Patent GB-967491-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to sheet feeding and sorting apparatus
Inventor: MOLIAN SAMUEL
IPC: B65H29/32
Filed: 1959-10-15
Abstract: 967,491. Feeding and delivering sheets. MOLIAN ENGINEERING Ltd. Oct. 14, 1960 [Oct. 15, 1959], No. 34953/59. Headings B6B and B6H.  In apparatus for sorting sheets 10 which are stacked in a magazine 11-13, the sheets are separated sequentially from the bottom of the stack by a suction roller 20 which is rotated continuously in the same direction with a constant angular velocity and is also movable bodily, such that its axis moves along the closed path 21, to cause the front end of the bottom sheet to be wrapped partially around the roller without displacing the other end of that sheet. The front end 27 of the bottom sheet is fed by the roller 20 on to a suction belt 28 which conveys the sheet away from the magazine. The front end of the stack may be supported by a finger 112, Fig. 2, pivoted to the front wall 12 of the magazine and operated by a lever 113 from a cam on the drive shaft 96. A stack weight 14 on a lever 15 pivoted to the wall 12 is adapted to close a switch 18, 19 when all the sheets have been separated, to operate a warning bell. The suction roller 20 comprises a perforated rotatable outer sleeve on a perforated fixed hollow shaft carried by two end carriages 32, each mounted on a sleeve 69 which is reciprocated over a hollow shaft 70 by the engagement of a sleeve pin 71 in a cam groove 72 in a cam 73. Each carriage 32 is also reciprocated vertically, against the action of a spring 104, by a cam 98, the combined reciprocations moving the roller 20 bodily so that its axis follows the path 21. A true rolling motion is imparted to the roller 20, with respect to the sheet being separated, along the upper portion 24 of the path 21. The roller outer sleeve is rotated by bevel gearing 35, 48, telescopic shafts 56, 57, and universal couplings 55, 58. The inside of the suction roller is connected to a vacuum source via ports in one carriage 32, the hollow shaft 70, and ports in the shaft 74 which drives the cams 73; suction is established as the roller approaches the point 22 of the path 21, and is cut-off at the point 26 when the sheet is taken by the suction belt 28. Fixed fingers 111 strip the sheet from the roller 20. Sheet conveying and delivering.-The conveyer belt 28 is mounted on pulleys 118, 119 and has toothed projections on each side engaging toothed recesses in the pulleys. A suction chamber 129 is arranged beneath the upper run of the belt, and each end projects within peripheral recesses in the pulleys. Two interfitting suction chambers 130, 131 are arranged above the lower run of the belt, and the free end of the chamber 130 projects within the peripheral recesses of the pulley 118. The pulley 118 is a suction roller so that, since the belt 28 is perforated and slotted, sheets are gripped firmly to the belt from leaving the suction roller 20 until they are released by either of the suction chambers 130, 131 to fall into receivers 155. Solenoid-operated strippers 159, 160, having fingers 158 which enter slots in the belt 28, assist release of the sheets, and these strippers may cut-off the associated chamber from its source of suction. More than two receivers 155, and associated chambers 130, 131 may be provided, and the pulley 119 may also be a suction roller.