GB848262A - Improvements in or relating to card feed sorter devices - Google Patents

Abstract

848,262. Statistical apparatus. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Feb. 12, 1958 [Feb. 14, 1957], No. 4657/58. Class 106 (1). [Also in Group XVI] A card feed and sorting device especially for use with punched card machines has a number of sorter pockets, feed rollers 1, and pairs of card stops 9, 10, each pair of stops being operative to determine the position between them of cards in a corresponding sorter pocket, and the stops are mounted on adjustable support members. As shown, a plate 2 supports feed rollers 1 and forward card stops 10, and a bar 8 supports rearward stops 9, the bar and the plate being mounted for displacement parallel to the direction of card feeding movement by means of rocking arms 3, 4 and 6, 7, respectively. A linkage 5 connecting the arms 3, 6 ensures that when the plate 2 is moved in one direction, the bar 8 moves in the opposite direction. A punched card 11 coming from the right is sensed by apparatus which determines which of the three card stops 9 will abut the card, and rollers 12 direct the card to the feed rollers 1, the card being guided in such manner that it will abut the appropriate stop 9. Sorting pockets (not shown) are arranged below the guide stops 9. Cards 11 of different lengths can be positioned by the stops over the appropriate pockets when the distance between the feed rollers and the stops 9 is adjusted by the relative movements of the bar 8 and plate 2: and the arrangement ensures that irrespective of the length of the cards they are brought to rest by the stops 9 with their transverse centre lines in the same central position over a pocket.