GB559255A - Improvements in filing cabinets - Google Patents

Abstract

559,255. Filing papers. NICHOLSON, J. N. Aug. 31, 1942, No. 12239. [Class 146 (i)] In a card-index filing-cabinet of the kind comprising trays 18, Fig. 1, mounted on one or more endless conveyers and adapted to receive cards stacked on edge, the conveyers, which are driven by an electromotor, are arrested by automatic selectormechanism controlled by press-buttons, in order to present any tray at an opening 19 in the cabinet for inspection or removal of the cards, the selection being effected by stoppage of the motor. Each conveyer comprises two chains 12 passing over sprockets 13, one pair of which is driven by a motor 15. The trays are removably secured to the chains by slotted brackets 22, Fig. 7, which engage pins on triangular plates 20 attached to the chains. The trays have wheels 28 running on fixed rails. When the trays are on the bottom run of the conveyer, the cards are retained by a pair of rods 77, Fig. 8, which engage T-shaped slots therein. At the inspection position the rods 77 are moved together by tonglevers 75, 76, which are operated by stationary rails 84. In an arrangement comprising two conveyers, each of which carries twenty trays and is driven by a separate motor, the selector-mechanism is operated from a dial 31, Fig. 1, of pressbuttons comprising four Tens and ten Units buttons. Depression of a button in each set starts one of the motors, which is automatically arrested when the selected tray is in position. Numbered rotatable rings 36 indicate the selected trays. The motor circuits are controlled by two distributerdiscs 39, Fig. 9, corresponding to the two conveyers and bearing outer and inner rings of contact-studs 40, 41, over which move two switch-arms 44a, 44b geared to the motors. The press-buttons 57, 58 serve to make the circuits of four Tens relays 43 and ten Units relays 45, which receive current from a transformer 61. Each of the Tens relays is connected to a group of ten inner studs 41 on the distributerdiscs, and each Units relay is connected to four individual studs 40 of the outer series. When a Tens and a Units button are depressed simultaneously, a circuit is completed through the two associated relays. The armatures of the relays close the switches 47, 55 of holding-circuits, which cause the relays to remain energized when the buttons are released. The Tens relay also closes a switch 68 in the circuit of one of the motors, and the corresponding switcharm rotates until it bridges the designated pair of contact-studs. A path of lower resistance is thereby completed through a coil 71, so that the relays are de-energized and the motor stops. The motor may be braked to ensure prompt stopping.