Patent ID: 7213493

Claim:
An infeed apparatus for a sheet material article trimmer, the infeed apparatus comprising: a pusher element movable relative to a front table of the sheet material article trimmer and configured to move a sheet material article to be trimmed on the front table and into engagement with a backstop of the front table; and a driver configured to move the pusher element at a different speed than the front table to move the sheet material article to be trimmed on the front table and into engagement with the backstop and to move at a same speed as the front table for a period of time with the pusher element in engagement with a first edge portion of the sheet material article and the backstop in engagement with a second edge portion of the sheet material article, the period of time being at least as long as a time required for a front clamp of the sheet material article trimmer to move through a distance corresponding to a difference in thickness between a thinnest sheet material article in a range of thicknesses and a thickest sheet material article in the range of thicknesses so as to grip the sheet material article against the front table.