GB817675A - Improvements in or relating to sheet feeding mechanisms - Google Patents

Abstract

817,675. Feeding sheets. INTERNATIONAL COMPUTERS & TABULATORS Ltd., [formerly BRITISH TABULATING MACHINE CO. Ltd.]. Nov. 3, 1955, No. 31454/55. Class 100(1) Sheets are fed one by one along a rigid supporting surface by one or more feeding members engaging the upper surfaces of the sheets, each member comprising at least two flexible elements in the form of closed loops, one or more of the elements being located around and attached at a number of points to the other or another of the elements; the outer element or elements engage and feed the sheets and the inner element is substantially inextensible and is driven. In one form, the member comprises an endless belt of woven cotton webbing to which is attached three side by side strips of rubber each in the form of an endless band or loop. The composite member thus formed passes over pulleys, one of which is driven. In the arrangement shown, the composite belt comprises a chain 16 having a light web 17 coated with a film of rubber attached to it. Blocks 18 are secured to the chain and are equally spaced therealong at a distance equal to that between the trailing edges of adjacent sheets to be fed along a support plate 7. The web 17 is secured to the blocks, 18 by screws 19. The rubber face of the web 17 engages the sheets and feeds them along the plate 7. The heads of the screws 19 may also act as pushers which engage the trailing ends of the sheets, the plate 7 being suitably slotted to receive the screws. The device may be applied to a document sorting machine as described in Specification 751,931, and the documents may be removed from a pile and forwarded by a conveyer 5 to the plate 7 by apparatus described in Specification 729,892. Specification 751,931 [Group XIX] also is referred to.