GB1258961A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,258,961. Separating sheets. SPERRY RAND CORP. 26 Feb., 1969 [27 Feb., 1968], No. 10210/69. Heading B8R. A mechanism for feeding documents singly from a stack comprises a pair of friction rollers 19, 20, Fig. 1, bearing against the end document near its leading and trailing edges, the rollers being coupled so that the trailing roller 20 rotates at a higher peripheral speed than the leading roller 19 to tow the document away from the stack. In the preferred embodiment, a stack of documents is located on edge on a baseplate 10, and documents are urged towards the open end of a hopper 11 by a spring-loaded plate 17. Rollers 19, 20 are intermittently rotated to separate documents from the stack, the drive being through a belt (20d) Fig. 3 (not shown) and pulleys (19c, 20c) of different diameters. The outward bowing of a document is limited by guide plate 35 and double feed is prevented by interaction between stripping roller 21 and an adjustable idler roller 22, the periphery of roller 21 moving at the point of contact, in the opposite direction to the document feed. Continuously-driven feed rollers 25, 26 grip a document before its trailing edge clears roller 20 and solenoid 33 is de-energized so that snub roller 32 is disengaged from its position as the driving clutch between the pulley (19c) of roller 19 and the pulley (21c) of roller 21 which is belt-driven from the pulley (26a) of roller 26 Fig. 3 (not shown). Roller 19 is provided with a free-wheel mechanism to allow it to rotate as a document is withdrawn by rollers 25, 26. Energizing of the solenoid 33 is in response to leading-edge detectors (not shown) located near rollers 25, 26.