Patent GB-938443-A (GB)
Title: Card processing apparatus
Inventor: NELSON ALFRED MAGNUS
IPC: G06K13/08
Filed: 1961-08-15
Abstract: 938,443. Feeding sheets. MAGNAVOX CO. Aug. 15, 1961, No. 29432/61. Class 100 (1). In apparatus for processing information storage cards wherein there is at least one feeding-stacking station adjacent card transport means and the one-by-one transfer of cards between the transport means and the end of a stack of cards is controlled, means is provided whereby groups of cards in a file at the side of the station can be transferred endwise into the station, and returned from the station into the file. Feeding arrangements; guides.- As shown, four rotatable suction drums 14, 16, 18, and 20 are mounted on a table top 10, and are associated, respectively, with removable card magazines at stations 22, 26, 24, and 28 in known manner so that cards can be removed from any one magazine and stacked in any other. Pivoted suction feeder heads 50 and stacker heads 51 in each magazine control the release of cards from, and the stacking of cards in, the magazine; mechanical gates 62, 64 between the drums 14, 16 and 18, 20, respectively, can be operated to strip off and divert the cards from one drum to another; and air-blast devices 38, 36 arranged between the drums 14, 18 and 16, 20, respectively, can also be operated to strip off and divert the cards. The cards can pass transducers 56, 58, 60 which, in turn, control the stripping and guiding means 36, 38, 62, and 64, and the feeder and stacker heads 50, 51 to determine card selection, stacking, and path movement in known manner. Card magazines.-Each card magazine, such as 49, is slidably received in a groove 206, Fig. 8, in the table top 10, and comprises grooved side walls 53, 55, ribbed top and bottom panels 65, 66 which have opposed ribs thereon to guide the cards, and card-retaining fingers 78, 82 and 86, 88 secured, respectively, to the panels 65, 66. The cards are urged towards the front fingers by a follower (101, Figs. 6 and 7, not shown) which has a base-plate of self-lubricating substance, guide strips which engage the grooves in the walls 53, 55, an inclined front sponge rubber pad which engages the cards, a pair of electric switch contacts, and a resilient spring strip which has a tendency to curl up on itself about a rotatable bearing on the follower. The end of the spring strip is secured to the magazine base panel 66, whereby the card follower is biased forwardly. The card follower is normally locked automatically against movement by its spring by a locking-bar 150 arranged within a groove in the side wall 53, but this bar is moved to inoperative position when the magazine is slid forward towards the suction drum 14 by the action of the magazine on a pawl 162 which, in turn, moves a further pawl 164 to release the locking bar. The cards in the magazine are also normally caged by slide members 174, 176a positioned in slots in the side walls 53, 55 and spring-biased towards the card ends, but when the magazine is moved into position towards the drum 14, a stop forces back the slide 176a so that it clears the stacking head 50, and the slide 174 is also moved sidewise away from the cards. To the rear of each station 22, 24, 26 and 28 is a card file block 200, Fig. 8, comprising a number of card magazines, such as 49, in a nest of separate compartments, and movable in vertical and horizontal directions automatically to position a selected one of the magazines in the plane of the table top 10 opposite the respective station. The selected magazine is fed automatically from the file block 200 by a pair of driven discs 202, 204 which are moved together to grip the magazine and feed it towards the station; the magazine is similarly returned to the file block after card processing. When an empty magazine is selected from the file block and moved into the station, it is arrested at an intermediate position in alignment with a side-entry file 100 comprising a file block 250, Fig. 15, having a number of shelves disposed one over the other, and movable in vertical and horizontal directions. The slide 176a in the magazine is retracted by abutment with a pivoted arm 208 to allow endwise introduction of cards from the side block 250. Means arranged on the table 10 to facilitate the transfer of cards from the block 150 to the magazine 49 includes a slidable spreader 264 which enters the block to segregate a group of cards, a pusher rod 266 which slides within the spreader and pushes the cards out of the block, through a guide 252 on the table, and into the magazine to abut the side bar 174. When the push rod 266 is retracted, the magazine 49 is moved into the station, the arm 208 being thrust aside to release the side bar 176a, and the group of cards is processed in the machine. When the same group of cards have been returned to the magazine 49, the latter is retracted to the said intermediate position, and a pusher rod 276 in guides 270 on the table 10 is actuated to push the cards within the spreader 264, and the latter is retracted, leaving the cards in the original position within the file block 250. The pusher rods and the spreader are camactuated. Detecting stack exhaustion.-The card follower in each magazine, which is spring-urged forwardly, has a pair of electric contacts (118, Figs. 6 and 7, not shown) which engage a further pair of contacts on the face of the feed head 50 when the last card is fed, and the machine is then automatically conditioned to stack cards in the magazine.