Nichiro Kogyo Co., Ltd.

Minoru Aoki

Yoshiaki Kasuga

An apparatus for stacking signatures is compactly constructed with a device to receive and forward horizontally a stream of the signatures partially overlapped from the end of a conveyor connected to the end of a rotary printing press; a device to pile up vertically the signatures into a small bundle; a frame member to stack up the small bundle directly underneath the piling device, such frame member being rotatable 180.degree. to turn each small bundle alternately for stack compensation; and a receiving table movable vertically within the frame member by an elevating mechanism and rotatable along with the frame member.

Apparatus for stacking small bundles of signatures

Automatic band strapping apparatus with a table for supporting an article during banding. An arch frame extends in the form of an upright loop from one side to another of the table. The arch frame has an elongated side wall also in the form of an upright loop in a plane substantially normal to the table. An elongated U-sectioned arch guide made of flexible plastics material such as ultra-high molecular polyethylene has a loop shape following the contour of the arch frame side wall, and one edge surface facing that side wall is opened by means of a groove. Springs press the grooved edge surface of the arch guide against the arch frame side wall thereby defining a band passage through the arch guide which is normally closed. The arch guide is locally separable from the side wall against the urgence of the springs, progressively around the length of the arch frame, providing a moderate draw-out resistance to enable release and withdrawal of band progressively and continuously from the band passage. This maintains continuous tension in the band while it is being wrapped about the article in a straight path without twisting or meandering. The plastics arch guide has sufficient flexibility in a direction normal to the side wall to enable the springs to keep it seated against the side wall despite minor dimensional variations of the parts within manufacturing tolerances. Further, the arch guide is sufficiently flexible in the direction parallel to the side wall that it will remain seated against it, and the band passage thereby kept closed against inadvertent loss of band despite local or overall self-adjusting squirming or sliding movement of the arch guide against the arch frame side wall when in use.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Minoru Aoki