Patent ID: 8764013

Claim:
A conveyance control device comprising: a turning device that has a trifurcate intersection formed within a case, and a deflector having three vertexes rotatably supported on a pivot shaft in the trifurcate intersection, shuttle, reserve and recycle pathways connected to the different portions of the trifurcate intersection to radiate from the trifurcate intersection in the different directions, an actuating device for moving each of the three vertexes of the deflector to individually open gates defined between one of the vertexes and related inner surfaces of the trifurcate intersection, and a conveyance device for transporting a document along the shuttle, reserve and recycle pathways and for transporting the document through at least one of the gates from one to another of the shuttle, reserve and recycle pathways, wherein the deflector comprises a baffle rotatably supported on the pivot shaft of the turning device and a crescent rotatably supported on the pivot shaft for independent rotation of the crescent from the baffle, the actuating device comprises a baffle actuator for rotating the baffle on the pivot shaft and a crescent actuator for rotating the crescent on the pivot shaft, the baffle actuator is operated to move a lower vertex of the baffle away from the bottom surface of the trifurcate intersection to thereby define a bottom gate in the trifurcate intersection so that the conveyance device is driven to convey the document from the shuttle pathway to the reserve pathway through the bottom gate, the crescent actuator is operated to move a backward vertex of the crescent away from a backward surface of the trifurcate intersection to open a backward gate between the reserve and recycle pathways so that the conveyance device is driven to carry the document from the reserve pathway to the recycle pathway through the backward gate, a lowermost end of the document is downwardly moved in the trifurcate intersection along recycle pathway beyond the backward vertex of the crescent in the original position, and then the crescent actuator is operated to rotate the crescent to move the forward vertex of the crescent away from the forward surface of the trifurcate intersection to open the forward gate between the recycle and shuttle pathways to pass the document through the forward gate and to thereby convey the document from the recycle pathway to the shuttle pathway through the forward gate.