GB1356593A - Information carrier handling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1356593 Feeding and delivering sheets EASTMAN KODAK CO 27 May 1971 [2 June 1970] 17629/71 Heading B8R Sheets stacked on edge in two hoppers 26, 28, Figs. 3 and 5, are fed in one mode of operation from one of the hoppers to a transfer chamber 40 and thence into the other hopper, or in another mode of operation from one hopper to the chamber 40, thence to a projection station 156 of a microfilm reader for observation by the operator, back to the chamber 40 and thence into the other hopper. Pile supports.-The hopper 28 (or 26) has an end plate 44 (or 46) which, when sheets are removed from the hopper, is urged against the back of the pile by a spring. Sheet separators.-The end sheet 36 is separated from the pile in the hopper 28 by a friction feed wheel 50 driven by a motor 68 and passed to feed rollers 58, while rollers 60 engage any second sheet 35 separated with the sheet 36 to urge it back into the hopper. The wheel 50 and rollers 58 are reversible according to the direction of movement of the motor 68 and according to which hopper the sheets are to be removed from. The rollers 60 and corresponding rollers 62 for the hopper 26 always rotate in the same direction. Sheet forwarders.-A separated sheet is advanced by the rollers 58 and idler rollers 64, 66 into the chamber 40 and up to the nip of rollers 150, 152. In the first mode of operation, the rollers 150, 152 rotate so as to reject the sheet, which becomes bowed so that the trailing edge is moved by the rollers 58 along the surface of the latter and into engagement with the opposite idler rollers 66 (or 64). In the second mode, the rollers 150, 152 advance the sheet to the station 156. Delivering sheets.-A sheet in the station 156 after reading is returned by the reversible rollers 150, 152 to the chamber 40, and thereafter such a sheet, or a sheet which has not been admitted to the station 156 and has been bowed while in the chamber 40, is delivered by the rollers 58 and 66 (or 64) to the opposite hopper from that from which it came. Receptacles.-The motor 68 rotates a cam which causes card-deflecting arms 52, a card return wheel 56, and a card deflector 54, to be swung against the plate 46 (or 44) or any sheets already stacked thereagainst, of the receiving hopper 26 (or 28), so as to force the pile and plate backwards. The arms 52 deflect a delivered sheet against the pile or plate, and the wheel 56, which is also rotated by the motor, completes the delivery of the sheet against a back wall 27, a finger 119 on an arm 118 carrying the wheel 56 preventing the sheet being carried round the wheel 56. Controlling.-Electric switches actuated by the passage of sheets prevent feeding of sheets from a hopper into the chamber 40 when there is already a sheet in the chamber or in the station 156. Sheet reader.-Means for positioning a sheet in the station 156 is described in Specification 1,356,594.