US2470442A - Adjustable throat mechanism for sorting machines - Google Patents

Description

May 17, 1949. G. v. A. MALMROS ETAL 2,470,442

ADJUSTABLE THROAT MECHANISM FOR SORTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 12, 1947 INVENTOR 'Gam'm/ lllfalmros, fdmundtbarben/r,

BY edw i spun-QM:

AGENT Patented May 17 1949 ADJUSTABLE THROAT MECHANISM FOR SORTING MACHINES Gustav V. A. Malmros, Binghamton,

A. Barber, Jr., Johnson City,

and Edmund N. Y., assignors to International Business Machines Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application November 12, 1947, Serial No. 785,292 2 Claims. (Cl. 271-44) The present invention relates to an adjustable throat mechanism by means of which record material in the form of source documents which are each attached to an individual carrier vehicle in the form of a punched tabulating card may, in combination, be fed from a magazine or feed hopper to the feed rolls of a sorting machine and from thence conducted to the sensing instrumentalities, distributing means and ultimately to the receiving pockets of a sorting machine.

It has recently been proposed for the successful sorting of source documents such as cheques, drafts, receipts, sales slips, bills of lading, etc., which have no common size, shape, thickness or stock weight, and in which there are no special or unique identifying means such as perforations, removed corners, cutaway portions conductive regions or the like which are capable of detection by conventional sorting machines, that each source document be folded or creased along its short dimension and that a conventional punched tabulating card be inserted in the crease or fold in such a manner that the leading edge of the card is closely nested within the fold with the document overlying. an unpunched region of the card. If the document is sufliciently long it is permitted to overlap the trailing edge of the card. In this manner the document and card are effectively secured to each other for sortin purposes. The combined documents and cards are then stacked in superimposed relationship in the feed magazine of a sorting machine of more or less conventional design which has been modified to accommodate the card and document combinations and sorting takes place in somewhat the usual manner with the cards acting as carrier vehicles to conduct their individual attached documents to the correct sorting pocket.

Such a sorting machine has been shown and described in a copending application of C. Bruce Church, Serial No. 773,254, filed September 10, 1947, for Method of and apparatus for sorting manuscripts, documents and the like, and referonce may be had thereto for a full disclosure and description of the operation thereof.

Inasmuch as in sorting cards according to the method shown and described in the above mentioned application of Church, the source documents occupy an overlying position on one side of the cards, the combined cards and documents, when stacked in the feed magazine, present a stack which is materially thicker at one side than at the other. This results in an uneven weight distribution on the bottom of the magazine and, as a consequence, presents certain diflic-ulties in feeding the card and document combination from the bottom of the stack, particularly when conventional card feed picker mechanism is employed. Furthermore, where a large number of card and document combinations are contained in a single stack withthe usual card weight resting on the top thereof, the tendency of the uppermost card and document combinations in the stack is to assume an undue inclination and thus interfere with the downward feeding of the various units which comprise the stack.

In order to facilitate feeding of the card and document combinations from the bottom of such a stack the present invention contemplates the provision of an adjustable throat mechanism including a throat opening which is disposed at a level slightly above the level of the bottom of the feed magazine together with an inclined surface or ramp therefor upon which the forward edges of the cards may ride upwardly in approaching the throat opening. In this manner it is assured that the rear edge of the lowermost card in the stack is maintained flush with the bottom of the feed magazine where it is in proper position for engagement by the forward edges of the picker knives when it is desired to feed a card and document combination from the bottom of the stack.

The specific nature of the throat opening mentioned above constitutes one of the features of the present invention and, accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide such a throat opening which will best accommodate the feeding of the card and document combinations from the bottom of the stack with little or no tendency for the combinations to jam regardless of any discrepancy that may exist between the size, shape, stock weight, thickness or stiffness of the individual documents which cooperate to make up the stack.

In order to alleviate the tendency of the uppermost card and cheque combinations in the stack to become unduly inclined, the present invention further contemplates the provision of a feed magazine having opposed side portions which, in the upper regions thereof are spaced from each other a distance which is slightly less than the length of theindividual tabulating cards, thus placing a slight but effective bind upon these upper cards thereby creating a slight bow in the cards which is conducive toward combating the tendency of the cards to become canted. In the lower regions of the magazine the sides are spaced from each other a distance equal to the full length of the cards so that the lowermost card may assume a forming a part position with its rear edge flush with the bottom of the magazine for proper cooperating with the picker knives which are associated with the feeding instrumentalities.

