Agfa Corporation

Joseph Lyons

Thomas P Marincic

Aron M Mirmelshteyn

An apparatus and method for supporting and feeding printing plates in an imaging system. The apparatus includes a vacuum system for picking up an edge of a top printing plate from a stack of printing plates, and a peeling system including a pair of rotatable belts, a plurality of plate feed beams attached to, and extending between, the pair of rotatable belts, and a drive system for rotating the pair of rotatable belts to displace the plurality of plate feed beams between the top printing plate and an underlying printing plate in the stack of printing plates, thereby peeling the top printing plate from the stack of printing plates.

Apparatus and method for peeling a printing plate from a stack of plates

An apparatus and method for picking a single printing plate from a stack of printing plates. The apparatus includes a plurality of suction cups, a peeler, a drive system for displacing the suction cups and the peeler against the surface of the top printing plate on the stack, a vacuum source for supplying a vacuum to the suction cups to secure the suction cups against the surface of the top printing plate, and a system for rotatably displacing the suction cups relative to the peeler to peel a portion of the top printing plate off of the stack. The center line of rotation of the displacing system is located at a contact point between the peeler and the surface of the top printing plate. This prevents any relative motion of the top printing plate against the next, underlying printing plate on the stack during the peeling operation.

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Wilmington, MA, United States of America

Joseph Lyons