Patent GB-1402971-A (GB)
Title: Auxiliary sheet feeder
IPC: B65H3/44
Filed: 1973-01-03
Abstract: 1402971 Feeding and collating sheets XEROX CORP 3 Jan 1973 [3 Jan 1972] 371/73 Heading B8R Pile supports.-A sheet pile support tray comprises a base member 136, Fig. 3, having a longitudinal slot 138 and spaced holes 148. A back guide assembly 146 includes a back guide plate 150 and pins to be received in selected holes 148, whereby the assembly can be adjustably positioned on the member 136 according to sheet length. The assembly 146 also supports a shaft 144 having notches 164, and side margin guides 140, 142 are slidably mounted on the shaft 144 and carry detents to engage selected notches 164, so that the guides are adjustable along the shaft according to sheet width. Separating sheets.-Sheets are separated in turn from the top of the pile by friction rollers 190, Fig. 5, which rest on the pile with a pressure adjustable by rotating a sleeve connected by a torsion spring to a shaft 214 supporting an arm 193 carrying the rollers. The rollers are rotated by the rotation of a shaft 194 when a clutch is engaged. These pile assemblies are provided one above the other and sheets are separated as required from the different piles and deflected by fingers 234, Fig. 7, into a common upward path defined by drive rollers 240 and roller rollers 242. Preventing double feed.-Each pile tray is provided with pressure pads 166, Fig. 5, of rubber carried by the guides 140, 142 and engaging the sides of the pile to retain sheets below the top sheet being separated. As soon as the top sheet is advanced a short distance, a drag roller 178 mounted on arms 180 rotatably mounted on the shaft 144 rests on the next sheet to prevent its advance. Forwarding sheets.-Sheets separated from the piles are first deflected upwardly along a common path by the fingers 234 and advanced by rollers 240, 242, and are then deflected by fingers 268 into a horizontal path between plates 270, 272, Figs. 7 and 9, and are fed therealong by rollers 276, 278 on to a feed table 280. Feed tables.-The feed table 280 comprises a base-plate 282 supporting side guides 284 and supplementary adjustable side guides 286. A shaft 278 supporting the idler rollers 278 also supports an idler roller 300 which drives, through a belt 304, a roller 314 resting on a sheet on the feed table. The feed table includes a plate 292 overlying the sheet path and carrying loops 296 to deflect the outgoing sheets into alignment with the top of a stack on to which the sheets are fed. Controlling and detecting.-A switch 316 detects the presence of a sheet on the feed table, and when the last sheet of a batch is fed, the switch acts to retain the drive motor for the rollers energized until the sheet is removed from the table. Collating sheets.-Sheets are separated from the three piles by engagement of the corresponding clutches under the contol of an electrical programming circuit, the arrangement being such that a predetermined number of sheets are separated from the top pile, and predetermined numbers, which may be different, from the remaining piles in turn, and all the sheets are deposited on to the top of a stack which acts as a supply for copy sheets for a copying-machine.