A medium feeding device includes a container member that accommodates sheet media, a discharging member disposed further than the media accommodated in the container member in a discharging direction in which the media are discharged, a hand-over member disposed above the container member at a position closer to the discharging member, a floating device disposed on a side of the media accommodated in the container member, and an auxiliary suction member disposed above the container member on a side of the hand-over member opposite to a side closer to the discharging member in the discharging direction in which the media are discharged. The auxiliary suction member is disposed closer to the hand-over member than to an end portion of the media accommodated in the container member opposite to an end portion of the media located closer to the discharging member.

A device and a method for separating sheet material is provided. The separation of sheet material is not effected statically, but a suitable pick-up position and/or a suitable pick-up mechanism is selected for each sheet material piece, for example in dependence on the quality of a surface of the sheet material piece to be picked up, in order to pick up the sheet material piece from the sheet material stack and remove it from the same.

The present invention concerns a device for handling flat elements for a printing machine (M), the device comprising a supporting structure (12) defining a supporting surface (14) and at least one arm (22) provided with pick-up means (24), configured to grip a flat element and to move it between the supporting surface (14) and loading and unloading positions and to turn said flat element over if necessary.

A single-sheet lifter includes a base frame arranged in a vicinity of a loading area and extending vertically, a separation unit configured to separate an uppermost workpiece from a plurality of the workpieces loaded in the loading area by means of at least one of an injection pressure of air and a suction force, and a counter balancer configured to reduce a weight acting on the separation unit. The separation unit is provided to the base frame so as to be able to move up and down. The separation unit includes a contact member that comes into contact with a surface of the uppermost workpiece. The separation unit is configured to go up following a lifting operation of a workpiece suction lifter and be retracted from above the loading area when the workpiece suction lifter sucks the surface of the uppermost workpiece to lift the workpiece.

Cartoning machine comprising a magazine configured to store stacks of cardboard dies (F) and means for picking up and transporting the dies (F) to move the dies (F) along a path (FM, FS) between the magazine, an unfolding station (S) and a product insertion station (N). The magazine comprises two mobile storage units (M1, M2) for storing the stacked dies, each mobile storage unit (M1, M2) being configured to store a respective stack (P1, P2) of dies (F). Cyclically, each mobile storage unit is in a waiting position while the other unit is in an operating position in which the means for picking up and transporting the dies are arranged and active. The storage units (M1, M2) are arranged one on a right side (DT) and one on a left side (ST) of the machine with respect to said path.

The present invention provides a denesting apparatus (100, 200), the apparatus comprising: one or more closed loop conveying tracks (130, 230), each closed loop conveying track comprising a plurality of sets of one or more de-stacking means (140, 240) movingly configured thereon through one or more de-stacking means moving mechanism (150, 250): one or more stacking magazines (120, 220), each adapted to hold a stack of sheets (110, 210) supported thereon: wherein each of the plurality of sets of de-stacking means is adapted to selectively engage an uppermost sheet from at least one of the stacking magazines in any desired order either sequentially and/or simultaneously so as to discharge the picked-up sheets onto an out-feed conveyor (180, 280) in any desired manner either one besides another or otherwise one overlapping the other.

A pick-up device picking up stacked sheet-shaped workpieces from the top, the device includes a nozzle mechanism that pulls up a first workpiece from the top of the stacked workpieces by air blowing, a holding mechanism that holds the first workpiece, a separation mechanism that includes a claw member being inserted into a lower side of the first workpiece with respect to the stacked workpieces, and a forward and backward drive unit causing a tip part of the claw member to move forward and backward, a suction mechanism that pulls up the first workpiece, a control device that controls the above four mechanisms, and a selection unit that selects one or more combinations of the nozzle mechanism, the separation mechanism, and the suction mechanism. The control device controls an operation for picking up the stacked workpieces from the top according to the selection of the selection unit.

A printing plate picking mechanism includes a plate cassette stacking mechanism having an array of plate cassettes, each plate cassette adapted to hold a plurality of printing plates separated by intervening sheets of paper. A plate cassette movement mechanism is adapted to move a selected plate cassette to a printing plate loading position. A plate picker is adapted to contact and hold the leading edge of the topmost printing plate and transport it to plate transport pinch rollers. A paper picking unit includes a paper picker adapted to contact and hold a leading edge of a topmost sheet of paper in the selected plate cassette, and a plate guide positioned above the paper picker to guide the printing plate held by said plate picker. A vertical alignment system is adapted to vertically align the plate picker and the paper picking unit with the selected plate cassette.

A system may include a folding apparatus configured to fold a card carrier for affixing a transaction card to the card carrier and a processor which can receive a first input from a user regarding a number of folds desired in the card carrier and a location of the folds on the card carrier, receive a second input regarding one or more directions of the folds to be made on the card carrier, and transmit a signal to a positioner motor configured to position the card carrier based on the first input and the second input such that the folding apparatus folds the card carrier according to the first input and the second input.

A suction gripping device for picking up a plurality of substrates which are flat and flexible includes: a base body, which defines a plane; at least one gas suction vacuum module which is arranged on the base body and has at least one gas suction opening configured for withdrawing gas by suction and for generating a first vacuum so as to suction a respective one of the plurality of substrates against the suction gripping device; and at least one gas ejection vacuum module which is arranged on the base body and has a gas ejection opening configured for ejecting gas and for generating a second vacuum so as to suction the respective one of the plurality of substrates against the suction gripping device.