MEANS FOR OVERCOMING FAN-OUT IN LITHOGRAPH PRESS

An infeed mechanism including an oscillating transfer assembly for gripping the straight leading edge of a sheet in a sheet-fed press and for transferring it to grippers on a rotating cylinder in a bowed condition in order to overcome the tendency for the trailing portion of the sheet to spread or fan-out as it is acted upon by the press cylinders. The transfer assembly has gripper pads which are in general alinement but which are moved into the locus of a bow during a stroke of swinging movement for progressively deforming the leading edge of the sheet into a bow from the time that the sheet is engaged to the time that the sheet is released to the grippers on the rotating cylinder. In the preferred embodiment the gripper pads on the transfer assembly are mounted upon a pad bar which is progressively bowed in one direction as the transfer assembly is swung into its sheet pick-up position and then progressively restored to its straight position and into a bow of opposite direction as the transfer assembly is swung to the position where the sheet is released to the grippers on the constantly rotating cylinder. Means are provided for varying the amount of bow in the bar including levers on the transfer assembly which are actuated by a cam and cam follower which move relatively to one another as the transfer assembly swings back and forth.