The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 01, 2012
Filed:
Aug. 25, 2010
Steven P. Lewalski, Melrose, MA (US);
Hans Eliasson, Ljungby, SE;
Steven P. Lewalski, Melrose, MA (US);
Hans Eliasson, Ljungby, SE;
Lasermax Roll Systems, Inc., Burlington, MA (US);
Abstract
This invention provides a system and method for aligning, feeding, trimming, slitting, rotating, cross-slitting and stacking sheets, each containing one or more discrete page images thereon that allows for greater automation of the overall process so that reduced or no manual intervention is required to generate completed book stacks or 'blocks' from a stream or stack of printed sheets. Sheets are fed downstream on a feed surface, trimmed at a first, upstream trimming station to remove margin edges and optionally separate the sheets relative to the discrete page images. The sheets are then rotated 90 degrees and fed to a second, downstream trimming station that trims the right-angle edges and optionally separates the sheets into a final group of full-bleed pages, removing margins and gutter strips. The sheets are feed to a stacking assembly to be tacked in page order and any rejected, defective sheets or stacks are removed from the order. Trimming stations can be automatically adjusted to accommodate different numbers and sizes of pages in sheets. The stacking assembly can include a right-angle merge assembly that can include a plurality of decks, served by divert gates to handle a large number of separated pages to-be-stacked.