A method and a device for separating flat, sheet-like elements from a stack of such elements, in particular, from a stack of unexposed printing plates that will be automatically loaded into a printing plate recorder. When the upper or front element in the stack is being separated from the stack, an edge area of this element is curved up in some way.
A stack of alternating plates and interleaves are stored in a cassette of a plate feed apparatus. An interleaf is removed from the stack by a plurality of vertically moving suction cups. There are cases where a plate is attached to the back surface of the interleaf during the removal. Lifting up the plurality of suction cups being reciprocated horizontally causes the plate attached to the interleaf to drop off.
An apparatus for separating printing plates which are separated from one another in a stack, preferably individually by intermediate layers, has a lifting device for raising a printing plate or an intermediate layer from the stack. The apparatus further has a separating device for the intermediate layers, in particular as a constituent part of a loading device of a unit for setting images on printing plates. The separating device is configured as a rocker which can be pivoted onto the lifting device and can be pivoted away from the lifting device and contains suction elements and one drivable transport roller. An adhering intermediate layer is pulled off from the printing plate with the suction elements, and the intermediate layer is transported away with the transport roller.
