Patent GB-886387-A (GB)
Title: An improved machine for inserting documents in carriers
IPC: G06K13/16
Filed: 1959-07-29
Abstract: 886,387. Endless conveyers. AMALGAMATED WIRELESS (AUSTRALASIA) Ltd. July 29, 1959 [Sept. 30, 1958], No. 26060/59. Class 78 (1). [Also in Group XVI] In apparatus for feeding cheques or other documents one by one to a sorting machine, the cheques 9 are fed manually through a vertical slot 10 into a system of opposed pairs of vertical feed rollers 6 which feed them horizontally to a carriage 17 also provided with opposed pairs of vertical feed rollers 26, the carriage then runs along guides 20 and inserts a cheque into a gripper 34 on a carrier 18 arranged on feed belts which are stepped forward to feed the carrier at right angles to the plane of the cheque 9 and to bring an empty carrier into cheque-receiving position. The opposed rollers 6 are mounted in separate frames 7 urged together by springs, and all the rollers are inclined to the vertical to an increasing extent in the direction towards the slot 10, whereby the cheques are urged upwardly and registered against a V-shaped top channel 14 during feed. The carriage 17 is slidably mounted on guide rods 20, has two opposed hinged frames therein carrying the opposed vertical feed rollers 26, and levers &c. 24a, 23a, on the carriage co-operate with a stop 24 at the cheque-receiving position to cause the frames to close and the rollers 26 to grip and feed a cheque 9, and with a stop 23 to cause the frames to open so that the rollers release the cheque to the grippers 34. The V-shaped guide 14 extends over the carriage 17 in the receiving position. As a cheque moves from the rollers and is about-to enter the carriage 17, it cuts off a beam of light directed on to a photo-cell 15 to control the feeding operation. Each carrier 18 has extensions 33 supported between pairs of spaced rests arranged on a pair of conveyer belts and includes two rectangular gripper plates 34 which are normally in contact with each other. The gripper plates 34 are urged apart, at the leading end only, by a manually-operated slide 37 (not shown) which is recessed to register the carrier 18 and has opposed gripper-opening fingers thereon. The feed rollers 6 are geared to a main shaft 11 driven by a motor 12, and the feed rollers 26 in the carriage 17 are driven at the same speed as the rollers 6, from the shaft 11, or an extension thereof. The carriage 17 is reciprocated along the guides 20 by a double-acting hydraulic ram 28, the piston-rod 27 of which is connected to the carriage. The conveyer belts for the carriers 18 are driven intermittently by spring mechanism, electric motor, or other means when the gripper plates 34 are released by the opening fingers. The apparatus includes a system of electric relays and switches, and the photo-cell unit 15, such that the manual operation of a lever 39 (not shown) moves the slide which registers the carrier 18 and opens the gripper plates, and also starts the driving motor 12. A sheet 9 fed by the rollers 6 into the carriage 17 cuts the beam of light in the photo-cell unit 15 and stops the motor 12 just as the sheet 9 is about to enter the carrier plates 34. The valve 29 in the hydraulic system is now opened by a relay and the sheet is now carried by the carriage 17 fully into the carrier 18, whereupon the rollers 26 are moved apart by their frames to release the sheet. The carriage now returns to starting position. Manual return of the lever 39 (not shown) opens the main switch, de-energizes the relays, and allows the conveyer belts to feed the carrier 18. The rollers 6 can be replaced by opposed pairs of conveyer belts for transporting the sheets 9. Specification 886,386 is referred to.