The provision of a card feeding throat mechanism of the character generally outlined above and of a cooperating feed magazine therefor being the principal object of the invention, numerous other objects and advantages not at this time enumerated will become more readily apparent as the following description ensues.

In the accompanying single sheet of drawing of this specification:

Fig. 1 is a, fragmentary perspective view of a sorting machine having a feed magazine and throat mechanism constructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary front elevational view of the throat opening proper, and

Fig. 3 is a perspective view, schematic in its representation, showing a, folded document and card combination.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, the sorting machine shown fragmentarily herein is of the type shown and described in the above mentioned application of Church. This machine is in a large measure similar to conventional sorting machines employing horizontal sorting means as for example the machine shown and described in the patent to Horsfield, No. 1,933,328, dated October 31, 1933. The similarity of construction of the present machine with the above mentioned patent is particularly noticeable in connection with the specific location and mounting and relation to one another of the various assemblies and operating instrumentalities including the framework IO, feed magazine ll, picker mechanism l2, adjustable throat mechanism l4, sensing instrumentalities (not shown) sensing brush adjusting mechanism l6, feed rolls l8, card distributing devices (not shown) card receiving locations or pockets i9 etc. Reference may be had to the above mentioned patent for a full understanding of the nature and operation of such conventional sorter mechanisms and the present description will, in a large measure, be devoted to the modifications by means of which the present document sorting machine together with its adjustable throat mechanism has been made possible.

Referring now to Fig. 3, a source document which may be in the form of a conventional bank cheque is designated in its entirety at 20 and, for sorting purposes, each such cheque is adapted to be associated with a punched tabulating card 22 which may be of the Hollerith type, the latter serving as a conducting vehicle for'transporting the cheque through the sorting machine from the feed hopper II to the particular receiving pocket Is to which the cheque is assigned. The card 22 also serves as an identifying instrument and function device whereby proper chute blade selection is made for the proper selective sorting of a stack of the assembled cheques and cards contained in the feed hopper.

Toward these ends, each source document or cheque is folded adjacent one end on a line which extends parallel to its smaller dimension and the leading edge of its respective tabulating card is inserted in the fold with the cheque occupying a position close to the left hand end of the card as viewed in Fig. 3. The right hand region of the card is left exposed and is reserved for the provision of a series of perforations 24 therein, these perforations preferably being formed in the card according to the well known Hollerith code their attached picker knives proper 44.

and serving to identify the associated cheque in a desired manner, as for example according to the name of the maker, or the payee, the banking district or the bank itself, the cheque amount or any other data appearing on the cheque.

The assembled cheques or other documents 20 and their carrier vehicle cards 22 are placed in the feed hopper in stacked relationship with the cheques occupying a position at the left hand side of the magazine as viewed in Fig. 1 and with the trailing ends of the cheques extending rearwardly beyond the confines of the magazine. The feed magazine is, in general similar to that shown in the patent to Horsfield, cited above, and includes a bottom 26, side members 28, a front plate 30 to which there are secured a pair of vertical guide strips or aligners 32 which are curved as at 34 and extend forwardly beneath the first feed roll assembly 36 and which cooperate with a pair of card supporting plates 38 to provide therebetween a card path or channel leading from the feed magazine II. The hopper also in cludes a rear upstanding card guide 40 at one side of the magazine, the space existing between this guide 40 and the side wall 28 serving to permit projection of the trailing ends of the cheques 20 to extend beyond the confines of the magazine. The picker mechanism i2 is likewise similar to that shown in the Horsfleld patent and includes the usual linkage system (not shown) which operates the reciprocable picker slides 42 and These assemblies are situated in the bottom of the feed magazine and the knives 44 are adapted upon reciprocation of their respective assemblies 42 to engage the rear edge of the lowermost card 20 in the stack and advance the same, together with the associated cheque or document, through and past the-adjustable throat mechanism I4;

A feed disabling mechanism is designated in its entirety at 50 and includes an electromagnet 52 and tiltable frame assembly 54, the latter opersecured within a ating under the control of the magnet to engage the underneath side of the lowermost card in the stack to elevate its rear edge and prevent the picker knives 44 from engaging the latter and thus prevent feeding of the cards and cheques from the stack on alternate machine cycles. The feed disabling mechanism just described forms no parts of the present invention and reference may be had to the above mentioned application of Church for a full description of the construction and operation of the same.

