Importance

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Abstract

A sheet stacking apparatus includes laterally spaced, longitudinally arranged conveyors for supporting edge regions of a sheet, the conveyors driven to deliver the sheet horizontally to a stacking area. At the stacking area the conveyors are separated to drop the sheet onto a stack of sheets. During the delivery of the sheet to the stack, the mid-span of the sheet is supported from above to prevent sagging of the sheet. The mid-span is supported by at least one low pressure chamber which extends along the delivery path of the sheet. The low pressure chamber includes a plurality of suction compartments arranged in sequence, each suction compartment including a horizontally disposed air nozzle and an air outlet to create a horizontal 'Fanno effect' air stream adjacent a top surface of the sheet to create suction within the low pressure chamber which holds the sheet in sliding contact against a bottom surface of the low pressure chamber. The bottom surface preferably includes a plurality of rollers to allow a reduced friction sliding/rolling of the sheet along the low pressure chamber.

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First Claim