Patent ID: 6572102
Filing Date: 2003-06-03
Classification: B65H

Abstract:
An adjustable depth sheet tray comprising:a discharge plate having a front face with a plurality of vertical slits, the discharge plate having a perpendicular arm at each end thereof, each arm used for attaching the sheet tray to a sheet feeding device so that sheets can be added to a stack of sheets in the sheet tray, a depth adjustment slot in the arms of the discharge plate for adjusting the depth of the sheet tray, a guide rod extending between the depth adjustment slots in the arms, the guide rod having threaded ends, a knob having a bolt portion, the bolt portion passing through the depth adjustment slots in the arms of the discharge plate and threadedly connected to the guide rod to fix the guide rod at a desired position in the depth adjustment slots, a bracket having a threaded aperture therein slidingly attached to the guide rod such that the apertures in the brackets can be adjustably aligned with the slits in the discharge plate, a second knob having a bolt portion, the bolt portion passing through the slits in discharge plate and threadedly connecting to the bracket to fix the guide rod at a desired position, a left tray sidewall having a horizontal slot for fastening the left tray sidewall to the discharge plate by passing the second knob bolt portion though the horizontal slot, through the slit in the discharge plate and thread the bolt into the bracket on the guide rod, the horizontal slot allows for horizontal adjustment of the left tray sidewall relative to the discharge plate so that the length of the sheets added to the sheet tray may be varied, a top slot in the left tray sidewall sidewall extending perpendicularly to the horizontal slot, a right tray sidewall having a horizontal slot for fastening the right tray sidewall to the discharge plate by passing the second knob bolt portion though the horizontal slot through the slit in the discharge plate and thread the bolt into the bracket on the guide rod, the horizontal slot allows for horizontal adjustment of the right tray sidewall relative to the discharge plate, so that the length of the sheets added to the sheet tray may be varied, a top slot in the right tray sidewall sidewall extending perpendicularly to the horizontal slot, a top guide rod adjustably attached to the right and left tray walls through the top slots therein, the adjustment allows for the length of the sheets fed into the sheet tray to be varied, a finger hingedly attached to the top rod guide and spring biased to the vertical position, such that the finger forms a barrier to sheets added to the sheet tray and can be moved out of the way by a force applied to the finger on its hinge, such that the stack of sheets will move the finger out of the way when removing the stack from the sheet feeder and the spring bias will return the finger to the horizontal vertical position after the stack of sheets has been removed.