Patent ID: 8061709

Claim:
A method for feeding and selectively rotating sheets between a source of sheets and a utilization device feed port comprising the steps of: selectively driving sheets each defined by a size along a feed table interconnecting the source of sheets of at least one predetermined size and the utilization device feed port using a plurality of sets of rotating drive elements positioned at predetermined spacing along the feed table in a downstream direction; selectively engaging each of a plurality of independently actuable nip rollers with the plurality of sets of rotating drive elements to form a respective drive nips therebetween and disengaging from the plurality of sets of rotating drive elements to define a clearance therebetween, such that each of the plurality of independently actuable nip rollers is constructed and arranged to be individually engaged with respect to each corresponding set of the plurality of sets of rotating drive elements based upon the predetermined size; selectively engaging predetermined sheets with a rotator disk assembly with a movable pressure disk that engages a rotating driven disk and disengages from the driven disk to provide clearance therebetween, the driven disk and the pressure disk each being located on a common rotational axis perpendicular to a plane of the feed table and the rotator disk assembly being located on the feed table between a plurality of the sets of drive elements upstream and a plurality of the sets of drive elements downstream of the driven disk; providing three drive elements of the plurality of sets of rotating drive elements positioned at predetermined spacings with respect to each other upstream of the rotator disk assembly and three of the drive elements positioned at predetermined spacings with respect to each other downstream of the rotator disk assembly, and wherein the step of selectively engaging the plurality of independently actuable nip rollers included engaging respective ones of the plurality of independently actuable nip rollers with predetermined drive elements of the plurality of sets of rotating drive elements based upon the size of sheets, and wherein the step of selectively engaging each of the plurality of independently actuable nip rollers includes driving each of the sheets into each of a plurality of halted positions along the feed table in which shorter-length sheets are associated with a greater number of discrete halted positions on the feed table and longer-length sheets are associated with a lesser number of halted positions on the feed table, and wherein at least one drive element and a respective nip roller of the rotator disk assembly remain engaged with each of the sheets on the feed table at all times; and directing the longer length sheets having a size exceeding a maximum size rotatable by the rotator disk assembly free of halting to the utilization device feed port.