Patent GB-881749-A (GB)
Title: Information card handling apparatus
IPC: G06K13/08
Filed: 1959-10-08
Abstract: 881,749. Feeding and delivering sheets. MAGNAVOX CO. Oct. 8, 1959 [Oct. 14, 1958], No. 34188/59. Class 100(1) In statistical apparatus wherein record cards can be stacked in a magazine or extracted therefrom and fed singly past a transducer means by a card transport . means, means for moving the card stack is adapted to enter between the stack and the transport means to move the cards into the magazine away from the transport means. As shown, the apparatus is mainly as described in Specifications 871,546, 871,548, and 871,550, and comprises two similar stations 18, 20 wherein card magazines 48 are removably fitted in slideways 44, 46 in a table 12, and cards are carried by a rotatable suction drum 10 past transducers 14, 16. Manipulation of stacking heads 22, 40 and feeding heads 24, 36 enables cards to be removed from the drum 10 and stacked in the magazines, or the removal of cards from the magazines by the drum 10. The heads 24, 36 are connected to a source of suction which is greater than that in the drum 10, so that cards cannot be taken by the drum until the heads are cut-off from their source of suction. Each card magazine 48, Fig. 2, has an open bottom which is partially closed by members 50, 52 fastened thereto which slide in the table slideways 46, 44, respectively. Chamfered card guides are provided within the magazine and in the slideways, and the stack of cards is urged towards the drum 10 by a resilient spring strip 72, secured at its front end to the channel in the member 50, which has a tendency to curl up on itself to form a spiral spring. The forward end of the magazine is normally closed by a plate 80 vertically slidable in an extension 82 on the magazine, and openings 88, 90 in this plate receive a pair of fingers 162, 154, Fig. 7, on a vertically slidable member 138 mounted on a U-shaped bracket 120 which extends over the drum 10. The plate 80 is raised, to allow the cards to be urged forwardly by the spring strip 72, when the fingers 154, 162 and member 138 are raised by an arm 136 on a rotary type solenoid 130. The magazine is slotted at 100, Fig. 2, to receive a card guide 102 which extends towards the drum 10 and only allows one card at a time to be separated. A wheel 110 extends through a slot in the side 54 of the magazine into engagement with the edges of the cards and is driven in one direction to urge the trailing edges of the cards away from the drum 10 and into the magazine during a stacking operation, and driven in the opposite direction to urge cards towards the drum during a card separation operation. When the required number of cards has been stacked in the magazine, a vertical rod 202 is moved automatically, or by a hand-controlled knob 200, along a slot 204 in the table 12, across the front face of the bottom card, and then back into the magazine 48 to force the stack into the magazine. At the same time, the solenoid 130 raises the plate 80, holds it raised until the cards are stacked, and then allows it to fall and trap the cards in the magazine. The rod 202 is now retracted, passing through a slot 92, Fig. 2, of the plate 80.