A carton decasing system for removing stacks of cartons or carton blanks from cases or containers includes a case infeed conveyor on which the cases with the cartons or carton blanks stacked therein are moved to an inverting assembly. The inverting assembly reorients the cases and places the cases with the cartons stacked therein on a decasing assembly which removes the cases from the stacks of cartons. The stacks of cartons are thereafter conveyed along a magazine conveyor with the stacks of cartons supported by a stack pusher assembly as the cartons are moved to a discharge point at the distal end of the magazine conveyor.

A supply apparatus for paper of which one side is printed and another side is not printed and which is used for a single-side printer much cheaper than a double-side printer and having a smaller occupied area than that of the double-side printer is improved to be easily, promptly, safely, and surely set. A supply apparatus reverses a plurality of sheets of stacked paper of which one side has been printed so that a non-printed surface comes to an upper surface and supplies the stacked paper to a printer again. The non-printed paper supply apparatus for the single-side printer includes two palettes which sandwich and hold the stacked paper from upper and lower sides, a plurality of alignment holding tools which is provided between the palettes and is adjusted according to a volume of the stacked paper, a pair of fastening and reversing tools including reversing bars in which reversing shafts for reverse are formed on sides of the palettes opposite to each other, and a pair of reverse assisting stands which pivotally support reversing shafts of each fastening and reversing tool. The alignment holding tool and the fastening and reversing tool are respectively fixed to upper/lower palettes with fixing tools which are attached/detached in a single operation.

A supply apparatus for paper of which one side is printed and another side is not printed and which is used for a single-side printer much cheaper than a double-side printer and having a smaller occupied area than that of the double-side printer is improved to be easily, promptly, safely, and surely set. A supply apparatus reverses a plurality of sheets of stacked paper of which one side has been printed so that a non-printed surface comes to an upper surface and supplies the stacked paper to a printer again. The non-printed paper supply apparatus for the single-side printer includes two palettes which sandwich and hold the stacked paper from upper and lower sides, a plurality of alignment holding tools which is provided between the palettes and is adjusted according to a volume of the stacked paper, a pair of fastening and reversing tools including reversing bars in which reversing shafts for reverse are formed on sides of the palettes opposite to each other, and a pair of reverse assisting stands which pivotally support reversing shafts of each fastening and reversing tool. The alignment holding tool and the fastening and reversing tool are respectively fixed to upper/lower palettes with fixing tools which are attached/detached in a single operation.

Postal sorting equipment for sorting flat mailpieces comprises a postal sorting machine, a storage-tray conveyor for conveying open-topped storage trays filled with mailpieces stacked flat, a shuttle-tray conveyor for conveying substantially L-shaped open-fronted shuttle trays, and in which the mailpieces are placed on-edge in stacks, and a tray interchanger suitable for automatically transferring the mailpieces stored flat in an open-topped storage tray to an open-fronted shuttle tray, the feed inlet comprising an unstacker with a fork-shaped magazine with tines, each of which is constituted by a motor-driven belt, the shuttle tray and the fork-shaped magazine being designed so that, by advancing towards the unstacker, the shuttle tray is engaged by the motor-driven belts of the unstacker magazine that come to be inserted under the mailpiece stack disposed on-edge in the shuttle tray, the unstacker magazine including a conveyor section that is mounted to move in elevation under the magazine tines.

The invention concerns a method of handling stacks of flexible substrates (14) by means of a gripper (8) as well as a robot cell (1) for carrying out the method. The gripper (8) is arranged on an arm (6) of a robot (2) and has a lower finger and a corresponding upper finger. The method comprises the steps of inserting said lower finger below a bottom substrate (14) of a stack resting on a base and said upper finger above a top substrate (14) of the stack, and gripping the stack by clamping it between said lower and upper finger. Then by means of the gripper (8) starting at a stack front the entire stack is lifted into a pendent state and moved to a support (16). There the stack is lowered such that a stack rear, which is opposite to said stack front, comes into contact with the support (16). Finally the entire stack is laid out on the support (16) with said bottom substrate (14) up by further lowering and while horizontally displacing the gripper (8) in a bottom-to-top substrate direction before letting the gripper (8) release the stack.

In a device for rotating a stack of two-dimensional sheet-type or film-type products, or a stack thereof, at least two drive-roller pairs (11, 12; 13, 14) which are disposed beside one another so as to be spaced apart for conveying the products (1) are provided, the drive speed of said drive-roller pairs being modifiable in such a manner that the two roller pairs, oriented toward the same conveying direction, are operable at different speeds.

The present invention relates to a handling installation for handling sheets of cardboard or similar material applicable for implementation thereof in an automated production facility, comprising a first receiving station (1) configured to receive packages formed by cardboard sheets, each of the sheets being defined by four sides, and a second distribution station (2) in which the sheets are delivered face-down coming from the receiving station by means of sheet handling means. The first and second stations comprise modules that are independent from each other, the handling means comprising a robot arm provided with a head with clamping means to hold the package of sheets on any of the four sides, the head having a hinge point that can be coupled to a robot arm, capable of conveniently moving and orienting the clamping means in any of the coordinate axes, the robot arm being mounted on a base that is independent with respect to the first and second stations.

The present invention relates to a handling installation for handling sheets of cardboard or similar material applicable for implementation thereof in an automated production facility, comprising a first receiving station (1) configured to receive packages formed by cardboard sheets, each of the sheets being defined by four sides, and a second distribution station (2) in which the sheets are delivered face-down coming from the receiving station by means of sheet handling means. The first and second stations comprise modules that are independent from each other, the handling means comprising a robot arm provided with a head with clamping means to hold the package of sheets on any of the four sides, the head having a hinge point that can be coupled to a robot arm, capable of conveniently moving and orienting the clamping means in any of the coordinate axes, the robot arm being mounted on a base that is independent with respect to the first and second stations.