Flexible disk sorter slide apparatus

Sorter slide apparatus for disk jacket combinations that include a slide extended into a bin of a sorter for receiving such combinations as they are discharged into a bin and conveying them to a removable box of a magazine. The disk combinations in being moved to be discharged into a bin have their open rear flaps in advance of the remainder of the jacket, and when discharged fall onto the upper part of the slide to slide downwardly and transversely while the upper slide portion supports them to be inclined downwardly both in longitudinal and transverse directions. The transverse intermediate portion of the slide has edges to cause the combinations to swingingly rotate through an angle of about 90.degree. whereby the opened flap faces toward the bin. The disk combination in moving off the slide move over the top of a pole pin and have the edges opposite the rear flaps abut against the web of a bracket that is pivotally connected to the lower end portion of the slide or the front wall of the box so that the disks will move relative the jackets whereby the drive openings of the disks and jackets become substantially concentric relative to one another in the event they are not substantially concentric.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
In processing magnetic floppy disks with their rear jacket open through 
sorters into bins, for example such as disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 402,841, 
filed July 28, 1982 at times the disk drive openings do not remain 
centered (concentric) with reference to the jacket drive openings. Also 
such problems are encountered when transferring such disk jacket 
combinations into storage containers. In order to provide relatively 
simple mechanism that will rotate a disk jacket combination while 
conveying it under gravity from a bin to a container of a magazine to abut 
against a stop or container front wall and descent relative a pole pin so 
that the disk and jacket relatively move to have their drive openings 
become substantially concentric, this invention has been made. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
A slide for receiving a floppy disk jacket combination or the like from a 
sorter assembly that propells the combination in a longitudinal direction 
with the jacket flap leading, and conveying the received combination in a 
transverse direction under gravity to a storage container. The slide 
assembly has an upper portion for slidably supporting the assembly to be 
inclined downwardly in both longitudinal and transverse directions, and a 
lower portion that engages an edge of the jacekt as the jacket moves off 
the upper portion to turn the jacket through an angle of about 90.degree. 
and direct the jacket into a storage container with the flap trailing as 
the disk combination moves off the slide. 
An object of this invention is to provide new and novel slide means for 
conveying a floppy disk jacket combination or the like to a storage box 
and retarding the travel of part of the combination so that the 
combination turns through an angle of about 90.degree. prior to moving off 
the slide. A further object of this invention is to provide new and novel 
slide means for receiving floppy disk jacket combinations having opened 
unbent flaps from a sorter assembly and slidably support the combinations 
to rotate them through an angle of about 90.degree. and direct them into a 
box so that as to any of the disk combinations that have disk drive 
openings out of substantially concentric relationship to the jacket drive 
openings, the disks move relative to the jackets to become substantially 
concentric and the combinations descend in the box with the pole pins 
extending through the drive openings. In furtherance of the last mentioned 
object, it is another object of this invention to provide new and novel 
bracket means attached to the slide means to prevent disk jacket 
combinations overshooting the box as they move off the slide means and 
that is movably relative the box to avoid interference with the removal of 
the box from a magazine frame.

Referring now in particular to FIGS. 1-3, there is shown a portion of a 
sorter machine, generally designated 10, that includes bins B that are in 
part defined by side walls 13, an end wall 11 and a bottom wall 12. 
Flippers (fingers) 14 and roller assemblies 15, 16 are provided for 
supporting and moving the floppy disk and jacket combinations D, or the 
like in the longitudinal direction of arrow 17 and upon the operation of 
the fingers 14, direct a disk combination D into the desired bin. Other 
than the parts of the sorter shown, the structure for mounting the roller 
assemblies and flippers, operating the flippers and driving at least one 
set of roller assemblies to propel the disk jacket combinations has been 
indicated by box 20. Since sorters of varying conventional constructions 
can be used, and the sorter that is in part shown herein has been 
described in greater detail in said copending application Ser. No. 402,841 
it will not be further described herein, said copending application being 
incorporated herein by reference to the extent necessary to understand the 
construction of the sorter and use of this invention. 
