Hinged and bifurcated cart document handling apparatus utilized with a lazy-portrait document printing system

For use with lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) formatted document pages printed on a continuous web of material, an apparatus and method of use for assembling correctly page-sequenced document sets that utilizes a slitter for separating the LPEE formatted document pages into two separate streams of continuous sheets that are loaded onto a document transfer cart that has two side-by-side and hinged-together document receiving trays, for each tray a removable bottom support plate assembly having casters on the lower portion of one of the bottom support plates, a top document delivery roller for each tray, a central hinge connecting the two trays to each another, support rack pivot rods, a handle secured to each tray, and cart transfer wheels.

Not Applicable

NOTICE OF MATERIAL SUBJECT TO COPYRIGHT PROTECTION

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains generally to an apparatus and method for handling lazy-portrait printed documents (printing across the continuous paper web to produce paired portrait orientated pages or in “lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end” formatting (LPEE)) so as to generate acceptably oriented pages that are then processed and grouped into pre-designated document sets with continuously numbered pages. More particularly, to a hinged divided or bifurcated transfer cart that permits a desired reorientation of a portion of the lazy-portrait printed documents to facilitate further processing in a correctly ordered page-sequence for document sets, wherein when LPEE head-to-head or bottom-to-bottom paired pages are printed, one half of the printed pairs must be flipped for generation of a sequential page count in each final assembled document set.

2. Description of Related Art

To fully understand the subject invention, it is deemed worthwhile to stress the difference between existing/traditional “two-up portrait” versus the current and novel subject “lazy-portrait” printing styles and the documents produced by each type of printing scheme. Existing high-speed duplex variable data printing is carried out most frequently with continuous form printers using what is termed a “two-up portrait” format on a continuous web of paper. Two portrait printed sheets are printed side-by-side (both oriented in the same exact direction. This process, the standard in the industry, produces a continuous output of pages where, for example, the first four sheets (eight pages, front and back on four, eventually separate, sheets) appear as shown inFIG. 1. Currently, an advantage of printing in the prior art format is that it is compatible with more existing printers and more existing post-printing equipment for handling the printed sheets. A critical element of the prior art printing method is that to print either black or color markings on both pages, with the headings in color and the body in black, both the black and color-capable printing heads must span the entire width (long-side to long-side of a page) of both the duplexed sheets, WBand WC, respectively (seeFIG. 1).FIG. 2depicts a pair of traditionally formatted pages that are then separated/cut-apart and simply stacked on top of one another, as shown inFIG. 3, to produce a correctly page-sequences document set. Examples of printers that function in this manner are the IBM InfoPrint 4000 and Oce VarioStream 7000. In a typical prior art printing system a continuous stream of traditionally printed sheets (such as the ones shown inFIG. 1and/orFIG. 2) is printed and then moves into a slitter that separates the single steam into two streams of continuous sheets that then enter a cutter and collator for further processing to generate correctly page-sequenced document sets (as illustrated inFIG. 3for two cut sheets).

For the current subject invention, paper is printed in a lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) format (as seen inFIGS. 4 and 5, for four pages and two pages, respectively), which is a means for more efficient and cost effective printing of variable and form data onto paper oriented in a lazy-portrait orientation. The term “lazy-portrait” (also known in the industry as “rotated landscape” when a printer merely uses a traditional printer head alignment spanning the entire page to print a rotated image) is defined as a portrait oriented page that is generated by printing the page from one wide edge to the other wide edge (side to side) and not from narrow edge or end to narrow edge or end (top to bottom or visa-versa), as is done in every other currently existing printing system.

The critically issue with the subject invention is that when a pair of head-to-head or bottom-to-bottom pages are printed on a continuous stream of paper, the single stream of paper with the paired images must then be separated/slitted into two separate streams of paper with one stream being flipped over to correctly orient the final pages when cut and stacked into a document set (as seen inFIG. 6for a pair of LPEE printed sheets). The current subject invention presents a system and method for accomplishing this sheet flipping process by flipping one entire stream of post-slitted sheets via utilization of a hinged and bifurcated LPEE document transfer cart.

Again, it is noted that conventional paper transport cart systems and paper handling systems exist that can transport and process paper printed in the existing and traditional two-up portrait style (not the subject paper LPEE orientation). Future document sets have pages that are already aligned head to head, and existing finishing, cutting, and inserting equipment readily handles the orientation of the two-up portrait printed paper by slitting the two-up portrait web of paper in either first to last (1 to N) or last to first (N to 1) document page-sequencing.

