Patent GB-891139-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to machines for issuing business forms
Inventor: CONDY JOHN HERBERT
IPC: B41L5/06
Filed: 1957-06-24
Abstract: 891,139. Autographic registers. BELL PUNCH CO. Ltd. June 18, 1958 [June 24, 1957], No. 19869/57. Class 16 [Also in Group XVI]. In an autographic register a business form and a record form are fed through the machine by means of a cylindrical pin-wheel co-operating with holes in the forms and an auxiliary feed rotor disposed so that the forms have to pass between the pin-wheel and the rotor as they are fed thereby, the rotor being formed with peripheral projections which press the forms into contact with the periphery of the pin-wheel. The machine has a base plate 1 and frame members 2, 3. A writing table 70 is pivoted at 71 to the member 3 beneath a window 91 in the machine housing and is releasably secured at its other end to the member 2. The original and duplicate forms are drawn from a zig-zag folded stack 90 between an idler wheel 92 and a roller 93 and over the table 70, where a written entry is made thereon, by feed rollers 21, 25. The roller 21 is geared to the roller 25 and has radially projecting pins 22 at each end which engage marginal perforations in the original and duplicate forms. The roller 25 has five sets of radial ribs 28 and is either spring biased towards roller 21 or rubber coated so that the ribs 28 are in frictional contact with the roller 21. From the feed rollers the original form is fed out of the machine while the duplicate is stacked in a second zig-zag pile within the housing. The spindle 18 of the roller 21 carries a gear wheel 19 which is driven through a pinion 30 by a gear 13 mounted on a spindle 11. The spindle 11 is rotated by a toothed quadrant 5 which is oscillated by means of a handle 4 and which co-operates with a gear 12 on the spindle, a mutilated portion of the gear 12 allowing the quadrant to be returned to the Fig. 1 position. To allow different lengths of forms to be fed for a constant stroke of the handle 4 the pinion 30 may be engaged with smaller gear wheels 14 or 15 on the spindle 11. A pinion 17 on the spindle 11 drives a gear wheel 101 having a lateral pin 102 which intermittently engages and rocks the lower arm of a bell-crank lever 104 of which the other arm carries one end of a blade 105 extending across the machine. This blade assists in the correct folding of the web of duplicate forms as it is re-stacked. Carbon paper 95 is fed from a spool 96 round a roller 112 and between the original and duplicate forms by rollers 84, 85 which are rotated from the spindle 11 through bevel gears 16, 80, a spindle 81, a worm 82 and a pinion, the used carbon paper being fed to waste outside the machine. A web of paper to form a tally strip is fed from a spool 43 between the table 70 and the duplicate form and on to a take up spool 34, feed rollers 40, 41 assisting the feed. The spool 34 and rollers 40, 41 are driven through gears by the spindle 11 which also drives the mechanism for advancing a typewriter ribbon 94 (see Group XVI) which is fed between the tally strip and the duplicate form in the region where the total is written on the latter. Thus a complete copy of the original appears on the duplicate while the tally strip has only a record of the totals of the originals and is advanced at each actuation of the handle 4 by an amount corresponding to the width of a total. When the machine is used for issuing smaller forms the spools 110, 115 holding the ribbon 94 are moved along their spindles so that the ribbon assumes the positions shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. The original and duplicate forms and the tally strip are gripped against the table 70 when they are stationary by an angle member 59 pivoted on the spindle 58 of the idler wheel 92 and urged into contact with the table by a spring 61. The table 70 is supported at the opposite side to the pivot 71 by the horizontal portion of an angle member 65. The member 65 is carried by a further angle member 63 pivoted on the spindle 18 of the roller 21 and urged upwards by one end of a cross lever 56 pivoted at 57. The other end of the lever 56 is connected by a link 54 with a lever 52 pivoted at 53 and carrying a cam follower 51 at one end. The cam follower 51 is held by spring means not shown in engagement with a cam surface 50 carried by the quadrant 5. When the handle 4 is actuated to feed the forms through the register the cam surface 50 causes the lever 52 to pivot slightly in a clockwise direction (Fig. 1) whereby pressure on the underside of the table 70 is relaxed and the forms are no longer gripped against the table. The member 65 can be slid horizontally outwards against spring pressure in relation to the member 63 so as to allow the table 70 to be moved to the dotted line position of Fig. 3 for the initial positioning of the forms and tally strip in the register.