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Feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing lineRelated Patent Categories: Sheet Feeding Or Delivering, Feeding, Separators, Pneumatic, Oscillating Suction MemberFeed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20070182084, Feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
[0001] The present invention relates to a feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line. [0002] The present invention may be used to advantage for feeding tax stamps to a packing line of an automatic machine for producing packets of cigarettes, to which the following description refers purely by way of example. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] An automatic machine for producing packets of cigarettes normally comprises a station for applying tax stamps, where a tax stamp is applied to the outer surface of each packet of cigarettes in such a position that the tax stamp must be torn for access to the cigarettes inside the packet. The tax stamp application station comprises a feed unit for supplying a succession of tax stamps by withdrawing them from the bottom of a vertical stack housed inside a hopper, or by cutting them off a continuous strip unwound off a reel. [0004] One example of a feed unit for withdrawing single sheets from the bottom of a stack inside a hopper is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,908 A1, in which a suction pickup roller is rolled along a sheet at a bottom opening of the hopper to roll up the sheet; and, once the sheet is rolled up completely, the pickup roller is stopped in a release position to release the sheet to an input conveyor defined by two pickup rollers parallel and tangent to each other to engage the sheet between them. [0005] Another example of a feed unit for withdrawing single sheets from the bottom of a stack inside a hopper is described in Patent Application EP 970885 A1, in which a wheel, rotating about its axis, feeds a pickup head continuously along an endless path through a loading station, where the pickup head, oscillating with respect to the wheel about an axis parallel to the wheel axis, engages a withdrawal opening in the hopper to withdraw a sheet, and through a follow-up unloading station, where the pickup head, rotating together with the wheel, feeds the sheet to a conveyor roller. [0006] Other examples of feed units for withdrawing single sheets from the bottom of a stack inside a hopper are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,719 A1, Patent Application GB 1571741, and Patent Application JP 2004075260 A. [0007] At the withdrawal opening, a hopper has supporting members for supporting the sheets inside the hopper from underneath and vertically supporting the stack to prevent the sheets from falling out by force of gravity. To extract a sheet from the hopper, a suction pickup head engages the underside surface of the sheet to pull the sheet downwards, so that the sheet curves towards the centre to release the lateral portions of the sheet from the supporting members and so slip through the withdrawal opening of the hopper. [0008] Tax stamps have been found to have a fairly wide dimensional tolerance (as much as 1 mm over a total size of 20-25 mm), and, since the supporting members must be set to permit withdrawal of the larger stamps (upper tolerance limit), the smaller stamps (lower tolerance limit) are inadequately supported by the supporting members, and are often withdrawn from the hopper together with the stamps underneath. Multiple withdrawal of two or more tax stamps is substantially caused by poor support of the "smaller" stamps, and is further compounded by the slight gluing effect of the ink with which the stamps are printed, and by the thinness of the stamps themselves, the porosity of which permits passage of the suction generated by the suction pickup head. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] It is an object of the present invention to provide a feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line, which feed unit is designed to eliminate the aforementioned problems, while at the same time being cheap and easy to produce. [0010] According to the present invention, there is provided a feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line, as claimed in the attached Claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0011] A non-limiting embodiment of the present invention will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: [0012] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view in perspective of a feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line, in accordance with the present invention; [0013] FIG. 2 shows a schematic side view, with parts removed for clarity, of a hopper of the feed unit; [0014] FIG. 3 shows a schematic section, with parts removed for clarity, along line III-III of the FIG. 2 hopper; [0015] FIG. 4 shows a schematic section, with parts removed for clarity, along line IV-IV of the FIG. 2 hopper; [0016] FIG. 5 shows a schematic plan view, with parts removed for clarity, of the FIG. 2 hopper; [0017] FIG. 6 shows a view in perspective of a detail of the FIG. 2 hopper. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [0018] Number 1 in FIG. 1 indicates as a whole a feed unit for feeding tax stamps 2 to a packing line (not shown) of an automatic machine for producing packets of cigarettes. More specifically, feed unit 1 feeds tax stamps 2 to a tax stamp application station located along the packing line, and which applies a tax stamp to the outer surface of each packet of cigarettes, in such a position that the tax stamp must be torn for access to the cigarettes inside the packet. [0019] Feed unit 1 comprises a vertical hopper 3, which houses a stack 4 of tax stamps 2 extending in a vertical feed direction D1, and has a bottom withdrawal opening 5. A pickup device 6 is located at withdrawal opening 5 of hopper 3, and engages withdrawal opening 5, in use, to withdraw individual tax stamps 2 successively from stack 4 and feed tax stamps 2 to the packing line. Hopper 3 comprises four fixed L-shaped sections 7 located at the four corners of stack 4 to laterally retain stack 4. [0020] Pickup device 6 comprises a wheel 8 rotating about a central axis 9; and at least one suction pickup head 10 fitted to wheel 8 to move cyclically along an endless path through a loading station, where pickup head 10 engages withdrawal opening 5 of hopper 3 to withdraw a tax stamp 2, and through a follow-up unloading station, where pickup head 10 feeds tax stamp 2 to the packing line. Continue reading about Feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line... Full patent description for Feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Feed unit for feeding sheets to a packing line patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. 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