Since the two-up portrait printed paper is printed narrow-end to narrow-end, there is a need to rotate/flip the stack of finished paper pages so that the document heads from both stacks (the slit stacks) of documents need to be ultimately presented and accumulated together to form a finished document set.

Various turn-bars are found on cutters for folded continuous form stacks or continuous form rolls, but the entire stream of paper is always reoriented by use of such turn-bars, completely unacceptable for the subject system/method in which only one half of the initial paper stream is required to be flipped. Prior inserters handle stacks of paper that are in printed two-up portrait format with either the head of the document or the bottom of the document printed first, in either first to last sequence order, or last to first sequence order.

An example of a currently manufactured cart for handling two up portrait paper is manufactured by Beste Bunch Co., Inc. This cart (very much a traditional dolly for moving heavy items from one location to another) is designed to receive paper coming out of a folder attached to a continuous form printer like an Oce VarioStream 7000. The existing prior art process is depicted clearly inFIGS. 7A,7B, and7C, InFIG. 7Aa traditional dolly/cart is pivoted into a horizontal position on a support rack (on the far left ofFIG. 7A) to accept incoming fan-folded documents. Such fan-folded documents are shown stacked on the dolly/cart (with a bottom support plate removed to accept incoming documents), extending along the delivery tract, and coming out of the printer (on the far right ofFIG. 7A). As indicated, to permit the fan-folded documents to enter onto the dolly/cart from the delivery tract, the bottom support plate is temporarily removed, the fan-folded documents loaded, and the bottom support plate reinstalled when the documents are loaded. When the traditional dolly/cart is fully loaded with two-up portrait printed sheets the bottom support plate is secured back into a normal vertical load-supporting position and the entire dolly/cart pivoted on the support rack into the vertical transfer position with the wheels contacting the floor (plainly illustrated inFIG. 7B). As seen inFIG. 7C, the loaded traditional dolly/cart is then backed away from the support rack and moved to any desired location for transfer of the fan-folded documents. The entire intact (non-slitted) stream of two-up portrait printed sheets is moved as a continuous fan-folded unit.

The prior system is an easy way to process paper on a printer, folder, cart, and cutter, either a stand-alone cutter, or a cutter attached to a mail piece inserter.

The prior dolly/cart system must simply handle a stack of two-up portrait printed paper without any special handling or stack manipulation required, since the needed document orientation automatically results from the way the printed paper exits the printer. The paper is then pulled off of the prior art dolly/cart-stack in one direction into a page cutter, either first on-first off the cart, or first on-last off the cart, depending on how the cart was loaded with the paper.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,994,005 (an apparatus for slitting, merging, and cutting a continuous paper web) describes an in-line turn-bar that is positioned after slitting and prior to merging the two streams, but this invention only positionally moves one slit lane of paper to overlap with another slit lane of paper, without turning over the obverse to reverse orientation (or face to back orientation). This patent differs from the subject invention in that, since there is no need, suggestion, or teaching to so, it does not turn over the paper orientation.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,465 (a turn-bar assembly for redirecting a continuous paper web) describes turning a single web of paper to reorient the travel direction and, in addition, to optionally flip the paper web from obverse to reverse (face up to face down) image orientation in this reoriented travel direction. This patent differs from the subject invention in that it reorients the paper direction, which is not associated with the manner in which a turn-bar is employed in the subject invention.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a paper handling system that orients lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end format printed sheets into correctly page-sequenced document sets.

Another object of the present invention is to furnish a paper handling apparatus and method that flips one of two paired lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end format printed sheets to generate printed sheets that have correctly sequenced pages that are assembled into desired document sets.

A further object of the present invention is to supply a paper handling apparatus and method that produces correctly page-sequenced document sets from a continuous web of lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) format printed sheets by slitting a continuous stream of LPEE paired sheets into two streams, flipping one of the two streams, cutting each stream, and collating the cut sheets into correctly page-sequenced document sets.

Still another object of the present invention is to disclose paper handling apparatus and method that produces correctly page-sequenced document sets from a continuous web of lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) format printed sheets by slitting a continuous stream of LPEE paired sheets into two streams, loading each stream of slitted LPEE sheets into side-by-side receiving trays in the subject hinged and bifurcated cart, flipping one of the two streams by swinging the receiving trays into a back-to-back orientation, drawing off in the same direction from each of the receiving trays the two continuous streams of sheets, thereby flipping the orientation of one stream relative to the other, cutting each stream, and collating the cut sheets into correctly page-sequenced document sets.

