Prime Technology LLC

John H Holmes

Michael W Clary

Theodore J Hartka

A sheet feeding apparatus capable of feeding corrugated cardboard sheet without the need for feed rolls which comprises a support for sheet having a feed end and a delivery end. The support further includes feed elements comprising at least one feed element driven at a variable speed and at least one feed element driven at a constant speed. The variable speed feed element transfers the sheet from the feed end to the constant speed feed element. The constant speed feed element transfers the sheet from the variable speed feed element to the delivery end. The variable speed feed element is driven by a variable speed generating mechanism which generates a motion cycle including a constant speed output segment which is equal to the constant speed of the constant speed feed element. The sheet feeding apparatus provides a smooth continuous, controlled transfer of the sheet from the feed end to the delivery end of the apparatus.

Sheet feeding apparatus

A quality monitoring system employing vision processing equipment to photograph at least one of the edges of every folded-over box blank as it is conveyed through a box forming machine is used to determine in-line whether the blanks, when unfolded, will produce square boxes having essentially all 90.degree. angles between adjacent sides. The folded-over blanks have a manufacturer's gap between adjacent box side panels. The electronic images are electronically digitized and the resulting data processed by computer to calculate critical parameters of the folded-over blank, including gap width, longitudinal taper of the gap width, and alignment of the lateral edges of the panels surrounding the gap in relation to the lateral edge of the gap. Comparison of these measured critical parameters with corresponding parameters for an idealized box stored in the computer indicates the quality of the formed box and whether the quality falls within acceptable parameters. Provision is made in the system to photograph the blank upstream of or downstream of a squaring and stacking station of the folding machine, or in both positions.

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Owings Mills, MD, United States of America

John H Holmes