An automated sheet-moving system for moving sheets from a printing press and to a bindery and with a fully automated system where the sheets need not be manually handled. The sheets are initially formed in a stack on a stacker and are then placed onto a tray where a pick-up mechanism moves the sheets to a station adjacent a bindery feeder. An automated pick-up then moves the sheets from the station to the bindery feeder, in response to the requirement for sheets in the bindery feeder. A specially provided tray and pick-up mechanism are inter-related so that the pick-up mechanism can engage the tray and pick up the tray with the sheets thereon, and the mechanism can also eject the sheets from the tray at the location of the bindery feeder.
In a printer control device, the number of documents to be copied and the number of recording sheets on a sheet supplying tray are detected and subjected to comparison, and when the number of recording sheets is smaller than the number of documents, a signal is generated to replenish the tray with recording sheets, whereby if the number of recording sheets on the tray is not sufficient to copy all the documents, the operator is informed of the shortage of recording sheets before the printing operation starts.
An apparatus for handling stacks of sheet-like products is provided and includes a rotary table on which gripper devices are mounted for linear shifting. The table has a central axis of rotation about which it is rotatable and includes linear carriage guides on which carriages of the devices can be shifted linearly. A linear drive propels the carriages and devices thereon in a linear direction along the guides between waiting and working positions. Each gripper device includes upper and lower gripper units with the lower gripper unit sliding beneath and out from under the product stack as the carriages are driven between the waiting and working positions depending on whether the units are to support a stack to be moved or are dropping it off at a station for further processing and/or transfer.
