METHOD FOR UNLOADING AND STORING REAMS OF SHEETS AND APPARATUS FOR UNLOADING AND STORING REAMS OF SHEETS

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a method for unloading reams of printed sheets, in particular of sheets of banknotes or security documents, from an exit of a machine belonging to an installation for the printing of banknotes and security documents.

The term“machine for the printing of banknotes and security documents” is intended, in particular, to comprise printing machines, security features application machines, numbering machines and machines for the quality control of banknotes and security documents.

PRIOR ART

In known printing machines, in particular for intaglio printing, the paper sheets intended to be printed are delivered to the delivery piles at the exit of the printing machine.

The exits of machines for printing banknotes and security documents generally comprise at least three piles, and these are filled as follows: a board is introduced into one of the racks on horizontal slideways which are mounted on a system of the paternoster type. The board subsequently receives the printed sheets, until a ream of specific size, for example of five hundred sheets, is formed. At this moment, the other rack, into which a board will have been introduced beforehand, is selected for the new printed sheets arriving at the exit, whilst the slideways and the board carrying the ream of sheets of the first rack are shifted downward. A new board is introduced on the slideways of the first rack, and printed sheets will be stacked on this board as soon as this rack has been selected. The stacking of the sheets on this new board and on the following boards continues in this way alternately until the rack contains a specific number of boards, for example ten boards, each carrying a ream of five hundred sheets.

The emptying of an exit rack is an operation which is still carried out manually at the present time and during which the boards supporting the reams of sheets are removed from the rack and transferred onto a carriage. This transfer is carried out for all the boards of a rack, each rack generally containing ten boards, and, once the carriage is filled with the ten boards of the rack, it is taken away either towards another printing machine or towards a storage location.

There was also an automatic transfer into carriage system, which was introduced to the market based on the US patent 6231292B1 but was rejected by users because of the structure complexity especially with the pusher in the machines and the vertical door in the carriage.

The major disadvantage of the manual transfer of the boards carrying the reams is that printed sheets may, on the one hand, be soiled or torn and, on the other hand, be stolen during the movement of the reams between two machines. Since each ream of sheets weighs around 40 kilograms, manual unloading is a particularly laborious job. Moreover, thefts of printed sheets are note acceptable either.

As for the above mentioned automatic system, stuck door led to unloading failure process for the sheets, often crumbling them. Having the door open leads to possible theft.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is to reduce the manual handling of the reams of printed sheets and consequently to reduce the risks that printed sheets will be damaged or will disappear.

The invention will avoid the usage of additional handling equipment; i.e: hand pallet or forklift. This object is achieved, according to the invention, by means of a method for unloading the reams of sheets from the delivery pile at the exit of the machine by piling up the boards inside the machine and transferring them afterwards directly to the container.

The method being defined by the following steps:

a) placing of the hand pallet part of the container on the exit side of the delivery pile,

b) positioning and locking of the hand pallet part of the container,

c) inserting the pair of angular spacers between the boards,

d) lower the side racks of the machine and therefore piling all the boards on the angular spacers, e) transfer of the boards carrying the reams from the board rack into the container,

f) unlocking of the hand pallet part of the container and pulling it out of the exit side of the machine’s delivery pile.

g) inset the hand pallet part of the container to the shell of the container and lock the two parts

together making them one movable part.

This results in a partial automation of the method for unloading and transferring simultaneously from the board rack of the printing machine into the container.

The apparatus according to the invention for unloading reams of sheets of sheets of banknotes or security documents from the exit of a printing machine having at least one board rack comprises: a) a container comprises of two parts: a hand pallet part with caster wheels and a container shell with smaller caster wheels,

b) locking system to combine the two parts into one movable container

c) means for positioning on the floor inside of the delivery pile at the exit of the machine, d) pair of angular spacers between the boards carrying the reams placed on the baord rack at the delivery pile,

One of the advantages of the apparatus according to the invention is that it is completely independent, so that it can be used on all types of machines with paternoster delivery type.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be understood better from the description of an embodiment and from the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 isometric view of the hand pallet part of the container.

