Patent Document ID: 4508447
Application ID: 06487404

Base Claim:
1. In an automatic document handling system for recirculating a set of document sheets seriatim in a page order to and from the imaging station of a copier for making precollated copy sheet sets, said document handling system having control means and two document trays, the improvement for higher speed document recirculation for copying on a copier having a high copying rate at said high copying rate comprising: automatic document sheet separating means controlled by said control means for automatically, during the first circulation of the set of document sheets, separating the set of document sheets into two half-sets of alternate page document sheets and restacking said half-sets respectively in said two document trays; automatic alternate document sheet cooperative feeding means actuated automatically by said control means on the second and subsequent copying circulations of the document set to feed document sheets alternately from said two document sheet half-sets in said two document trays so as to feed document sheets at said high copying rate and in page seriatim order directly to be copied on said copier; and wherein said automatic document sheet separating means in said second and subsequent, but not the last, copying circulations is controlled by said control means to reseparate said document sheets after they are copied and return them to said two document trays.

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Claim 6:
6. The automatic document handling system of claim 1 wherein said two document trays comprise an upper tray and a lower tray thereunder, and wherein said document set is initially loaded into said upper tray, and said automatic document sheet separating means is automatically controlled by said control means in the last copying circulation to feed all of said document sheets to only said upper tray after they are copied.