GB1015577A - Improvements in or relating to document feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1,015,577. Feeding sheets. INTERNATIONAL COMPUTERS & TABULATORS Ltd. March 4, 1964 [March 27, 1963], No. 12087/63. Heading B6B. [Also in Division F2] Sheets or cards are fed directly by a feeding roller, or through the intermediary of a belt on the roller, by causing the surface of the roller to assume one of two radial distances from the centre of the roller so that the surface, or the belt thereon, engages or does not engage a sheet or card. The roller can be associated with apparatus for separating sheets or cards from the top of bottom of a stack, or for feeding single sheets or cards along a support. As shown, a stack of statistical cards 1 contained in a hopper 2 rests on a number of steel balls 4 freely mounted in retaining plates 3 which are rigidly supported by pillars 5. Ball races 7 in the pillars 5 support hollow shafts 8, 9 which are secured to a metal separator roller 10, the shaft 9 being driven continuously at constant speed by a belt and pulley 11. The roller 10 has a sleeve 12 of rubber or the like secured thereon, and has a radial duct 15 meeting a circumferential groove 18, and axial ducts 13,14 which communicate with ducts in the shafts 8, 9. The duct in the shaft 8 is connected with a source 21 of compressed air, and that in the shaft 9 is connected with a normally open valve 22 which can be closed by energizing an electromagnet. Normally, there is a small gap between the sleeve 12 and the bottom card 1 of the stack, and the compressed air exhausts through the valve 22. If, however, the valve 22 is closed by application of a current pulse to the operating electromagnet, the air pressure builds up inside the roller 10, and the sleeve 12 is expanded at the groove 18 to engage the bottom card 1 and separate it from the hopper 2 towards feed rollers which complete the separation. The valve 22 can be omitted, and the shaft 8 connected to a two-way valve which can be connected either to atmosphere or the pressure source 21. Further, the sleeve 12 may be replaced by a narrow ring or a portion covering only a segment of the circumference. Instead of the surface of the roller 10 engaging the bottom card, an endless separator belt passing over the roller can be caused to engage the card when the sleeve 12 is expanded. In another modification (Fig. 2, not shown), a stack of cheques or other flexible sheets rests on a number of roller bearings, and the constantly rotating separator roller comprises an electromagnet and an armature adapted, when energized, to compress a rubber &c. sleeve axially and thus cause the circumference to expand and engage the bottom card for separation from the stack. In a further application, the roller may be positioned above a flat feed table to which sheets &c. are fed singly by belts &c. The sheets remain on the table until the roller has its circumference expanded, whereupon a sheet is fed along the table to a sensing &c. device.