FIG. 2 isometric view of the shell part of the container.

FIG. 3 isometric view of the combined two parts of the container.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the delivery pile at the exit of the machine.

FIG. 5 is a front view of the delivery pile at the exit of the machine in piling mode by inserting the angular spacers

FIG. 6 is a side view of the hand pallet part of the container pushed to the delivery pile at the exit of the machine

FIG. 7 is a side view of the hand pallet part of the container receiving the boards from the machine and the piling of the boards on the angular spacers.

FIG. 8 is a top view of the indexing system.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In FIG. 1 , a container hand pallet part 1 comprises of anti-slippery horizontal platform with trapezoidal shape 14, vertical perforated panel 15 mounted on it a handle bar 16, two locking rods 17 on the two sides with padlock 20. The platform 14 is mounted on four heavy duty swivel front and rear casters 18 and 19. Swivel front casters 18 are equipped with brakes 10 located underneath the vertical panel 15 at the side of pulling and pushing the hand pallet part 1.

The trapezoidal shape of the horizontal platform 1 has a slope that is wider at the edge of the vertical panel 15.

In FIG. 2, a container shell part 2 comprises three-side perforated (for printed sheets ventilation and drying purpose) vertical wall panels right and left sides 21 and back side 22 as well as perforated roof panel 26. The two vertical right and left side wall panels 21 have grooves 23.

The container shell part 2 comprises four small light duty swivel casters 24.

At the bottom of the shell, there is a“U” shape rail 25 to guide the entrance of the horizontal platform 14 with its trapezoidal shape. In FIG. 3, the two parts combined: container hand pallet part 1 and container shell part 2 forming a movable and full secured container structure 3 by means of the two locking rods 17 on the two sides of the vertical panel 15 with padlocks 20, to slide into the grooves 23 on the right and left side wall panels 21 of the container shell 2

In FIG. 4, pairs of board racks 41 is mounted on paternoster delivery type 42 of a machine 40 for the printing of banknote and security documents.

During the machine 40 is in printing: the printed sheets 46 arrive on the top of the board 43 which is introduced to rack 41 , said sheets being driven by a gripper chain system 48 and being released on the board. The board 43 is filled with reams of sheets 46, the boards being shifted downward when a new board is introduced on the rack slideways 41.

In FIG. 5, pairs of angular spacers 51 are placed manually between the boards 43 on the front side of the boards which are still posed on the rack slideways 41. The angular spacers 51 are posed on the top of each board 43 without having contact yet with the higher board 43.

In FIG. 6, the anti-slippery horizontal trapezoidal platform 14 of the container hand pallet 1 is positioned with the aid of the floor indexing device 7 underneath the lowest board 43 which is placed on the rack 41 at the paternoster delivery pile 42 of the printing machine 40

In FIG.7, By lowering the paternoster delivery type 42 of a machine 40, the lowest board 43’ will be placed on the horizontal rectangular platform 14 and consequently all the higher boards 43 will collapse on top of each other by means of having the angular spacers 51 in between. The boards 43 will therefore loose contact with the rack slideways 41 and all the boards 43 will be free to retract all of them simultaneously out of the delivery pile 42 by pulling out the container hand pallet part 1

In FIG. 8, a floor indexing device 7 by means of two side railings 71 and a rear fence 72 mounted on the floor to adjust the position of the container hand pallet part 1 when pushed into the delivery pile 42 of machine 40

The embodiments are given by way of example and variations are possible within the scope of the claimed invention. For example, the hand pallet part may also be equipped with a small lifting device (manual, electric or hydraulic) to enable the lift up underneath the boards at the delivery pile instead of lowering down the machine’s delivery pile. The container hand pallet may also comprise a pair of motorized casters. This embodiment would make it possible to reduce the handling effort of the container when it is being fully loaded.