A bag conveyance method includes the steps of: causing a holding member to hold a bag bundle including a plurality of bags; delivering the bag bundle in a standing posture from the holding member to a delivery unit; rotating the delivery unit in such a manner that a posture of the bag bundle held by the delivery unit is changed from the standing posture to a lying posture; and conveying the bag bundle in the lying posture from the delivery unit to a supply unit.

A sheet stacking apparatus includes a sheet stacking unit configured to stack a sheet thereon and a sheet regulating unit configured to regulate a position of a sheet stacked on the sheet stacking unit. The sheet regulating unit includes a main body movable with respect to the sheet stacking unit and an operating portion having a pressable pressure surface, moved from a first position to a second position by pressing the pressure surface, and pivotably supported on the main body about a pivoting fulcrum positioned above a middle position of the pressure surface, the main body being regulated from moving with respect to the sheet stacking unit when the operating portion is in the first position, and the main body being allowed to move with respect to the sheet stacking unit when the operating portion is in the second position.

User labor relating to determining on an alignment condition is reduced and a stable conveying operation is realized by aligning a sheet bundle also when a sheet bundle is added. A sheet bundle composed of multiple sheet materials is placed on a loading platform. An encoder pulse unit detects the amount of the sheet bundle placed on the loading platform based on the opening amount of a pressure plate. A control unit determines on an alignment condition according to the amount of the sheet bundle. Rotating members align the sheet bundle in accordance with the alignment condition. When it is determined that another sheet bundle has been added to the loading platform, the control unit updates the alignment condition according to the total amount of the other sheet bundle and the sheet bundle remaining on the loading platform.

An infeed alignment device (10) for aligning a carton blank (14) such that a picking device can pick the carton blank. The infeed alignment device comprises an upper alignment member (11) for pushing on an upper part of the carton blank, a lower alignment member (12) for pushing on a lower part of the carton blank, and wherein the upper and/or lower alignment member is configured to push in a push direction on the top and/or the bottom of the carton blank such that the carton blank is in a picking position for the picking device.

A method for moving a stack of products by a robot. The robot has an articulated arm and at least one gripper disposed on the articulated arm for gripping the stack of products. The stack of products is turned, before being moved by the robot, with a pivoting device that is separate from the robot. The stack of products is turned about a horizontal axis and the stack of products, while out of the horizontal orientation, is aligned and/or straightened in one direction and/or straightened in two mutually orthogonal directions and/or vibrated and/or aerated and/or modified from a fanned-out stack of products to become an unfanned stack of products. The robot then takes the stack from the pivoting device and subsequently moves the stack.

A method moves a stack of products by a robot. The robot has an articulated arm and at least one gripper disposed on the articulated arm to grip the stack of printed products and the stack of products selectively being turned. The method includes pivoting the stack of products through an effective angle ?1< >180? and subsequently pivoting the stack through an effective angle ?2=180???1 or pivoting the stack back through an effective angle ?2=??1. This method of moving stacks of products is performed in an automated way and in particular of depositing them in a turned or unturned arrangement.

A sheet stacking unit of the disclosure includes a sheet stacking plate, a cursor, and a detection sensor. The cursor includes an alignment part for performing widthwise alignment of a document, and a rack extending along the widthwise direction. The detection sensor is placed opposite the rack, and has a light-emitting portion and a light-receiving portion. A plurality of detection-object parts placed in the rack along the widthwise direction have optical characteristics of different reflectivities or transmissivities from one another with respect to light emitted from the light-emitting portion. The controller detects a widthwise size of the document on a basis of output values from the detection sensor which detects light reflected or transmitted by the detection-object parts.

Disclosed is an automated insert feeding system and related methods, capable of removing bulk-packaged items from a tray or other package, and separating the bulk-packaged items individually for distribution into individual packages in high speed reliable fashion. The disclosed systems can also be loaded with multiple packages of the pre-packaged items for automatic feeding into the system which allows human operators to load several packages and allow the system to work unattended, thereby reducing man-hours spend on the process.

A pallet for transporting spacers for cigarette packs is disclosed, in which each spacer comprises a substantially rectangular flat body on which at least one through hole is obtained, the spacers being insertable in cartons for cigarette packs for spacing out packs with dimensions smaller than the standard dimensions, the pallet comprising vertical elements configured to insert the through holes of the spacers stacked on one another, the holes of the spacers of a stack being vertically aligned with each other so that each vertical element is inside the aligned holes of the spacers.

A sheet container includes a bottom plate, a regulating body, and a holding body. The bottom plate is disposed movable and has a bottom plate-side contact portion. The regulating body regulates a position of a trailing end of a sheet. The holding body has a holding body-side contact portion and to hold the regulating body. The bottom plate and the holding body have a gap between the bottom plate-side contact portion of the bottom plate and the holding body-side contact portion of the holding body in a state in which the bottom plate is not rotated. The bottom plate-side contact portion of the bottom plate and the holding body-side contact portion of the holding body contact with each other along with rotation of the bottom plate. The holding body moves to a downstream side in a sheet feeding direction in conjunction with the rotation of the bottom plate.