An article supporter for a supply device includes a feeder that supplies, by air suction, an uppermost thinly tabular article from a bundle of a plurality of thinly tabular articles that is stacked and is partially different in thickness, the article supporter for supporting the bundle with a gap between the uppermost thinly tabular article and the feeder, and the article supporter includes: a first support that supports respective thinner parts of the plurality of thinly tabular articles; a second support that supports respective thicker parts of the plurality of thinly tabular articles and is movable upward and downward; and an adjuster that adjusts a level of the second support such that the uppermost thinly tabular article of the bundle is set within a predetermined range in a vertical direction.

During flipping sheets may fold upon themselves under the influence of gravity. To prevent a sheet stacker is provided with a holding device for releasably holding at least a portion of the sheet at least partially during the flipping of the sheet by a sheet flipping device, wherein the holding device is configured for movement of the held portion of the sheet in a first direction perpendicular to the flipping axis.

A stacker includes a medium stacking portion for receiving and stacking a medium processed and discharged by a processing unit, a medium butting portion for aligning the medium by contacting a leading end of the medium, and a paddle that includes a feeding portion and is for transporting the medium received by the medium stacking portion in a direction toward the medium butting portion by rotating. Furthermore, the stacker has a first mode in which the paddle stops in a state in which the feeding portion does not contact the medium on the medium stacking portion and a second mode in which the paddle stops in a state in which the feeding portion comes into contact with the medium on the medium stacking portion and is deformed.

The present invention relates to an apparatus (1) for handling and collecting a plurality of substantially bi-dimensional objects (100) comprises: a conveyor (2), arranged to receive the bi-dimensional object from a source, and configured to provide a holding force (F) to draw and hold the bi-dimensional objects from above; a disengagement device (4), configured to temporarily oppose the holding force on at least a portion of the conveyor, to disengage the bi-dimensional objects from the conveyor, causing the fall of the bi-dimensional objects towards a collecting area (5).

According to several embodiments, the invention relates to a device and a method for stacking card-like data carriers. The device includes a conveying device for transporting individual card-like data carriers downstream along a conveying path and a stacking unit for selectively transferring and stacking card-like data carriers conveyed along the conveying path. The conveying device is arranged to convey the card-like data carriers in such a way that they are fixed to it in a hanging mode of transport. The stacking unit is arranged to selectively release certain ones of the card-like data carriers conveyed along the conveying device from the latter in order to transfer them directly into a card magazine and to stack them therein.

A sheet processing machine has at least one shaping device and at least one sheet delivery unit, arranged downstream of the at least one shaping device along a transport path provided for a transport of sheets. The at least one shaping device has at least one shaping point which is formed by at least one forme cylinder, on one hand, and at least one impression cylinder, on the other hand. At least one separation device, for removing scrap pieces from sheets, is arranged downstream of the at least one shaping point along the transport path provided for the transport of sheets. The at least one separation device has at least one separation transport device. At least one transport device, configured as a selective transport device, is arranged following the at least one separation transport device along the transport path provided for the transport of sheets. The transport device is configured as at least one upper suction transport device for a hanging transport of sheets.

Apparatus is provided for manufacturing a wipe in a three-dimensional form out of an essentially flat piece of material. The apparatus produces a blank of essentially flat planar form with a pleat folded on each side. The folded blanks are fed by a conveyor belt to an opening station. The opening station comprises a pair of movable pinch rollers which selectively grab individual blanks from the conveyor belt and feed them via belts to a pair of counter-rotating drums. The blanks are ejected from the drums, which partially opens them up in the process. The partially open blanks are fed onto a shaped former, where the final process of forming the wipe into its chosen three-dimensional form is completed.

A sheet delivery unit has at least one rear sheet stop. The sheet delivery unit has at least one forward stack limiter. The sheet delivery unit has at least one upper sheet transportation system, designed for hanging transportation of sheets, with at least one imbrication device for the imbricated, hanging transportation of at least two sheets. A sheet processing machine is also disclosed. A method is disclosed for operating a sheet processing machine. Processed substrate in the form of a sequence of sheets spaced apart from one another in a transportation direction, is supplied in this transportation directed to a sheet delivery unit of the sheet processing machine. At least during a sheet braking procedure, at least at times, at least two sheets are guided in a hanging manner by the use of an upper sheet transportation system, configured for the hanging transportation of sheets, of the sheet delivery unit, and are transported in an imbricated arrangement at least also in the transportation direction.

A medium transporting apparatus including a transport belt that transports a medium while suctioning the medium against a transport surface, a first tray on which the medium transported with the transport belt is mounted, and a transport roller configured to move between a transporting position that nips the medium with the transport belt, and a retracted position that is a position distanced away from the transport belt with respect to the transporting position, in which the transport roller is positioned at the retracted position when a single medium is transported with the transport belt and is positioned at the transporting position when a plurality of mediums in a superposed state are transported with the transport belt.

A sheet transport device includes a processor configured to change lifting control for lifting sheets on a tray, which are to be floated up and handed over, from normal state control to small-quantity state control in a case where it is detected that the remaining number of sheets on the tray is small.