Patent GB-871548-A (GB)
Title: Record card transferring apparatus
IPC: G06K13/12
Filed: 1958-01-24
Abstract: 871,548. Feeding and delivering sheets. MAGNAVOX CO. Jan. 24, 1958 [March 12, 1957], No. 2412/58. Class 100(1) A double-purpose card holder wherein record cards can be stacked therein or released for separation therefrom, includes a stackhead or feeding means pivotable to an operative position to control the transfer of cards from the holder and pivotable to a standby position, and control means for causing these pivotal movements. As shown, there are two opposed card holders 10, 12 wherein cards are stacked on edge, and a rotating suction drum 16, constructed substantially as described in Specification 871,546 is adapted to take cards from holder 10 to holder 12, or vice-versa, information on the cards in the form of punched holes or magnetic areas being read or sensed by one of the transducers 13, 14, the whole arrangement forming part of a business accounting system. The record cards may be fed by air jets over a non-rotatable drum, or by belts. The card holders 10, 12 are identical, each including a feedhead and a stackhead whereby cards may be released to the suction drum 16 for removal thereby from the holder, or cards may be stripped from the drum and stacked in the holder: when all or a predetermined number of the cards have been removed from one holder, a pulsing device automatically reverses the positions of the feedheads and stackheads, and the cards are then fed from the second holder to the first. The order of the cards is not disturbed. The holder 10 is mounted on a plate 30 on a table top 11 and comprises two spaced parallel rails 32, 34 to receive cards, a movable feedhead 18 with a card-engaging suction face 18<SP>1</SP> thereon which can be connected to a source of suction which is greater than that exerted at the face of the drum 16, and a movable stackhead 20 which has fingers thereon adapted to enter peripheral grooves in the face of the drum 16, when in operative position, to strip cards from the drum prior to stacking them in the holder 10. A stripper member 22, through which the feedhead 18 moves, has an end piece provided with fingers which always engage the peripheral grooves in the face of the drum 16 and act to strip each card from the drum: the front portion of the card is again attracted to the drum and is arrested by the stackhead 20, and the rear end of the card rests on the fingers of the member 22. A second card carried by the drum rides over the fingers, wedges between the first card and the drum, and deposits the first card in the holder 10. Cards can only be withdrawn from the holder 10 by the suction drum 16 when the stackhead 20 is moved away from the drum 16 and suction is cut off from the feedhead 18. The feedhead 18 and stackhead 20 are, respectively, mounted on pivot shafts 36, 40 which pass through arcuate slots in the holder baseplate 30. Beneath the plate 30, Fig. 5, the shafts 36, 40 are carried, respectively, by the ends of pivoted levers 230, 224 having followers engaging the opposite sides of a cam 204 which can be rotated by a motor 300 (not shown) which operates through a solenoidcontrolled clutch and chain-wheel gearing to rotate the cam through 180 degrees when it is desired to change the operation of the apparatus from, say, stacking cards in the holder 10 to feeding cards from that holder. Movement of the shafts 36, 40 along their arcuate slots causes the feedhead and stackhead to be rocked about these shafts to their appropriate positions. As shown in Figs. 5 and 11, a valve assembly 350 carried on the lever 230 for controlling the establishment of suction at the face 181 of the feedhead 18 is so arranged that, when the feedhead is in operative position to control the separation of cards from the holder 10, a solenoidcontrolled valve 422 controls the communication between a pipe 412 leading to a source of suction and the face 18<SP>1</SP>; but when the feedhead is rocked to its inoperative position, the rocking movement mechanically closes a second valve to cut off communication between the face 181 and the pipe 412. By this arrangement, the solenoid 430 is not continually energised, and the energising coil is preserved. The mechanically-operated valve comprises a sleeve 450 having opposed chambers co-operating with ports in the shaft 36 which is hollow and forms part of the air passage system. When the feedhead 18 is rocked to inoperative position, it rocks the shaft 36 relatively to the sleeve 450, and the ports in the shaft and the chambers in the sleeve are no longer aligned and suction to the face 18<SP>1</SP> is thus cut off. A spring-urged follower member 504 (not shown) sliding between the rails 32, 34 and urging the cards towards the drum 16 is adapted, when all the cards have been separated from the holder, to close contacts arranged on the feedhead 18 and causes a current pulse in an associated circuit to release the solenoid clutch of the motor 300 (not shown) and thus reverse the positions of the feedheads and stackheads and start card feeding in the opposite direction. The electric circuit also includes switches 262, 264, Fig. 5, actuated by cams 208, 210 secured to the shaft 206 of the cam 204, and a further switch 280 actuated by the cam 210, these switches being in circuit with suitable relays incorporating indicator lamps, and forming part of an electronic control system having "and/or" networks including a trigger circuit. A control pulse, set up when the last card is fed from a holder 10 or 12 or transmitted at any time to the control circuit, causes the positions of the feedheads 18 and stackheads 20 to be reversed.