The slide assembly of this invention, generally designated 22, is provided 
for conveying disk jacket combinations D from a sorter bin into a magazine 
box, generally designated 24, of a magazine M. The magazine includes a 
frame having a bracket 23 mounted by appropriate supporting structure 25, 
for example a table, frame members 30 that are dependingly mounted by the 
bracket and mount a plate 31, and a plurality of longitudinally spaced box 
mounting members 32 that are mounted by the plate to extend transversely 
forwardly thereof. Mounting members 32 have edge portions 32a that are 
transversely downwardly inclined in a forward direction to removably 
support the adjacent transverse parts of the top perimetric flanges 33 of 
the boxes 24 (only one box shown). Portions of flange 33 are extended into 
cut-outs 32b in the mounting members to limit the forward downward 
transverse movement of the box in the direction of arrow 39. However the 
boxes can be moved a short distance in the opposite direction to clear the 
cut-outs and then moved upwardly in a forward direction to clear the 
magazine frame and slide. The bottom wall 40 of each box mounts a pole pin 
(stacking pin) 29 to extend at right angles thereto and to edges 32a. Pin 
29 has a top conical point 29a. 
Each slide 22 is transversely elongated and includes an upper portion X 
having a planar bottom wall 35, a planar generally rectangular flange 36 
that is joined along its transverse edge 38 to the bottom wall to be 
trailing relative the direction of longitudinal movement (arrow 17) of the 
disk combination by the sorter for being discharged into a bin, and a 
planar, generally triangular flange 37 that is joined to the lower part of 
the bottom wall longitudinally opposite flange 36. Advantageously the 
planes of flanges 36, 37 are parallel to one another, flange 37 extending 
to a lower elevation than the plane of wall 35. The top slide surfaces of 
the bottom wall 35 and flange 36 are inclined relative to one another at 
an included obtuse angle, for example about 130.degree.-160.degree.. 
Before further describing the invention it will be mentioned that the 
jacket shown (see FIG. 9) has opposite side edges 63, 64 with a protect 
notch 65 opening to edge 64, a front edge 66, a central drive opening 67, 
a head access slot 72, and a rear flap 68 having diagonally cut corner 
edges 69, 71 and a terminal edge 70 that is parallel to the front edge. 
With the jacket in a closed sealed condition, the jacket is square. 
However with the rear flap in an unbent open condition the dimension L 
between edges 66, 70 is greater than than the dimension T between the side 
edges 63, 64. 
The upper longitudinal edge 35a of the bottom wall and the upper 
longitudinal dimension of the upper edge of flange 36 are each less then 
the dimension L of the jacket, while the longitudinal dimension of edge 
35a is greater than the minimum longitudinal dimension of the lower part 
of the bottom wall 35. The longitudinal dimension of the bottom wall 35 
decreases in a transverse direction away from its top edge along the 
length of the juncture of flange 37 to the bottom wall while the 
longitudinal dimension of flange 37 increases in the same direction. Thus 
the upper part of the bottom wall 35 is generally rectangular while the 
lower part is generally trapezoidal. 
The lower portion Y of the slide includes a planar, generally trapezoidal 
bottom wall 41 that along an intermediate part of its upper longitudinal 
major base edge 43 is integrally joined to the lower longitudinal edge of 
the upper portion bottom wall along the length thereof to be coplanar with 
wall 35. With the leading transverse edge 44 of the rectangular part of 
the upper portion extending perpendicular to the direction of discharge 
movement (arrow 17) of the disk assembly by the sorter, the leading part 
43a of edge 43 extends a small distance longitudinally forwardly of edge 
44 and is transversely spaced a short distance from the lower longitudinal 
edge 37a of the triangular flange while the trailing part 43b of edge 43 
extends longitudinally rearwardly of wall 35 (direction opposite arrow 17) 
to be longitudinally intermediate the transverse edges 45, 38 of flange 36 
and more than half the longitudinal distance toward edge 45, and 
transversely spaced a short distance from the lower longitudinal edge 36a 
of flange 36. 
Joined to the opposite transverse edges of the lower bottom wall to extend 
the length thereof are generally planar vertical leading and trailing side 
walls 50 and 51 respectively that converge toward one another in a 
downward direction at a relatively small angle. A flange 52 that extends 
the length of side wall 51 is joined thereto to have its top surface 
inclined relative the top surface of the lower bottom wall at about the 
same angle of inclination that flange 36 has relative to wall 35. The 
perpendicular spacing of the trailing edge 54 of flange 52 from the bottom 
wall 41 is substantially less than (for example about one half of) the 
corresponding spacing of the trailing edge 45 of flange 36 from the bottom 
wall 35 while the longitudinal spacing of edge 54 from a straight line 
extension of the juncture of flange 36 to bottom wall 35 is nearly the 
same as that of edge 45 from said juncture, but decreases slightly in a 
direction toward the end remote from wall 35. 
