A method and an apparatus for stabilizing the position of a sheet-like element made of hard brittle material during transportation thereof along a transport path is provided in which the element is guided through a roller chicane having three rollers.

A conveying apparatus for a separator of an electrical device alternately laminates a first electrode and a second electrode of different polarity from the first electrode, with a separator interposed therebetween to form a laminated body for conveyance. The separator includes a melt material representing a substrate and a heat-resistant material laminated on one surface of the melt material and having a higher melting point than the melt material. The separator conveying apparatus includes a drive member which makes contact with the separator and conveys the separator; and a pressure member which, while urging the drive member via the separator, is driven by the drive member. The drive member makes contact with the melt material portion of the separator. With this separator conveying apparatus, it is possible to maintain constant feed size or dimension of the separator assembly.

The present invention relates to a feeder module for discharging sheets into a converting machine. The feeder module comprises a movable discharge conveyor comprising a plurality of belt conveyors which are configured to move between a discharge position (DP) in which the belt conveyors are contacting the lowermost positioned sheet in the stack and discharges said sheet, and a clearing position (CP) in which the conveyor belts are located underneath the loading surface.

A paper transport device includes a transport mechanism that transports paper to which an image is transferred to a fixing device while sucking the paper and a switching mechanism that switches between suction regions in a width direction of the transport mechanism, which corresponds to a width direction of the paper, according to a size of the paper.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier configured to carry an image on a surface of the image carrier; a transfer member configured to come into pressure contact with the image carrier to form a transfer nip and configured to transfer the image on the image carrier onto a paper sheet; a pair of fixing members disposed downstream from the transfer member in a transport path of the paper sheet, configured to come into pressure contact with each other to form a fixing nip, and configured to perform a fixing process on the paper sheet; a transfer change mechanism configured to move at least one of the image carrier and the transfer member to change a pressure contact state between the image carrier and the transfer member; a fixing change mechanism configured to move at least one of the pair of fixing members to change a pressure contact state between the pair of fixing members; and a control unit configured to variably control a transfer nip load at the transfer nip by controlling the transfer change mechanism and variably control a fixing nip load at the fixing nip by controlling the fixing change mechanism. The control unit, before a leading end of the paper sheet enters the fixing nip, increases the transfer nip load from a first transfer nip load to a second transfer nip load larger than the first transfer nip load and decreases the fixing nip load from a first fixing nip load to a second fixing nip load smaller than the first fixing nip load.

The present invention provides a working support (10) and a conveyor belt (100) comprising the working support (10) for a laser cutting and/or marking operation. The working support (10) includes at least one vacuum chamber (1) fluidically connected to at least one vacuum element (2), a honeycomb structure (3) comprising a plurality of cells (30) and disposed spaced from the vacuum chamber (1), and an intermediate depression chamber (21) disposed between the honeycomb structure (3) and the vacuum chamber (1). The lower surface (22) of the intermediate depression chamber (21) has a plurality of suction holes (13) which fluidically connect the vacuum chamber (1) with the cells (30) of the honeycomb structure (3). The upper surface (33) of the honeycomb structure (3) comprises ridges and depressions and the honeycomb structure may consist of a plurality of corrugated metal sheets welded together.

The present invention relates to a method for splicing an upstream section and a downstream section of a multi-layered laminated sheet material wherein each section of the material comprises at least three layers each having first and second surfaces and wherein the at least three layers comprise first and second outer layers and at least one inner layer located between the first and second outer layers, comprising the steps of a) splicing together the upstream and downstream sections of both the first and second outer layers with a splicing material; b) removing the first outer layer from the multi-layered laminated sheet material to expose a surface of an inner layer; c) splicing the upstream and downstream sections of the exposed inner layer with a splicing material; and d) applying a replacement first outer layer to the exposed surface of the inner layer. A spliced multi-layered laminated sheet material produced according to the method is also provided. Also provided is an apparatus for splicing two sections of a multi-layered laminated sheet material wherein each section of the material comprises at least three layers each having first and second surfaces and wherein the at least three layers comprise two outer layers and at least one inner layer located between the two outer layers, the apparatus comprising: a first splicer configured to apply a splicing material to the two outer layers of the multi-layered laminated sheet material, a delaminator configured to remove a first outer layer, a second splicer located downstream of the delaminator configured to apply a splicing material to the exposed inner layer and an applicator located downstream of the second splicer configured to reapply an outer layer to the exposed inner layer.

An aligning group configured to align a continuous strip of cardboard may include a dragging device, elongated along a median axis and configured to drag a continuous strip of corrugated cardboard having a predetermined direction of advancement, and at least one actuator connected to the dragging device. The at least one actuator may be configured to change the orientation of the median axis and, thus, the orientation of the direction of advancement of the continuous strip of corrugated cardboard.

The present invention relates to a feeder module for discharging sheets into a converting machine. The feeder module comprises a movable discharge conveyor comprising a plurality of belt conveyors which are configured to move between a discharge position (DP) in which the belt conveyors are contacting the lowermost positioned sheet in the stack and discharges said sheet, and a clearing position (CP) in which the conveyor belts are located underneath the loading surface.

A transport unit includes a transport device including a loop member that turns and that has no ends, the transport device transporting a recording medium with the recording medium attracted to a surface of the loop member; a guide unit that changes a transport direction of the recording medium fed from the transport device and that guides the recording medium in one of multiple transport directions; and a controller that controls the transport device, based on the transport direction that is changed by the guide unit such that attraction force of the transport device is changed.