Drg (uk) Limited

John D Rolfe

Kenneth A Bowman

Roger F Maslin

The apparatus comprises two parallel and spaced apart conveyor belts and a toothed take-along belt guided parallel to and interposed between the two conveyor belts. The take-along belt has a thickened or otherwise rigidified section providing an engagement region. The belt runs at constant speed, faster than the conveyors. The engagement region runs slightly beneath the conveying surface of the conveyors until it reaches an engagement location, at which it may halt and then be instantaneously raised and restarted in response to a signal indicating an adjacent batch or leaves to lift the leaves off the conveyor belt and cause them to be moved with greater velocity than the conveyor belts to the delivery end thereof where they are stacked.

Method and apparatus for handling leaves of sheet material

Sleeves with different circumferences (and hence print repeat lengths) are removably mountable on a roll core, making use of radial compressibility of the radially inner region of each sleeve. The radially outer regions are incompressible, to ensure good print quality. A sleeve may have inner and outer regions of different foam materials. Alternatively it may employ spaced discs having resilient arcuate tongues engaging an inner sleeve. An outer sleeve may be defined by slats engaging the discs, or peripheral flanges of the discs.

Growing community of inventors

Bristol, United Kingdom

John D Rolfe