cylinders.

Signature gathering machines

Stacking and strapping machines for magazines in which the turning axes for the conveyors which move a stack to be strapped are positioned to enable the stack to be boxed in while being strapped, the conveyors having pushers which in part enable this to be done in cooperation with fixed stops at the strapping station.

Stacking and strapping machine

A signature machine for assembling books has a binding machine which can accommodate variable book thicknesses without adjustment during operation. The binding machine has multiple binding stations each of which is pre-set to bind a book of a particular thickness. Each book is bound at the station set up to operate on the corresponding book thickness. The stations are disabled when presented with books of thickness different from that assigned to the particular station.

Binding machine for a signature machine

In a system for collating, binding and stacking magazines or books, a machine comprising a portion of a conveyor line used in the system. The machine turns some of the books relative to their direction of travel prior to entering the stacking device so that an even stack can be obtained. The books are turned slowly, that is, for a time interval of several book cycles.

Turning conveyor and selected book signature turning method

This invention is concerned with the elimination of vibration in signature gathering machine delivery chains. Reciprocal motion in some components of a signature gathering system creates periodic forces which may be at or near the natural frequency of the delivery chain. This causes undesired vibration in the chain. The present invention damps this vibration by continuously constraining the lower run of the chain and by placing a positive drive at the tail end sprocket of the chain to take up some of the slack in the return run. The vibration is also substantially reduced at its source by placing a flywheel on the mainline drive shaft near the point where the reciprocal motion is derived.

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Orland Park, IL, United States of America

George D Higgins