Patent GB-710336-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to machines for printing or duplicating and addressing letters
Inventor: MOON WILLIAM RICHARD HARDING
IPC: B41L45/00
Filed: 1950-04-26
Abstract: 710,336. Machines for printing or dulplicating, and addressing, letters. ADREMA, Ltd. July 26, 1951 [April 26, 1950], No. 10284/50. Classes 100 (1) and 100 (2) A machine for printing or duplicating, and addressing letters comprises a conveyer receiving addressed sheets of paper from an addressing machine and feeding them to the input of a duplicating machine for printing the common matter of the letter and means for driving the duplicator and conveyer means from and in synchronism with the addressing machine The conveyer receives the sheets moving end first, turns them over and feeds them side first to the duplicating machine. The addressed sheets are received on an extensible platform 6, 7, Fig. 4, and come to rest with one end against a stop flange 10 being guided against the platform by an arm 11. A carriage 17, Fig. 1, slidably mounted on guide rods 19 carries a ram 16 with a shovel 15 at the inner end for engagement with the side edge of the sheet on the platform. The ram is reciprocated by an arm 24 mounted on a shaft 25 having a second arm connected to a cam-actuated link driven from the duplicator spindle as described in Specification 710,337. The ram displaces the sheet sideways so that its opposite side is entered between two rolls 29, 33. The roll 29 is made up of a number of rubber rollers carried on a common shaft 30 mounted on arms 31, Fig. 3, and spring-loaded against the lower roll 33 which is driven by a chain 61, Fig. 1, from the main drive shaft 60. A gear wheel 42 on the shaft 60 meshes with a gear wheel 43 on the main shaft of the duplicator. Embracing half the circumference of the roll 33 is a guide 34, Fig. 3, having openings for the rollers 29. The guide 34 ensures that a sheet passed between the rolls is carried round half the circumference of the roll 33 and thereby turned over. Blades 35 entering grooves in the roll 33 remove the sheet and guide it on to a conveyer comprising a series of be'ts 36 of tape or webbing passing over a driven roller 37 on a shaft 39, driven from gear wheel 43, and over an idle roller 38 on a shaft 40. A lever 45 on the shaft 40 carries a tensioning jockey 44 for the belts. A plate 46 supports the upper reaches of the belts. The sheet is maintained in driving engagement with the conveyer belts by sets of rollers 52, 53, 54 which rest on the sheet over selected belts. The rollers are mounted on wire arms 49 pivoted to a bracket 48 adjustable along a bridge piece 47. The bridge piece is adjustable longitudinally of the tapes by a rack 55 and pinion 57 so as to adapt the conveyer for different sizes of sheets. The preferred adjustment is such that the foremost roller 52 will just engage the following edge of the sheet when the leading edge is in abutment with a gate preventing its entry into the duplicator. The sheet is thereby driven lightly against the gate without extensive buckling. A second conveyer formed of a series of endless wire belts 66 supported on rollers 67, 68, Fig. 1, is provided below the first conveyer to receive the sheets after they have passed through the duplicating machine and carries them back to a receiving hopper beneath the feed roll 33. Specification 710,338 also is referred to.