Importance

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Abstract

A conveyor system wherein individual sheets are conveyed from a cutter at a given speed, are increased in speed before passing through a vacuum conveyor shingling section, are slowed down at the shingling section, and then normally proceed at a slowed down speed to the stacker which is adapted to stack a fixed number of sheets before discharging a stack. The sheets are basically handled in accordance with the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,200,276. The vacuum shingler of the invention includes a slow-down device, such as a smoothing wheel or spring fingers, positioned above the vacuum conveyor section to nip the leading edge of the individual sheets before they contact the vacuum conveyor. The slow-down device acts to reduce the tendency of lightweight paperboard sheets to fold transversely or buckle across their width. The vacuum shingler further includes a controller which operates the vacuum conveyor section at the required speed to maintain the proper degree of shingling based on the sensed individual sheet length. Additionally, the vacuum shingler applies a source of vacuum only to the tail section of the individual sheet to further aid in proper shingling while reducing the tendency of the lightweight paperboard to buckle transversely.

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First Claim