Patent GB-927942-A (GB)
Title: Improved sheet separating apparatus
IPC: B65H3/46
Filed: 1960-07-08
Abstract: 927,942. Feeding sheets. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. July 8, 1960 [July 9, 1959], No. 23882/60. Class 100 (1). In apparatus for separating sheets from a pile, each sheet is fed by the suction separator device 10 between two opposed suction chambers 8, 9 each having driven discs therein, the discs 47 of the chamber 8 assisting the forwarding of the sheet, and the discs 53 of the chamber 9 acting to retard the forward movement of the sheet, whereby in the event of two sheets being separated at the same time, the second sheet is retained until the first sheet has been fed from the stack. The chamber 8 exerts a greater suction effect than the chamber 9. Pile tables.-Sheets 1, which may be of assorted sizes and creased, are stacked on a support 11 on a toothed rack 22 which is guided vertically by rollers 23. A gear 21 in mesh with the rack 22, is secured to a shaft 20 adapted to be connected by a clutch to a driven shaft to cause the support 11 to be raised whenever light from a bulb 18 is projected on to a photo-electric cell. A feeler lever 15, pivoted at 16, has a roller 17 at one end resting on the top sheet of the stack, and has a shutter-plate 19 fitted at the other end to lie between the photo-cell and the bulb 18. When the top of the stack falls below a predetermined level, the plate 19 no longer cuts off the light from the cell, and the stack is raised. Sheet separation and registration.-Sheets 1 are separated from the stack by a device comprising a suction chamber 10 having a front wheel and two rear wheels 25 which are continuously driven and protrude beyond the baseplate 37 of the chamber. Each wheel has two diametrically opposite suction apertures whereby the top sheet is grasped and fed intermittently towards the suction chambers 8, 9. The top sheet is raised towards the wheels by airblasts from nozzles on an offset pipe 39 which is constantly reciprocated vertically by the intermittent energization of an electromagnet. The pipe 39 has two nozzles which direct air towards the chamber 10 and transversely of the sheets respectively. Further, a recess 45 in the pile table 11 allows air to penetrate beneath the pile. The wheels and their drive shafts are arranged inclined to the direction of sheet feed, and they force the sheet into alignment with a channel-shaped guide 38 on a side plate 14. Sheet-forwarders.-The upper suction chamber 8, which forwards the sheets to feed rollers 6, 7, has a number of driven wheels 47 therein which protrude through slots beyond a bottom curved plate 48, and the sheets are sucked against the wheels. The lower suction chamber 9 has wheels 53 therein which protrude beyond a curved cover plate 55, and these wheels are driven at twice the speed of the wheels 47 and in the same angular direction. The suction effect of the chamber 8 is greater than that of the chamber 9, and both chambers are valvecontrolled. Thus if two sheets are separated from the stack at the same time, the second sheet is sucked against the wheels 53 and is returned towards the separator chamber 10 until the top sheet is forwarded.