Yet a further object of the present invention is to describe a document transfer cart comprising two hinged-together document receiving trays, a removable bottom support plate assembly for each tray, a top delivery roller for each tray, a hinge connecting the two trays to each another, support rack pivot means, handle means, and transport means.

Still yet another object of the present invention is to relate a document transfer cart, and method of use, comprising two side-by-side and hinged-together document receiving trays, for each tray a removable bottom support plate assembly having hinge rotational support means, a top delivery roller for each tray, a central hinge connecting the two trays to each another, support rack pivot means, handle means, and transport means.

Disclosed is an apparatus and method for correctly page-sequencing individual sheets initially printed on a continuous web of paper in a lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) format. In LPEE format, when a pair of head-to-head or bottom-to-bottom pages are printed on a continuous stream of paper, the single stream of paper with the paired images must then be separated/slitted into two separate streams of paper with one stream being flipped over to correctly orient the final pages (to produce the correct page-sequences) when cut and stacked into a document set. The current subject invention presents an apparatus and method for accomplishing this sheet flipping process for one of the two paired document streams. The printed continuous web is split into two continuous streams of sheets by a slitter. One of the two continuous streams of sheets is then flipped by first loading both streams into the subject hinged and bifurcated cart. The subject cart comprises two hinged-together document receiving trays, a removable bottom support plate assembly for each tray (only one of which has a hinge rotational support means), a top delivery roller for each tray, a hinge connecting the two trays to each another, support rack pivot means, handle means, and transport means.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring more specifically to the drawings, for illustrative purposes the present invention is embodied in the apparatus generally shown inFIGS. 4-6andFIGS. 8-15. It will be appreciated that the apparatus may vary as to configuration and as to details of the parts, and that the method of its use may vary as to the specific steps and sequence, without departing from the basic concepts as disclosed herein.

The hinged and bifurcated cart system invented for handling the lazy-portrait narrow-end to narrow-end (LPEE) format printed stacks of documents is extremely innovative in that it receives the stream of document pages (actually two paired and fan-folded streams of LPEE printed sheets that are split by a slitter apparatus) from a folder either N to 1 or 1 to N document sequencing and then passes on the sheets to further post-printing equipment (normally a cutter/collator) in a dramatically different page orientation that is possible from a traditional cart that delivers a single stream of fan-folded sheets to a cutter/collator.

The side-by-side and hinged-to-one-another receiving trays of the subject cart pivot together into an approximately horizontal receiving position on a receiving rack/frame (as seen inFIG. 14) for receiving or loading the split/slitted stream of fan-folded sheets that comes out of the slitter. The paper is stacked on the subject cart in a configuration similar to traditional two-up portrait printing, however, the critical and novel feature of the subject invention is that the printed pages are slit into two discrete fan-folded stacks that are then placed into the approximately horizontally positioned receiving tray areas of the subject invention (again, seeFIG. 14). The subject cart is constructed to permit the side-by-side receiving trays to be pivoted into the approximately horizontal position for receiving the two folded streams of document fan-folded sheets. The receiving trays of the subject cart are then tipped/pivoted into an approximately upright orientation for transportation and handling.

When the two stacks of fan-folded sheets are ready to be passed on the a cutter and collator, the two loaded receiving trays of the subject cart are then rotated 180° along a central hinge mechanism to reorient the alignment of the LPEE printed pages to one another.FIGS. 11-13and15illustrate the results of the 180° rotation. This rotation results in flipping one steam of fan-folded documents, relative to the other stream, as the sheets are drawn off and into the cutter/collator. Thus, after cut and collated each page orientation of the original LPEE printed pages is now properly aligned so that the head and foot of each page is aligned in the same orientation and in proper page-sequential order. Again, please note that the obverse and reverse (face up and face down) image orientation generated by the LPEE format printing technique, such that one half of the original stack is printed in reverse image orientation (face down), whereas the other half of the stack is printed in obverse (face up) image orientation. Since one stack is rotated 180 degrees relative to the other, the final step to reorient the printed sheets is to pull the stream of sheets from both stacks (in the open cart orientation as seen inFIG. 15) in the same direction, thereby flipping one stack's sheets over, so that the reverse oriented stack is now re-oriented in obverse direction.

