Convertech have developed various guillotine type systems suitable for a wide range of sheeting, cutting and cropping applications. These can be integrated into dedicated new systems or retrofitted to existing plant.

Application: The following example is of a fully automated system designed and built by Convertech for removing stapled splines from books, then presenting batches of resulting sheets to digital scanners for reading collected printed data.

Method: The stapled books are pre-loaded into two magazines and then auto fed singly onto a conveyor which presents the spline to the knife area which is then accurately clamped and cropped preventing knife damage by the metal staples but also assuring the printed area is not affected or mutilated. Crumple sensors’ are positioned to prevent pre-damaged or misshaped books entering the knife zone. Cropped sheets are then stacked and fed in batches to the scanners.

Front view showing magazine loading station and operator’s panel

All operator access guards are safety interlocked

Not shown: output batching station and conveyor to scanners

Convertech heavy duty, pneumatic clamp and knife assembly

 Designed and built specifically for this application

Rear section of machine showing, on the right, pneumatic transporting unit for loading single books onto conveyor. Transporter continuously traverses automatically across to loaded magazines after emptying

Clamp and knife assembly can be seen on the left with delivery tray for cropped splines