Each of the sorter bins is of a longitudinal dimension that is slightly 
greater than the corresponding dimension of the slide upper portion X 
while the longitudinal dimension of the upper portion is greater than 
dimension L. The slide in a position of use has its upper longitudinal 
edge closely adjacent the bin end wall 11 and is of a dimension such that 
in the plane of the top surface of the bottom walls the spacing between 
the vertically extending edge 74 of the side wall of the respective bin to 
the adjacent edge 75 of side wall 50 at the juncture of the side wall to 
the lower bottom wall is less than dimension T of the jacket, but may be 
greater than the corresponding dimension of the flap edge 70. Further the 
longitudinal dimension of each of the major base edge 43 and minor base 
edge 76 of the lower bottom wall is less than dimension L of the jacket 
while the minor base longitudinal dimension is only slightly greater than 
dimension T. The transverse spacing of the major base edge from the minor 
base edge in the plane of the lower bottom wall is greater than dimension 
L. 
In order to support the slide in a position of use it has a leg 78 
dependingly joined to the upper longitudinal edge of the upper bottom wall 
35. In a position of use the leg abuts against the bottom wall 12 of the 
sorter bin while the lower bottom wall 41 is, for example, bolted at 79 to 
an inclined flange 27a of the magazine bracket whereby the bottom walls 
35, 41 are inclined transversely upwardly at an acute angle to the 
horizontal, for example about 30.degree.. The bolts 79 are located 
adjacent longitudinal edge part 43b whereby the disk jacket will not 
contact them during normal use of the slide. 
In order to prevent a disk combination overshooting a storage container 
after sliding off the slide there is provided a generally U-shaped 
bracket, generally designated 80. The bracket includes a pair of elongated 
legs 81 that are pivotally connected at 82 to the lower portions of side 
walls 50, 51 to be located on the remote sides thereof. The opposite ends 
of the legs are joined to the web 83. Joined to the intermediate portions 
of the legs are generally L-shaped flanges 85 that initially extend 
longitudinally remote from one another along parts 85a and then along 
parts 85b at right angles thereto so as in a position of use extend along 
the perimetric flange 33 of the respective box 24. In the bracket position 
of use the legs have portions 81a that may extend downwardly inside of a 
magazine box and extend downwardly about the same amount as parts 85b, 
portion 81a being located remote from the pivots 82 and joined to adjacent 
web portions which may also extend downwardly inside of the box. The web 
also extends above the legs and the box. Flange 52 is provided with a 
notch 87 to permit the bracket being pivoted from its use position of FIG. 
1 to a retracted position that web 83 overhangs the lower portion of the 
lower bottom wall to facilitate the removal of a box from the magazine 
frame. In the position of use the spacing of the web from the lower 
longitudinal edge 76 of the lower bottom wall is greater than disk 
combination dimension L. 
Preferrably at least the surfaces of the slide that are engaged by the disk 
combinations during use are coated with a sutiable anti-friction coating. 
Even though the sorter may have a number of bins and may have a slide 
assembly for each bin to convey disk combinations to the magazine box that 
is associated with each bin, use will be described with reference to only 
one such set of bin, slide and box. With the slide assembly in a position 
of use and the sorter "on", as a disk combination is moved by rollers 15, 
16 with the rear flap in advance of edge 66, fingers 14 are operated to 
deflect the disk jacket combination to move longitudinally and downwardly 
in the bin (see D2 in FIG. 3). As a result of this deflection the disk 
combination is inclined downwardly in a longitudinal direction so that as 
the combination descends the jacket portion adjacent edge 69 engages the 
upper bottom wall 35 adjacent the bin leading side wall and the portion of 
the jacket adjacent the juncture of edges 63, 66 engages the upper 
inclined flange. Thence the jacket becomes transversely and downwardly 
inclined so that the upper flange sliding supports the jacket adjacent 
edge 66 along at least the major portion of the length thereof and the 
bottom wall slidingly supports the jacket adjacent edge 70 along at least 
the major portion of the length thereof (see D3 in FIGS. 1, 5 and 6). Due 
to the inclination of the upper flange, in the event edge 70 does not abut 
against the bin leading side wall the disk combination moves 
longitudinally to engage said wall. It is to be noted the longitudinal 
dimensions of the upper flange and bottom wall are such that at all times 
the jacket engages the upper portion X there is an air space between the 
upper portion X and a part of the jacket intermediate edges 70, 66 (see 
FIG. 6). As a result air can escape from between the jacket and the slide 
upper portion to avoid the combination floating on an air cushion and 
distorting the desired path of movement of the disk combination. Further 
at this time the disk combination is supported to be inclined 
longitudinally downwardly and also inclined transversely downwardly. 
