Patent GB-999435-A (GB)
Title: Sheet feeding apparatus
IPC: G03G15/00
Filed: 1961-07-26
Abstract: 999,435. Feeding sheets; xerographic printing machines. RANK-XEROX Ltd. July 26, 1961 [Aug. 1, 1960], No. 27141/61. Headings B6B and B6C. [Also in Division G2] Feeding sheets.-A conveyer for feeding sheets through a machine comprises two endless chains having a sheet-gripper bar housing connected thereto at each end, the housing having a paper-engaging lip against which are urged, by a spring, two spaced-apart gripper bars each provided with a lever, and each lever is pivotally secured at one end to a gripper bar and intermediate its ends to the housing, and extends beyond the housing to co-operate with cam means which cause the levers to force the gripper bars away from the paper-engaging lip. As shown, the conveyer is used in a Xerographic printing machine enclosed in a lighttight cabinet, and a sheet to be printed is placed by hand through a slot in the cabinet into a stationary open gripper 42, Fig. 2, carried by a pair of endless chains 301, and is conveyed past a printing drum 20 and fuser 45, and released to feed rollers 47, 48 which deliver it down a shoot 4. There are two grippers 42 on the chains, and each comprises a housing formed by spaced opposed panels 376, 377, Figs. 15, 16, and 19, attached at the ends to the chains 301, the panel 376 having a paperengaging lip 385 which co-operates with two similar gripper bars 374, 375. A lever 386 is pivoted in the housing at 388 and near its inner end at 391 to the bar 374, and a second lever 387 is similarly pivoted to the housing and the bar 375. The inner ends of both levers engage beneath the ends of a spring 392 which urges the gripper bars against the lip 385, unless the protruding ends of the levers are tripped by cams 321, 322, Fig. 9, at the paperreceiving position, or cams 394 at the paperreleasing position. The two chains 301 are supported by sprockets on shaft 305-309, the shaft 309 being driven intermittently through a magnetic clutch SC-2 controlled automatically by the electric circuit of the machine. The conveyed sheets are supported by a grid 327 on their way to the drum 20, are arched upwardly into contact with the drum by a guide 328, and supported beneath the fuser 45 by bars 46. The machine circuit is conditioned by the engagement of switch actuators 38 on the chains 301 with various switches, such as 5LS, arranged along the conveyer path. The conveyer is stopped to position a gripper 42 at the receiving position when an actuator 38 engages a limit switch 4LS. The shaft 308 carries pivotal supports 333, Fig. 9, for the delivery rollers 47, 48, the latter being driven and the former being urged by springs 353 against the roller 48. A paperguide roller 335 comprising a part-cylindrical shell 338 is mounted on the shaft 308, and is rocked by the sheets passing thereover, against the action of a coil spring 344, to serve both as a sheet guide and extended path for the sheets, and thus enables the sheets to be pulled clear of the drum 20. Xerographic printing machines.-The machine is of the rotary type wherein a xerographic plate having a photo-conductive layer on a rotatable drum 20 which receives at A a uniform electrostatic charge from a corona device 21, is exposed at B by an optical apparatus 22, developed at C by a deposit of toner or other developing powder thereon, and transfers the image on the sheets at D where a corona device 44 is located beneath the sheets. On further rotation of the drum 20, the plate passes a corona pre-cleaning device 51, a rotatable brush 52, and a source of light from a lamp LMP-4 which dissipates any residual charge remaining on the plate. The powder images on the sheets are fired by a heat fuser 45. The optical projection system uses copy in the form of a film and the projector 22 and film holder are mounted on a movable carriage. The developing powder is in a sump 33 and is conveyed by a bucket-type conveyer 34 and cascaded over a shoot 35 on to the drum, and the stock of powder is replenished by a dispenser 36 of the type described in Specification 938,501. The corona devices 21, 44 and 51 may be as described in Specification 826,088, and the fuser 45 as described in Specification 948,916. The whole apparatus is enclosed in a cabinet, the doors of which must be closed to actuate interlock switches before the machine can operate. Specifications 672,767 and 679,533 also are referred to.