GB693908A - Improvements in or relating to compressors for filing trays for the accommodation ofpunched cards or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

693,908. Card indexes. ART METAL CONSTRUCTION CO. Feb. 22, 1951. [March 17, 1950] No. 6741/50. Class 146 (i). Locking followers. A compressor for a tray 1 for storage and manipulation of punched cards or the like comprises, at each side of a casing 3, 4, pawls 11 pivoted about a horizontal axis 12 so as to project rearwardly and arranged to be urged upwardly by springs 13 so as to cooperate with the underside of a track formed by a series of slots 9 on each side of the tray whereby forward movement of the compressor is permitted and backward movement prevented unless the pawls 11 are moved clear of the slots 9. The tray 1 has at each side a projection 2 forming a housing moving along the length of the tray in the lower part of which a channel shaped shoe 7 slides under a middle wall 8 provided with the slots 9. The compressor comprises front and rear casing members 3, 4 urged apart by conical springs 5, lugs on the shoes 7 being secured to the rear member 4 by screws 6. Each pawl 11 is pivoted to a stud 12 on the shoe 7 and the spring 13 engages a notch 14 to urge a tooth 10 on the pawl 11 upwardly into one of the slots 9. A bar 16 with a central operating lever 18 can be moved downwardly against the action of springs 17 so that its reduced ends 19 bear against the pawls 11 to move the teeth 10 out of the slots 9. The compressor is moved up to the stack of cards 15 and on further pressure on the rear member 4, the springs 5 are compressed until the teeth 10 engage the next slots 9 to hold the compressor firmly.