The adjustable throat mechanism comprising the present invention includes a vertically extending throat plate 60 which is adjustably secured between guides 62 to the guide plate 30 and which is provided with a lower throat edge 64 (see also Fig. 2) which is inclined slightly from the horizontal for reasons that will be made clear presently.

The throat edge 64 is designed for cooperation with aroller 66 having a curved surface and provided with trunnions 68 which are rotatably journalled in a yoke member 10 which is seated and groove 72 provided within the bottom of the feed magazine II.

The curvature of the surface of the roller 66 is preferably circular but not necessarily so and the degree of curvature thereof is calculated in accordance with engineering exigencies to cooperate with the inclined edge 64 to produce an inclined passage for the leading edge of the cards therethrough, the transverse axis of which deviates from the horizontal by approximately 1 To produce such an inclined throat opening, it has been found that the inclined edge 6i may deviate from the horizontal by an angle of approximately 1 /2 with the parallel radius being selected to give a drop off at its ends from the medial plane thereof of approximately .006 inch.

The yoke member is wedge shaped and its upper surface is inclined upwardly toward the throat opening so that the leading edges of the cards in the medial regions thereof are slightly elevated from the level of the magazine bottom. The throat opening existing between the roller 66 and the throat edge 64 is correspondingly elevated to accommodate reception of the card edges.

As shown in Fig. 2 which is a view looking directly at the throat opening from inside the feed magazine, the throat edge is inclined slightly from the horizontal as indicated by the angle and the angle of inclination is relatively small with the edge inclining upwardly from left to right. Thus the bottom of the card 20, in passing through the throat opening makes a point contact with the periphery of the roller 66 which is slightly to the left of the center of the roller.

The exact inclination of the edge 64 has been determined by empirical methods and is calculated to equal the average degree of angularity of the leading edge of the card occasioned by virtue of the increased weight of the thick end of the stack and of the curvature applied to the cards by the height of the wedge-shaped yoke member 10. In efiect the left hand or thick region of the stack is seated in a depression while the tendency of the wedge-shaped yoke is to cant the stack slightly and elevate the right hand region thereof. Thus in the immediate vicinity of the throat opening the leading edge of the bottom card is inclined slightly upwardly and to the right. The inclined edge 54 accommodates this inclination and insures maximum efficiency of operation of the card feeding mechanism as a whole. As previously stated, most eflicient operation is attained when the" inclination of the edge 64 is approximately 1 /2".

When a. stack of combined cheques and cards are placed in the feed magazine I I with the usual card weight on the top thereof the ordinary tendency of the uppermost card and cheque combinations in the magazine would be to assume a sharply inclined angle with respect to the horizontal and such a phenomenon would ordinarily interfere'with the proper downward feeding of the material contained in the stack. To remedy such a condition, the upper regions of the magazine H are narrower than the lower regions.

as to bring the rear edge of the lowermost card into the vicinity of the picker knives 44. Any

discrepancy in the angularity of the rear edge of the card in the vicinity of the picker knives will be accommodated by virtue of the fact that the picker knives are tiltably mounted in the slide assemblies 42 as shown at I2.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood that various omissions Specifically, the distance between the two sides 2B in the upper regions thereof is slightly less than the length of one of the tabulating cards 20 and these sides are recessed as of I4 so that the lower regions of the magazine are approximately the full length of the cards. The tendency is thus to cause those cards which occupy the upper regions of the stack to have a slight downwardly bowed curvature, i. e. with the end and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

'1. A throat mechanism for feeding card and document assemblies of the character described comprising a vertically extending guide plate, a vertically extending throat plate secured to said guide plate and having a lower edge which is inclined slightly from the horizontal, a roller freely mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis and having an outer surface which is curved in a longitudinal direction, said roller being disposed beneath said inclined edge with its surface spaced from said edge a distance substantially equal to the thickness of one of the cards included in said assemblies.

2. A throat mechanism as claimed in claim 1 including means for varying the vertical position 1 of said throat plate to vary the distance between said edge and surface of the roller to accommodate cards of varying thicknesses.

GUSTAV V. A. MALMROS. EDMUND A. BARBER. JR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number

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