Sequa Corporation

Special Products Engineering Corporation

Sun Chemical Corporation

John Cogswell

Robert F Fokos

Dale E Alden

A stacking apparatus for signatures includes a signature-carrying belt positioned with respect to incoming signatures to raise the trailing edge of each signature and form a reverse shingle stream of signatures. A retarding wheel positioned above the signature carrying belt slows the travel of the signatures as they enter the stacker. The signatures pass through a nip created between the retarding wheel and the signature carrying belt. The signature carrying belt carries the reverse shingle stream from a horizontal orientation to a vertical orientation and then to a signature collector that includes a transport belt. A belt drive activated by a sensor of the pressure in the stack collected on the belt carriers the stack in a direction away from the signature carrying belt. The collector includes a vertical barrier that supports the collected signatures in a vertical orientation and automatically adjusts its position to accommodate varying quantities of signatures stacked in the collector.

Apparatus for stacking folded sheet material

A paper product traverses a straight line path through a folding apparatus defined by two folding stations that are mounted independently of one another. Each station includes supports, a central frame extending along the paper folding path, and belt arrangements for gripping, propelling and folding a laterally projecting portion of the paper. Each station is mounted for a lateral translation of the entire station perpendicular to the paper path. In the preferred form, this translation is accomplished with racks associated with each stand and pinions carried on a common drive shaft that engage the racks. Both stations also preferably include an arrangement for rotating the station as a whole in the horizontal plane to adjust the squareness of the fold.

Apparatus for C-folding paper with variable spacing

Disclosed is an automatic paper folding apparatus and method for folding cut sheet paper products, whether single sheets or multiple plies as in a 'signature' that is already folded by a printing press. The apparatus of the invention contains at least one pair of opposed belts which continuously grip the products and carry then through the apparatus. At least one set of freely rotatable rollers is arrayed along the direction of travel. Each belt has a flat paper-gripping surface, a longitudinal groove on the opposite surface that receives a guide roller, and at least one side surface that slopes away from the folding line. Each roller has a conical forming surface. The angle of inclination of the conical surfaces of the rollers in a set increases incrementally along the direction of travel. As the belts carry the sheets through the apparatus, they each engage the conical surfaces to fold the sheet against a belt with no substantial degree of relative movement between the sheets and either the belts or rollers. A first set of rollers folds the paper from 0.degree. to 90.degree.. A second set of rollers, each of which has an axis of rotation generally perpendicular to that of the rollers in the first set, folds the paper from 90.degree. to 180.degree.. To fold a product into thirds, these first and second roller sets are located on both sides of a central frame member that extends along the travel path of the product.

Apparatus and method for folding cut sheet paper

Disclosed is an automatic paper folding apparatus and method for folding cut sheet paper products, whether single sheets or multiple piles as in a 'signature' that is already folded by a printing press. The apparatus of the invention contains at least one pair of opposed belts which continuously grip the products and carry them through the apparatus. At least one set of freely rotatable rollers is arrayed along the direction of travel. Each belt has a flat paper-gripping surface, a longitudinal groove on the opposite surface that receives a guide roller, and at least one side surface that slopes away from the folding line. Each roller has a conical forming surface. The angle of inclination of the conical surfaces of the rollers in a set increases incrementally along the direction of travel. As the belts carry the sheets through the apparatus, they each engage the conical surface to fold the sheet against a belt with no substantial degree of relative movement between the sheets and either the belts or rollers. A first set of rollers folds the paper from 0.degree. to 90.degree.. A second set of rollers, each of which has an axis of rotation generally perpendicular to that of the rollers in the first set, folds the paper from 90.degree. to 180.degree.. To fold a product into thirds, these first and second roller sets are located on both sides of a central frame member that extends along the travel path of the product.

A rotary cutter for a printing press directs a web between a knife cylinder and an opposed anvil cylinder. The outer surface of the knife cylinder mounts one or more knife blade assemblies each having a sandwich construction. Each assembly includes at least one and usually two blades separated by a spacer bar. The assembly also includes a perforator blade and an ejector bar located on opposite sides of the spacer bar and set in recesses formed on the sides of the spacer bar. The perforator blade has laterally spaced sets of chisel-like teeth that impale trim pieces cut by the blades. The ejector bar reciprocates radially within the assembly to remove the trim piece from the teeth. The assembly is held together by two sets of bolts that allow the location of the blades to be set independently. A set of half rings each carrying radially projecting locating dowels are nested in circumferential grooves formed in the knife cylinder. Each ring is aligned against locating pins mounted in the knife cylinder. The knife assembly preferably includes a convex alignment surface that abuts an associated dowel in a point-to-point contact to locate the blade assembly on the knife cylinder accurately and easily.

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Needham, MA, United States of America

John Cogswell