Agfa-gevaert Ag

Heinz Ludemann

Erich Nagel

Klaus Weber

Rainer Turcke

Karel Pustka

Harald Fengler

Ferdinand Schaner

Andreas Schubert

Franz Ziegler

Apparatus for stacking sections of photographic films on top of each other in an elongated receptacle having a bottom panel and two side walls flanking an open top of the receptacle has two guide rails which are mounted on springs supported by the side walls and allowing each guide rail to pivot relative to the corresponding side wall. The guide rails have normally coplanar grooves for the marginal portions of a section which is supplied by a conveyor so that it overlies the open top of the receptacle. Two pivotable hold-down devices are mounted on the receptacle, and each hold-down device has a cushioned arm which is normally located at a level above the common plane of the two grooves. When a strip has been inserted into the grooves, the hold-down devices are pivoted to move their cushioned arms between the two guide rails and into the receptacle whereby the cushioned arms pivot the guide rails and simultaneously expel the marginal portions of the strip between the guide rails from the respective grooves so that the strip enters the receptacle. Retainers are provided on the side walls to prevent stacked strips which exhibit a pronounced tendency to curl from rising into the space between the grooves of the guide rails.

Apparatus for stacking sections of developed photographic films or the

Apparatus for classifying photographic prints which are severed from the leader of a downwardly moving web of exposed and developed photographic paper has side walls which define a downwardly extending channel whose upper end constitutes an inlet for descending prints and whose lower end has two or more discrete outlets. The channel contains one or more blade-like switching members which are movable between several positions to thereby establish paths for descent of sheets from the inlet into a selected outlet. The switching member or members are movable between such positions by electromagnets which are installed externally of the channel and each of which can attract or release one or more swtiching members. The channel can be mounted on a pivotable carrier which can move at least one outlet between two different positions for admission of prints which descend through such outlet into either of two discrete receptacles.

Apparatus for classifying photographic prints or the like

A long photographic strip is transported along a predetermined path and comprises a succession of customer orders joined end-to-end. At a cutting station along the path, successive leading ends of the transported strip are severed from the remainder, to successively form severed strip sections. A collector receives the successively formed severed strip sections in succession and forms an accumulating stack of such sections. The successively received strip sections are held in position in the accumulating stack at the collector individually. Upon accumulation of all the strip sections constituting a customer order, the holding action exerted upon the individually held strip sections is relieved, and the strip sections are removed from the collector as a single stack, either manually or by mechanical means.

Collector forming an accumulating stack from successively received

An elongated web of exposed and developed photographic film is moved lengthwise and is severed at regular intervals to yield a succession of discrete sections. Related sections (e.g., those belonging to a customer) are assembled into groups of overlapping sections, and such groups are thereupon introduced into discrete envelopes. The assembling of groups takes place in a fan-shaped magazine having a plurality of separate compartments and being movable relative to belts or analogous transporting means for successive sections of the severed film so that each section enters a different compartment. When the magazine accumulates a group of related sections, the sections are expelled from the magazine by a pusher which moves them forwardly (i.e., in the same direction in which the sections were transported to enter the magazine) or sideways and into the respective envelope. The width of each compartment decreases in the direction of forward movement of sections or at right angles to such direction. Since the sections are out of contact with each other during introduction into the magazine, raised portions around perforations or other projections of the sections cannot cause an interlacing of sections during stacking.

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Munich, Germany

Heinz Ludemann