Method and apparatus for stuffing newspapers or forming similar sheet material assemblages

Claim 1

An apparatus comprising a plurality of movable upwardly opening pocket means, a first group of bottom-feed hopper means disposed adjacent to each other along a first path length for sequentially feeding sheet material to at least some of said pocket means, each of said hopper means of said first group of hopper means having a bottom portion, a second group of bottom-feed hopper means disposed adjacent to each other along a second path length which is different than said first path length for sequentially feeding sheet material to at least some of said pocket means, each of said hopper means of said second group of hopper means having a bottom portion, drive means for moving at least some of said pocket means along said first path length past the bottom portion of each hopper means of said first group of hopper means to assemble in each of these pocket means in turn an item formed of sheet material received from said first group of hopper means and for moving at least some of said pocket means along said second path length past the bottom portion of each hopper means of said second group of hopper means to assemble in each of these pockets means in turn an item formed of sheet material received from said second group of hopper means, conveyor means for transporting items formed of sheet material received from said first group of hopper means and items formed of sheet material received from said second group of hopper means in a single stream of items to a receiving station, means disposed at a first delivery station for delivering from at least some of said pocket means to said conveyor means a first series of items made up of sheet material fed from said first group of hopper means, and means disposed at a second delivery station spaced apart from said first delivery station for delivering from at least some of said pocket means to said conveyor means a second series of items made up of sheets of material fed from said second group of hopper means and for interspersing said second series of items with said first series of items to form a single stream of items.

Claim 2

An apparatus comprising a plurality of movable upwardly opening pocket means, a first group of bottom-feed hopper means disposed adjacent to each other along a first path length for sequentially feeding sheet material to at least some of said pocket means, each of said hopper means of said first group of hopper means having a bottom portion, a second group of bottom-feed hopper means disposed adjacent to each other along a second path length which is different than said first path length for sequentially feeding sheet material to at least some of said pocket means, each of said hopper means of said second group of hopper means having a bottom portion, drive means for moving at least some of said pocket means along said first path length past the bottom portion of each hopper means of said first group of hopper means to assemble in each of these pocket means in turn an item formed of sheet material received from said first group of hopper means and for moving at least some of said pocket means along said second path length past the bottom portion of each hopper means of said second group of hopper means to assemble in each of these pockets means in turn an item formed of sheet material received from said second group of hopper means, conveyor means for transporting items formed of sheet material received from said first group of hopper means and items formed of sheet material received from said second group of hopper means in a single stream of items to a receiving station, means disposed at a first delivery station for delivering from at least some of said pocket means to said conveyor means a first series of items made up of sheet material fed from said first group of hopper means, and means disposed at a second delivery station spaced apart from said first delivery station for delivering from at least some of said pocket means to said conveyor means a second series of items made up of sheets of material fed from said second group of hopper means and for interspersing said second series of items with said first series of items to form a single stream of items.

Claim 8

An apparatus comprising a plurality of bottom-feed hopper means disposed in a circular array which is divided into a plurality of sectors each of which is adapted to assemble complete newspapers and includes a first hopper means for feeding a jacket section of a newspaper and other hopper means for feeding inner sections of a newspaper, a plurality of top-opening pockets disposed in a ciruclar array beneath said circular array of hopper means, drive means for moving each of said pockets sequentially past each of said hopper means, said first hopper means of each of said sectors being operable to feed a jacket section into each of said pockets in turn, each of said other hopper means of each of said sectors being sequentially operably to feed inner sections into the jacket section in each of said pockets until a complete newspaper is assembled in each of said pockets in turn, a plurality of delivery stations each of which is associated with one of said sectors, conveyor means extending beneath said pocket means for transporting completed newspapers from said delivery stations to a receiving station in a single overlapping stream, and a plurality of delivery means each of which is located at one of said delivery stations for delivering a series of newspapers completed at the associated sector from said pockets to said conveyor means, at least one of said delivery means including means for interspersing and overlapping in a single stream the series of newspapers completed at the associated sector with a series of newspapers completed at another sector.

Claim 9

An apparatus comprising a plurality of bottom-feed hopper means disposed in a circular array which is divided into a plurality of sectors each of which is adapted to assemble complete newspapers and includes a first hopper means for feeding a jacket section of a newspaper and other hopper means for feeding inner sections of a newspaper, a plurality of top-opening pockets disposed in a ciruclar array beneath said circular array of hopper means, drive means for moving each of said pockets sequentially past each of said hopper means, said first hopper means of each of said sectors being operable to feed a jacket section into each of said pockets in turn, each of said other hopper means of each of said sectors being sequentially operably to feed inner sections into the jacket section in each of said pockets until a complete newspaper is assembled in each of said pockets in turn, a plurality of delivery stations each of which is associated with one of said sectors, conveyor means extending beneath said pocket means for transporting completed newspapers from said delivery stations to a receiving station in a single overlapping stream, and a plurality of delivery means each of which is located at one of said delivery stations for delivering a series of newspapers completed at the associated sector from said pockets to said conveyor means, at least one of said delivery means including means for interspersing and overlapping in a single stream the series of newspapers completed at the associated sector with a series of newspapers completed at another sector.