Specifically, as seen inFIG. 8, the subject bifurcated cart (seen in its closed state to receive documents) has two hinged-to-each-other page-receiving halves or trays10and20which are designed to function as side-by-side page receiving means when being loaded with the two streams of LPEE printed documents, one stream in each tray10and20(post slitting that generated the two side-by-side streams of LPEE documents). Each receiving tray10and20has a back panel11and21, opposing side panels12,13,22, and23, a bottom support assembly14and24, a back support member30and40, a transport wheel31and41attached to each back support member30and40, respectively, a cart support rack/frame pivot bar50and60(for tilting into the document loading position on the supporting rack/frame), a paper path roller70and80, and a cart handle71and81.

The removable bottom support assemblies14and24usually differ slightly from one another. Assembly14comprises a removable bottom support plate90. The bottom support plate90is releasibly mounted on support arms91and92that project out from the bottom of the tray10and held in place by suitable means such as the shown clips94(a pair on each side of the bottom support plate90) and slots95(a pair in each arm91and92). The bottom support plate90may be removed by simply sliding the plate clips94out of the arm slots95. The bottom plate90is remounted by sliding the plate clips94back into the arm slots95. Bottom support assembly14has a hinge rotational support means fastened to the lower side of the bottom support plate90. The rotational support means usually comprises one or more casters/wheels96that aids in swiveling one tray10from the other tray20when the cart5is opened along the central hinge110to deliver the two separate streams of fan-folded sheets, one stream flipped from the printed orientation.

Bottom support assembly24comprises a removable bottom support plate100. The bottom support plate100is releasibly mounted on support arms101and102that project out from the bottom of the tray20and held in place by suitable means such as the shown clips94(a pair on each side of the bottom support plate100) and slots95(a pair in each arm101and102). The bottom support plate100may be removed by simply sliding the plate clips94out of the arm slots95. The bottom plate100is remounted by sliding the plate clips94back into the arm slots95. Normally, the bottom support assembly24does not have a hinge rotational support means as seen in bottom support assembly14since only one tray10needs to rotate away while the other tray20remains relatively stationary on the floor (both halves may have hinge rotational support means and this is contemplated to be within the realm of this disclosure).

A central hinge110is provided for a pivotal connection between the two trays10and20. When the cart5is ready to deliver the two separate fan-folded streams of documents the cart5is opened along the central hinge110that connects the two trays10and20to one another. Usually, tray20is stationary on the floor while tray10rotates away from tray20, supported by the casters/wheels96, and into the opened document delivery configuration seen inFIGS. 11-13and15.FIGS. 8-19and14all show the subject cart5in its closed or document receiving state (FIG. 14clearly shows the cart5pivoted into a horizontal position to receive the incoming two streams of fan-folded documents from the slitter) whileFIGS. 11-13and15all show the subject cart5in its opened or document delivering state.

StressingFIG. 15, the beauty of the subject cart5is clearly seen. Once the subject cart5is loaded with the two separate steams of fan-folded documents that are printed in LPEE formatting, the subject cart is merely moved to any desired location for cutting and collating. Once at the desired location the cart5is simply opened into its delivery configuration, the document streams from the two separate document stacks are drawn in the same direction over their delivery rollers70and80and pulled into the cutter/collator. The 180° opening of the cart5flips the one stack's orientation when the sheets are drawn from the same side over rollers70and80.

A suitable control and verification means are associated with the subject method. Those means implement the subject method by generating printed pages from input data, tracking printed pages through the slitter, subject cart flipping process, cutter, and collator, and verifying the process is functioning properly and that correctly page-sequenced document sets are created. Appropriately designed computer programs control the LPEE printing process, necessary paper transport processes, the slitting device, the cutting equipment, the collation of correctly page-sequenced document sets, and any additional post collation processes. Once familiar with the subject invention, such programming abilities are within the skill of those programmers familiar with high-speed printing techniques, requirements, and equipment.

One benefit of the subject invention is that a single paper stack handling cart (bifurcated at a hinged region), with an overall structural similarity (before operation of the hinged movement) to existing stack paper handling carts, utilize similar equipment on the printers, so no additional structural changes or investment are needed on the printers. In addition, the paper path from the subject cart is a smooth path with no tortuous bends, thereby eliminating paper breakage to the cutter. A further benefit of this invention is that this system allows printing LPEE with existing printing and folding equipment and cutting and inserting on an inserter that has been minimally modified to accommodate the LPEE paper sheet and image orientation.