GB1358420A - Method and apparatus for handling sheets - Google Patents

Abstract

1358420 Feeding and delivering sheets XEROX CORP 9 Sept 1971 [9 Sept 1970 (4)] 42104/71 Heading B8R Copy sheets which have been printed by a xerographic machine from a series of precollated original documents, so that the sheets are the successive pages of a booklet, are delivered from the machine on to a receiving tray between adjustable side guides 107, 109, Fig. 2, a lid 52 being in lowered position, the tray having a rising and falling front gate 207, Fig. 3, and the sheets are urged forwards and to the left against the guide 107 by a rotating paddle 209 having angularly disposed blades. In one mode of operation, with the gate in its lower, operative position, the sheets are registered against the gate and the guide 107; and when all the sheets of a booklet are assembled, a stapling device drives a staple through the assembly from below, the gate is raised, drive rollers 380, 381 are raised against idler rollers to feed the assembly to a tray 401, and the assembly is registered to the left on the tray 401 by a further paddle wheel 415, Figs. 2 and 17. In a second mode of operation, the gate is raised and the sheets are fed directly to the tray 401, where batches of sheets are alternately registered to left and right by paddle wheels 415, 417, which are selectively moved down into contact with the assembly by swinging of a frame 435 about a pivot 439 by a solenoid SOL-4. At the end of a run, a lid 52 is released by a solenoid SOL-5 to be raised slightly by springs around rods 54, 55, and is then open fully by the operator for removal of the batches. Further solenoids control the gate, the stapling device, and the rollers 380, 381, the solenoids and drive motors for the various parts being actuated by a control logic system. The tray 401 is lowered by a motor MOT-3 as the assembly increases in height, the motor being controlled by photo-electric detectors 453, 454. According to the sheet width, the guides 107, 109 are adjusted laterally by the operator after depression of a release handle 131, the guides being mechanically linked so as to move through equal distances in opposite directions, and being also linked by a wire slidable in a sleeve to side guides 151, 153 for the tray 401, which guides 151, 153 move in unison with the guides 107, 109. A further photo-electric detector is provided to detect a sheet jam, when the xerographic machine is turned off. There is also provided a counter to count the sheets passing from the machine to the receiving tray and turn off the machine if there is an overflow condition.