Patent GB-639725-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in photographic copying apparatus
IPC: G03B27/50
Filed: 1947-06-05
Abstract: 639,725. Photographic copying apparatus. DIEBOLD, Inc. June 5, 1947, No. 14903. Convention date, Dec. 28, 1946. [Class 98 (i)] Photographic apparatus of the kind comprising a camera having means for continuously moving a light-sensitive film in the focal plane of a camera lens, and a document feeder, including co - operating rollers, for moving documents across the field of view of the camera lens at a fixed speed ratio with respect to the movement of the lightsensitive film is characterized in that one of said rollers is resiliently urged towards the other and is adapted to be raised by documents passing between said rollers; switching means is provided for stopping the operation of the apparatus when more than one document of normal thickness or a document of a thickness greater than the normal thickness of a single document enters the nip between said rollers and in the provision of a further switching device which is opened by a single document of normal thickness passing between said rollers so that electric circuits are energized and the film is thereby fed through the camera. The apparatus is housed in a casing 20, Fig. 1, containing a compartment 21, Fig. 2, which includes the camera and filmfeeding mechanism and has a hinged lid 217, and a compartment 24 which includes electrical equipment and a tunnel 29 through which pass on to the film in compartment 21 light rays from documents which are fed between rollers contained in a compartment 23. This compartment contains rollers 33, 38 which are mounted on insulated shafts and around which pass endless bands 41-44, Figs. 5 and 6. Rollers 78, 91 act as pressure rollers, the roller 78 being spring- urged into contact with the hands 41-44. Roller 38 is belt-connected with a drum 61 around which pass tensioned bands 66, 68. A pulley 56 on the shaft of drum 61 is beltconnected with a pulley on the shaft of an electric motor 60. Thus, when this motor is energized by closure of a mains switch, a document fed through an elongated aperture 94, Figs. 1 and 5, passes between rollers 33, 78 and 38, 91, across a glass plate 77 where it is exposed to light and is then led between the bands 66, 68 to a plate 95 which causes the document to travel along band 68 to pulley 70 and thereafter fall on to the floor 96 of the apparatus, whereupon it may be regained by raising a slotted and hinged door 234, Fig. 1. Surrounding rollers 33, 78, midway of their lengths, are metallic rings 98, 97, Fig. 2, which are in contact when the apparatus is not in use. Contacting the ring 97 is a roller 89, Figs. 2 and 5, carried by a spring arm depending from a normally closed micro-switch 81, which is pivoted on a fixed rod 80 and is contacted by a screw 83 carried by a rod 82 and operable by an external knob 85, having a pointer 226 cooperating with a scale 225, Fig. 1, to alter the distance between the spring arm 88 and the micro-switch plunger. The rings 97, 98 and the micro-switch 81 are arranged in an electric circuit containing a motor 167, Fig. 3, for driving the film in compartment 21 and knob 85 is adjusted so that documents of a particular thickness, when fed between the rollers 33, 78, raise the roller 78 so that contact between rings 97, 98 is broken and the motor 167 is energized - whereas, if a document of greater thickness or two overlapping documents of said particular thickness is or are fed between.rollers 33, 78, roller 78 is raised sufficiently to open the micro-switch 81 and thereby de-energize the motor 167. Thus, a single document can be fed between rollers 33, 78 and 38, 91 and thereafter reaches the plate 77 at which the upper or lower surface of the document is illuminated by one of two pairs of lamps which are lit when the mains switch is closed to energize the document feeding motor 60. The four lamps are arranged at the corners of a vertical rectangle and between the two vertical rows of lamps are arranged two inclined reflectors 127, 128; the line of intersection thereof being co-planar with the plate 77 so that light rays are reflected into the light tunnel in compartment 24 from above or below each document, according to which horizontal pair of lamps is illuminated. The light tunnel 29, Fig. 6, contains fixed orthogonal mirrors 325, 326 and orthogonal mirrors 330, 331. Mirrors 330, 331 are carried by a frame 327 which is reciprocable in the tunnel towards and away from mirrors 325, 326 under the control of a threaded rod having an operating knob 334. Light from the tunnel 29 passes through an aperture in a wall 25, which slidably supports the holder of the common lens 143, Fig. 3, and movement of the frame 327 in the tunnel 29 serves to focus the images of the documents on the light-sensitive film 216, Fig. 4, without movement of the lens 143. Supported by the wall 25 in the compartment 21 is a horizontal plate 22, Fig. 3, which carries thereabove film reels and film guiding and tensioning rollers and which supports therebelow a magnetic clutch 160 and the film driving motor 167. As shown in Fig. 4, the film 216 is fed from a reel 204-past the camera lens 143 onto the reel 188 and is driven by a roller 155; the shaft 156 of which carries, below plate 22, a grooved pulley 158, Figs. 2 and 3, which is belt connected with the shafts 177, 184 of reels 179, 188 and is connected through the magnetic clutch 160 and a tensioned belt 165 to a speed reducer 166 and the electric motor 167. The film is threaded through the apparatus with lid 217 open and, if it is thereby subjected to daylight, the useless film length is wound on to reel 188 before operation of the machine. In another form-the contact ring 97 on roller 33 is replaced by a micro-switch which is pivoted on the same rod 80 as micro-switch 81 and has a plunger which may be actuated by a spring arm having a roller contacting the ring 98, which is lengthened. A screw, mounted like screw 83, varies the distance between the plunger and spring arm so that the switch opens and thereby energizes the film driving motor 167 when a single document enters between rollers 33, 78. Another modification is described wherein two micro-switches are fixed on a bracket on the wall 84 of compartment 23, Fig. 5, and the plungers. thereof are actuated by the web of another, bracket which is pivoted. on a shaft carried by first bracket, when the second bracket is rotated due to the raising, of a roller mounted on a shaft carried by, the second bracket. This roller contacts a metal annulus on roller 78 which, together with the roller 33 and the rollers 38, 91, comprises a rubber roller in the form of a series of grooves in which ride endless connecting belts. Rollers 33 38 are interconnected by a bracket having a horizontal portion with a serrated edge and a similar bracket connects rollers 78, 91. The serrated edges of these brackets are interconnected by a spring so that rollers 78, 91 are spring-urged towards rollers 33, 38 respectively.. One microswitch is screw-adjusted so that its contacts.are opened by the web due to the insertion of a single document between rollers 33, 78, the other switch being screw-adjusted to open when more'than one document enters the nip between rollers 33, 78 and thus arrest operation of the machine.