Blank feeding

Claim 1

Apparatus for feeding blanks from a stack, each blank being of substantially rectangular elongate shape and having a pair of short edge portions and a pair of long edge portions, comprising a plurality of retaining means at the exit of the stack engageable with edge portions of the lowermost blank at said exit, a plunger device movable into contact with the lowermost blank in a direction substantially perpendicular to the plane thereof, said plunger device having at least two tiltably inter-connected sections each of which has means for gripping an end part of the blank, and drive means operable to tilt one section relative to another so that opposed edge portions of said lowermost blanks are progressively released from the remaining blanks in the stack, and operable then to withdraw said plunger device so as to separate said lowermost blank fully from the stack, said plurality of retaining means comprising a first pair of pivotal claws disposed at opposite sides of said stack for engagement with said short edge portions of said lowermost blank, a second pair of pivotal claws disposed at opposite sides of said stack for engagement with said long edge portions of said lowermost blank, means for pivoting said first pair of claws out of engagement with said short edge portions prior to tilting of said sections of said plunger device by said drive means and for simultaneously pivoting said second pair of claws into engagement with said long edge portions, so that at any time only one of said first and second pairs of claws is in an engaged position.