The present invention includes a lift portion lifting and inverting a sheet group including a plurality of stacked sheets and a conveyor portion that moves, along a conveying direction, each sheet transferred from the lift portion, wherein: the lift portion includes frames, a fork portion, an inversion mechanism turning the fork portion to lift and invert the sheet group, and a fork movement mechanism moving the fork portion; the lift portion is equipped with a width direction movement mechanism moving the sheet group in a width direction; and after the sheet group is mounted on the fork portion and before the sheet group is transferred to the conveyor portion, the width direction movement mechanism is controlled on the basis of detection information from a position sensor to center the sheet group within a reference width direction range.

A system for stacking a fanfolded continuous web of sheet material of indefinite length, such as corrugated cardboard, includes a feeding device that guides the continuous web longitudinally, a creasing device downstream of the feeding device to form transverse creases on the continuous web with a constant longitudinal pitch to define a succession of adjacent partitions, a folding device downstream of the creasing device for progressively and alternately fanfolding adjacent partitions along the creases, and a collection device for collecting the folded web. The collection device includes a vertical column for retaining the stack of fanfolded adjacent partitions, and a cutting unit is mounted at the top of the column to act on the fly on the top adjacent partition of the stack while tracking stack-formation without stopping the folding device. A method of stacking a sheet material, such as a fanfolded continuous web of corrugated cardboard of indefinite length.

A chain tensioner (50; 500) for a conveying device (70) of a machine (1; 1) for processing elements in the form of sheets (10), the conveying device (70) includes two lateral chain sets connected to the ends of transverse gripper bars (75) able to grasp the elements (10) and at least one chain-guiding device (90) configured to guide a respective chain set (80); the chain tensioner (50; 500) includes: an actuator (9) controlled by a control unit (8), a movable support (11), a transmission element (12) borne by the movable support (11), a rotary element (13) rotated by the actuator (9) and cooperating with the transmission element (12) in order to exert a thrust force on the movable support (11), the rotary element (13) being rotatable, to adjust the tension of the chain set (80). The actuator (9) is controlled in synchronism with the machine angle (MA). A machine (1; 1) for processing elements and a method for tensioning the chain sets (80) of the conveying device (70) are disclosed.

Systems for providing efficient manufacturing of sheet or box structures, corrugate sheets, or other products of varying size and structure often with pre-applied print (pre-print) are provided herein. The systems include various features and modules that enable automated control of the corrugator, including the knives, slitters, scorers and cut-to-mark detection system(s), are contemplated. Colored markings may be used to indicate an order change section between two order sections of a roll plan for the manufacturing process. The colored markings are detected as the corrugator runs and, once detected, a controller determines a next set of order instructionse.g., to match the upcoming order. Thus, an order change may occur, thereby enabling automated control of the corrugator based on the new order instructions. Computer readable markings may enable checking of the actual position in the roll plan to an intended position, enabling stopping or changing of the corrugator operation if needed.

Systems for providing efficient manufacturing of paper, sheet, and/or box products of varying size and structure, often with pre-applied print (pre-print), are provided herein. Efficient customer ordering/tracking, job aggregation, print imposition, corrugator planning, and tracking and adjustments throughout the manufacturing process are contemplated. A reel editor is configured to edit the roll based on waste and/or errors that occurred during various manufacturing processes (e.g., during printing). A control plan defining what is on each roll of printed web product may be updated after editing. Depending on the configuration, the reel editor may be integrated with various manufacturing components. The reel editor may be configured to determine if there is enough waste on the roll to even making editing worthwhile, such as based on desired quality of the images, customer requirements, different price points, among other possible factors.

Certain examples described herein relate to transporting sheets of print media. In one example, a media transport apparatus has a plurality of media transport sections including a first media transport section and a second media transport section offset from the first media transport section in a media transport direction. The media transport apparatus has a holding section arranged to receive a sheet of print media from the first media transport section. The holding section is moveable to deposit the sheet of print media upon the second media transport section.

A feeder system for feeding a stack (101) of stackable flat, carton elements to a processing device: A delivery ramp (103) includes a receiving surface (104) on which an edge portion (111) and a center portion (116) of the stack (101) is arrangeable. A transport device (125) includes a supporting platform on which at least a further edge portion (115) of the stack (101) is supportable, wherein the supporting platform is arranged adjacent to the receiving surface (104) such that the further edge portion (115) of the stack (101) may be received. A downholder element (117), adjusts a size of a gap (705) between the downholder element and a supporting platform, such that the further edge portion (115) of the stack (101) is clampable between them. The transport device (125) is movable between the receiving position, at which the stack (101) may be received by the delivery ramp (103), and a hand over position at the processing device such that the stack (101) is movable from the receiving position to the hand over position.

A counter-ejector comprises: an elevator including a table displaceable in a forward-backward direction parallel to a feeding-out direction; a backward restriction member for restricting a situation where backward edges of corrugated paperboard sheets in a batch are displaced in a direction opposite to the feeding-out direction; table upward-downward movement drive device; a table displacement drive device; and a control device. The control device executes a table downward movement control processing such that the table is displaced backwardly in at least part of a time period when the table is moved downwardly from the hopper part to a table stop position and a time period when the table is stopped at the table stop position, and a table upward movement control processing such that the table is displaced forwardly in a time period when the table is moved upwardly from the table stop position to the hopper part.

A system for splicing together multiple sheets of generally rigid material into a continuous sheet. The system includes a cart with a cutting mechanism and a sealing mechanism. The cutting mechanism is configured to cut a pattern of segments through the sheet materials that can be interlocked to form a seam. The interlocking segments may include asymmetrical features. The sealing mechanism can apply tape to the seal to secure it. The splicing system may be used while one of the multiple sheets of generally rigid material is concurrently in use by a packaging machine without interruption to the packaging machine.

A device for processing a material web (3) that includes means (2) for conveying the material web in a longitudinal direction (L), wherein both an applied, in particular repeated printed image (9) and a control line (10, 11) extending in the longitudinal direction are configured on the material web (3). The control line (10, 11) has a defined position transverse to the material web (3), and the control line (10, 11) is scanned by means of a sensor (15, 16) in a material web (3) processing step. The control line (3) has a digital code structure in its longitudinal direction (L) that encodes a data set of at least four bits, in particular at least two bytes, of information content.