As the disk combination moves down the slide (arrow 39), about the time 
jacket edge portion 64 moves out of the bin, the jacket portion adjacent 
edge 71 moves into overhanging relationship to triangle flange 37. After a 
little more than half of the disk combination edge portion 70 moves over 
flange 37, the corner portion of the jacket adjacent edge 71 moves 
downwardly along the triangular flange to be below the plane of the top 
surface of the slide bottom walls and begins to rotatably swing in the 
direction of arrow 89. 
The disk combination then continues to rotate and slide downwardly along 
the slide upper portion to move edge 64 (or notch 65) to abut against edge 
part 43a (or sometimes against edge 75 of side wall 50) adjacent jacket 
notch 65. At this time the jacket corner portion defined by edges 64, 66 
overhangs the bottom wall 41 and is spaced therefrom (see D4 in FIG. 5). 
As a result of the jacket abutting against edge part 43a it retards the 
movement of the abutted against portion so that the jacket rapidly 
rotatably swings through nearly the remainder of a 90.degree. angle from 
the angular position it had prior to in part overhanging the triangular 
flange. As the jacket so rotates edge 64 may slide along edge part 43a to 
abut against edge 75 of the side wall 50 and the jacket moves off the 
upper flange with the general longitudinal angle of inclination of the 
jacket relative to the plane of the bottom walls decreasing due to the 
relative positions of the upper and lower flanges 36,52. In the event the 
jacket has not been sufficiently rotated by edge 64 abutting against edge 
part 43a so that the jacket corner portion defined by edges 63, 66 will 
descend onto the lower bottom wall as the jacket moves off the upper 
portion, said corner portion will slidingly abut against flange 52 and an 
edge portion of the jacket adjacent edge 71 will abut against the side 
wall 50. Now as the jacket continues to slide transversely, due to the 
inclination of the lower flange 52 relative the lower bottom wall, the 
jacket rotates to be entirely between the side walls, and in parallel 
slidingly abutting relationship to the lower bottom wall prior to jacket 
edge 66 moving over the lower wall lower edge 76. Side wall 50 limits such 
rotation. 
The disk combination in moving off the slide has edge 66 move over the top 
of the pole pin and then edge 66 engages the bracket web (or front side 
wall 93 of the box) to descend in the box with the pole pin extending 
through the drive openings of the disk and jacket. In the event the drive 
openings of the jacket and disk are not substantially concentric when the 
jacket edge 66 engages the web 83 (or box front wall 93) the sudden 
stoppage of the transverse downward movement of the jacket alone or in 
conjunction with the disk combination descending along the conical portion 
of the pole pin wil result in the disk moving in the jacket so the drive 
openings become substantially concentric as indicated in FIG. 9. As may be 
noted in FIG. 1, the box 24, including pole pin 29, are inclined 
downwardly at a relatively steep angle so that the disk jacket combination 
will descend under gravity to the bottom of the box or onto the top disk 
jacket combination in the box. 
Although a particular magazine assembly has been referred to herein, it is 
to be understood the construction thereof may varied as long as the disk 
jacket combination in moving off the slide will have its edge 66 abut 
against the bracket web, a stop plate or container front wall 93 so that 
in the event the disk drive opening is not substantially concentric with 
that of the jacket the inertia of the disk will result in the disk moving 
relative to the jacket to a substantially concentric condition and the 
disk jacket combination will descnd under gravity to overlay the uppermost 
disk jacket combination in the container (box). Further in place of the 
bracket 80, a stop plate may be provided on the magazine frame or the 
boxes 24 to have edges 66 abut thereagainst (if they do not strike the box 
front wall) and then descend in the box. 
It is to be understood the slide assembly can be used for directing disk 
jacket combinations that have their rear flaps sealed into removable 
storage containers to be in stacked relationship.