GB389924A - Improvements in or relating to card feeding mechanism for statistical machines - Google Patents

Abstract

389,924. Statistical-apparatus. THOMAS, A., 11, Sandy Lane South, Wallington, Surrey. Dec. 11, 1931, No. 34406. [Class 106 (i).] In a machine for feeding cards to tabulating, sorting, and like machines, e.g. to a tabulating machine, as described in Specification 26896/13, [Class 106 (i), Calculating &c.], the cards are registered laterally by giving a lateral movement to the feed rollers which advance the cards longitudinally and form the sole support of the card, and a fixed side stop determines the lateral position of the card. As shown in Fig. 1 (Prov.), the feed rolls comprise fixed lower feed rollers 1 and spring-pressed upper feed rollers 3, and the upper rollers 3 are moved to the left to register the edges of the cards against a fixed stop 17. The rollers 3 are moved by means of oscillating U-shaped members 9 which move up and down with pillars 11 attached to the pin box of the tabulator. Fixed cam slots 13 engage pins on the members 9 to oscillate them, and the members 9 engage grooved discs 8 fixed to the shafts of the upper discs 3 and so move these discs laterally. The discs 8 also move the positively driven lower rollers 1 correspondingly, and when the card abuts the stop 17 the rollers 3 can yield owing to their spring mounting. The extent of movement of the rollers 3, 1 is constant and is such that cards entering at different lateral distances from the stop 17 can be registered thereby. In a modification, Fig. 2 (Comp.), which is applicable to key-operated card-punching machines, the rollers 1, 3 are not yieldingly mounted, but they are reciprocated laterally by a cam 108 and lever 106 with a striker 104 engaging a grooved disc 103 on the shaft of the lower roller. The rollers 1, 3 are moved away from the stop 5 by the cam 108 and return by spring action so that when the card abuts the stop 5 their motion ceases.