Claim 12

An apparatus comprising first stuffer means for assembling mewspapers, second stuffer means for assembling newspapers, conveyor means for transporting assembled newspapers to a receiving station, means for delivering a first series of assembled newspapers from said first stuffer means to said conveyor means, said means for delivering a first series of newspapers includes means for depositing said first series of newspapers on said conveyer means with a leading end portion of each newspaper in a lapped relationship with a trailing end portion of the next preceding newspaper to form a single shingled stream of newspapers, and means for delivering a second series of assembled newspapers from said second stuffer means to said conveyor means and for interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers to form the newspapers from said first and second stuffer means into a single stream of newspapers which is transported to the receiving station by said conveyor means, said means for delivering and interspersing said second series of newspapers includes first means for changing the single shingled stream of newspapers assembled by said first stuffer means into a single stream of spaced apart newspapers by spacing apart the lapped leading and trailing end portions of the newspapers of said first series of newspapers and second means for depositing at least a portion of each newspaper of the second series of newspapers between leading and trailing newspapers of said first series of newspapers to form said first and second series of newspapers into a single stream of newspapers disposed on said conveyor means.

Claim 13

An apparatus comprising first stuffer means for assembling mewspapers, second stuffer means for assembling newspapers, conveyor means for transporting assembled newspapers to a receiving station, means for delivering a first series of assembled newspapers from said first stuffer means to said conveyor means, said means for delivering a first series of newspapers includes means for depositing said first series of newspapers on said conveyer means with a leading end portion of each newspaper in a lapped relationship with a trailing end portion of the next preceding newspaper to form a single shingled stream of newspapers, and means for delivering a second series of assembled newspapers from said second stuffer means to said conveyor means and for interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers to form the newspapers from said first and second stuffer means into a single stream of newspapers which is transported to the receiving station by said conveyor means, said means for delivering and interspersing said second series of newspapers includes first means for changing the single shingled stream of newspapers assembled by said first stuffer means into a single stream of spaced apart newspapers by spacing apart the lapped leading and trailing end portions of the newspapers of said first series of newspapers and second means for depositing at least a portion of each newspaper of the second series of newspapers between leading and trailing newspapers of said first series of newspapers to form said first and second series of newspapers into a single stream of newspapers disposed on said conveyor means.

Claim 14

A method of assembling newspapers with a plurality of stuffer means and transporting the assembled newspapers to a delivery station in a single stream with a conveyor assembly, said method comprising the steps of operating a first stuffer means to assemble a first series of newspapers, operating a second stuffer means to assemble a second series of newspapers, delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly, said step of delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of depositing said first series of newspapers on said conveyor assembly with a leading end portion of each newspaper in a lapped relationship with a trailing end portion of the next preceding newspaper, and, delivering said second series of newspapers to the same conveyor assembly as the first stream of newspapers, said step of delivering said second series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers to form a single stream of newspapers on the conveyor assembly, said step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers including the steps of spacing apart leading and trailing end portions of the newspapers of said first series of newspapers, and depositing at least a portion of each newspaper of said second series of newspapers between leading and trailing newspapers of said first series of newspapers to form said first and second series of newspapers into a single stream.

Claim 15

A method of assembling newspapers with a plurality of stuffer means and transporting the assembled newspapers to a delivery station in a single stream with a conveyor assembly, said method comprising the steps of operating a first stuffer means to assemble a first series of newspapers, operating a second stuffer means to assemble a second series of newspapers, delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly, said step of delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of depositing said first series of newspapers on said conveyor assembly with a leading end portion of each newspaper in a lapped relationship with a trailing end portion of the next preceding newspaper, and, delivering said second series of newspapers to the same conveyor assembly as the first stream of newspapers, said step of delivering said second series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers to form a single stream of newspapers on the conveyor assembly, said step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers including the steps of spacing apart leading and trailing end portions of the newspapers of said first series of newspapers, and depositing at least a portion of each newspaper of said second series of newspapers between leading and trailing newspapers of said first series of newspapers to form said first and second series of newspapers into a single stream.

Claim 19

A method of assembling newspapers with a plurality of stuffer means and transporting the assembled newspapers to a delivery station in a single stream with a conveyor assembly, said method comprising the steps of operating a first stuffer means to assembly a first series of newspapers, operating a second stuffer means to assemble a second series of newspapers, delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly, said step of delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of depositing the first series of newspapers on the conveyor assembly in a single stream with the leading end portion of each newspaper into lapped relationship with the trailing end portion of the next preceding newspapers, and delivering said second series of newspapers to the same conveyor assembly as the first series of newspapers, said step of delivering said second series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers to form a single stream of newspapers on the conveyor assembly, said step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers including the steps of spacing apart leading and trailing end portions of the newspapers of said first series of newspapers by a distance which is at least the width of a newspaper, and depositing each newspaper of said second series of newspapers between leading and trailing newspapers of said first series of newspapers to form said first and second series of newspapers into an unlapped stream of newspapers.

Claim 20

A method of assembling newspapers with a plurality of stuffer means and transporting the assembled newspapers to a delivery station in a single stream with a conveyor assembly, said method comprising the steps of operating a first stuffer means to assembly a first series of newspapers, operating a second stuffer means to assemble a second series of newspapers, delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly, said step of delivering said first series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of depositing the first series of newspapers on the conveyor assembly in a single stream with the leading end portion of each newspaper into lapped relationship with the trailing end portion of the next preceding newspapers, and delivering said second series of newspapers to the same conveyor assembly as the first series of newspapers, said step of delivering said second series of newspapers to the conveyor assembly including the step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers to form a single stream of newspapers on the conveyor assembly, said step of interspersing said second series of newspapers with said first series of newspapers including the steps of spacing apart leading and trailing end portions of the newspapers of said first series of newspapers by a distance which is at least the width of a newspaper, and depositing each newspaper of said second series of newspapers between leading and trailing newspapers of said first series of newspapers to form said first and second series of newspapers into an unlapped stream of newspapers.