Assembling machine

US6022014A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Kolbus GmbH & Co. KG · DE

Inventors

• Horst Rathert · Minden, DE
• Karl-Heinz Dopke · Rahden, DE
• Günter Geldmeier · Bohmte, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 28, 1997
• Grant date: Feb 8, 2000
• Expiry date: Oct 28, 2017

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B65H2701/1932
• WIPO field: Handling
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A sheet feeder for use in a book assembling machine comprises a magazine having a movable base which defines a support plane for a stack of folded sheets. The feeder also includes a pneumatic separator, which creates a gap between a corner of the lowermost sheet of a stack in the magazine and the next adjacent sheet, and a device for injecting air into the thus formed gap to produce an air cushion. The movable magazine base functions as a conveyor to move, with the assistance of the air cushion, the leading edge of the lowermost sheet in the stack in a planar manner to a withdrawal conveying system where the sheet is engaged and subsequently pulled from the magazine. The withdrawn sheet moves, under the influence of a transfer mechanism in one embodiment, into registration with an assembly conveyor.