A felt gripper head contains two regions of felt material each on plates that slide and form a slight angle with respect to each other during engagement with a fibrous substrate material.

A system for feeding a diaphragm includes a diaphragm separating device adapted to separate a diaphragm from a stack of diaphragms, a first visual device adapted to identify the diaphragm separated from the stack of diaphragms and a position of the diaphragm, a robot adapted to pick up the diaphragm separated from the stack of diaphragms under guidance of the first visual device, and a second visual device adapted to check whether the diaphragm picked up by the robot is a single diaphragm.

A cloth clamping device includes a clamping mechanism that comes into contact with a cloth and an up-and-down movement mechanism that moves the clamping mechanism up and down. The clamping mechanism includes a support portion, a leg portion, a foot portion, and a clamping portion. The clamping portion has a leading end portion facing the foot portion in a sideway direction and a base end portion being pivotally supported by the support portion. When the leg portion is lowered with respect to the support portion, the leading end portion pivots downward and is positioned in a sideway direction with respect to the foot portion, and when the leg portion is raised with respect to the support portion, the clamping portion comes into contact with the upper surface of the cloth and the leading end portion is positioned above the foot portion, and the clamping mechanism draw up the cloth.

A detaching method of sheets from a stack of sheets from a stack of sheets and a relative detaching apparatus is disclosed, including at least a gripping head of a handling device of sheets and a nozzle assembly apt to eject an air flow to a lateral edge of a stack of sheets, furthermore including: a storage assembly of pressurised air provided at least with a compressed-air tank equipped with a pressure multiplier and a relative first pressure adjuster; and a high-pressure pipe between the nozzle assembly and the storage assembly intercepted by a fast-opening electrovalve. The nozzle assembly is provided with a nozzle, supplied through the electrovalve, configured as a convergent/divergent spout.

A detaching method of sheets from a stack of sheets from a stack of sheets and a relative detaching apparatus is disclosed, including at least a gripping head of a handling device of sheets and a nozzle assembly apt to eject an air flow to a lateral edge of a stack of sheets, furthermore including: a storage assembly of pressurised air provided at least with a compressed-air tank equipped with a pressure multiplier and a relative first pressure adjuster; and a high-pressure pipe between the nozzle assembly and the storage assembly intercepted by a fast-opening electrovalve. The nozzle assembly is provided with a nozzle, supplied through the electrovalve, configured as a convergent/divergent spout.

An image forming apparatus includes an accommodation unit, feeding, conveying, and separating members, and detecting, control, image forming, and regulating units. The conveying member conveys a fed recording material. The separating member forms a nip and separates recording materials. The detecting unit detects that the recording material has been fed to the nip. The feeding member starts feeding an accommodated recording material and, where a recording material is fed to the nip, causes the feeding to be finished. An image is formed on a fed recording material. The regulating unit regulates an end on an upstream side. The control unit measures a period from a recording material feeding to detection that a recording material is fed to the nip. Based on the measured period, information is output indicating that a position of the regulating unit is deviated from a position according to a size of the accommodated recording materials.

A single material sheet is picked from a support member. A gripping member is aligned above the support member, where the gripping member includes a pair of spaced apart pinching members movably coupled with a main frame, and each pinching member includes an exposed gripping surface that is substantially planar and that faces an exposed surface of the material sheet. The gripping member is moved a first distance toward the exposed surface of the material sheet such that the gripping surfaces of the pinching members engage a portion of the material sheet. The pinching members for the gripping member are moved toward each other while the pinching members engage the portion of the material sheet so as to pinch the portion of the material sheet between the pinching members and vertically displace the material sheet from the support member.

A single material sheet is picked from a support member. A gripping member is aligned above the support member, where the gripping member includes a pair of spaced apart pinching members movably coupled with a main frame, and each pinching member includes an exposed gripping surface that is substantially planar and that faces an exposed surface of the material sheet. The gripping member is moved a first distance toward the exposed surface of the material sheet such that the gripping surfaces of the pinching members engage a portion of the material sheet. The pinching members for the gripping member are moved toward each other while the pinching members engage the portion of the material sheet so as to pinch the portion of the material sheet between the pinching members and vertically displace the material sheet from the support member.

Material moving apparatus, systems and methods are presented which can include an air material mover. Airflow through orifices can create a localized vacuum such that the uppermost or top layer of material can be separated from the stack of material. The airflow can interact with the material to produce flutter, which assists in separating lower layers from the uppermost layer. A material gripper can grip the uppermost or top layer of material for removal from the stack and repositioning in a work area.

A sheet conveying device includes a separation member, a second conveyance member, a third conveyance member, and a first drive control portion. The separation member separates a sheet in contact with a first conveyance member from another at a first position where the first conveyance member comes into contact with the sheet. The second and third conveyance members are respectively downstream of the first and second positions. The first drive control portion stops driving the first conveyance member (1) after the leading edge of the sheet reaches the second position and before the trailing edge of the sheet passes through the first position when the sheet length is not exceeding a specific distance based on a distance between the first and third positions and (2) after the leading edge reaches the third position and before the trailing edge passes through the first position when the length exceeds the specific distance.