US3656739A - Collator - Google Patents

Abstract

Collating apparatus having a series of trays supported for carrying sheets of paper, and a finger mechanism for pushing individual sheets of paper from the trays upwardly, and antifriction members arranged on the trays for manually gathering the ejected sheets of paper by a sweeping motion along the upper edges of the trays, the trays being mounted and tilted forwardly towards an operator so as to permit the sheets of paper to be gathered while the operator is seated in front of the machine, and incorporating electrical control means automatically recycling the machine each time the operator gathers the ejected sheets of paper, the machine being so constructed as to permit use of widely different sizes of paper with a minimum of adjustment, the pads of paper in each tray being automatically located due to the forward tilting of the trays.

Description

[151 3,656,739 [451 Apr. 18, 1972 United States Patent.

Hoff

[54] COLLATOR P YEx ml -Law ceCh les [72] Inventor: griiadealllllaxolas Hoff, Willowdale, On- A'tltronrgy ef; ARolrsetgn ar ABSTRACT [73] Assignee: General Binding Corporation (Canada) Limited 3,323,791 6/1967 Thomas............. ,....................270/58 12Claims,7DrawngFigures PMENTEUAPR 18 :912

SHEET l UF 3 Inventor CHARLES NICHOLAS Hof-F by: eyedn.

P'A'TNTEUAPR 18 |972 3, @6,739

SHEU 2 of 3 Inventar CHARLES NICHOLAS HOFF PTENTEDAPR 18 |972 3, 656, 739

ASHEET s ur 3 Inventor CHARLES NlcHoLAs HOFF coLLA'roR This invention relates to collators for sheet material, and in particular, to a manually operable collator designed for use in a seated position.

Various types of manually operable collators are available in which stacks of paper are supported in longitudinally spaced apart and transversely disposed inclined trays arranged horizontally, and a system of flexible sheet-ejecting members or fingers which are operable either manually or electrically to 1965. These collators all incorporated certain disadvantages which impeded the speed of operation, and sometimes led to unnecessary fatigue after lengthy periods of use, since it was frequently necessary for the operator to continually bend over the machine while perfomiing the sweeping action to gather up the sheets of paper. In addition, the time spent in setting up the machine for use with a particular size of paper sheet was often quite considerable since the paper had generally speaking to be centered on the trays, and side members of the trays were adjusted in and out, and in addition, the roller members at the upper edges of the trays were adjusted upwardly and downwardly, thereby usually requiring three separate adjustments for each tray.

- ln the majority of such prior machines, the operator was required to press a switch or operate a lever each time the machine was cycled, thereby still further slowing down the operation.

Accordingly, with a view to reducing operator fatigue, and also to provide for automatic recycling of the machine, and to reduce the complexity of the set-up operation, the invention provides a collator having a series of longitudinally spaced apart and transversely disposed inclined trays arranged generally horizontally but tilted over towards the operator, thereby enabling the operator to sit at the front ofthe machine rather than stand and bend over it, and at the same time, eliminating one of the side guides of each tray, since the stacks of paper on the trays will always lie against the lower side of the tray and require to special alignment. Automatic recycling is provided by means of a pressure actuated switch incorporated in one of the upper roller guide members which is depressed by the gathering movement performed by the operator causing the machine to recycle while the operator is stacking the previously gathered sheets. Provision may also be made for slidably moving the paper ejecting fingers from side to side to suit different sizes of paper.

lt is therefore a general objective of the invention to provide a paper collator having a plurality of paper receiving trays, the

, trays each being forwardly tilted to downwardly angled positions for ease of operation.

More particularly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a paper collator having the foregoing advantages in which the trays are tilted sideways, and in which the paper edge aligning means on the trays is fixed the paper being aligned under the influence of gravity by contact with such aligning means.

More particularly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a paper collator having the foregoing advantages in which the paper ejecting fingers are movable from side to side so as to permit adjustment thereof relative to their position on the trays.

More particularly, it is an objective of the present invention to providea paper collator having the foregoing advantages in which permanently fixed roller guide means are provided adjacent the upper edges of the trays for facilitating ejection of the paper therefrom, and in which the means for supporting the lower edges of the papers stacked on each tray are adjustable upwardly and downwardly on the tray to accommodate different sizes of paper.

More particularly, it an objective of the present invention to provide a paper collator having the foregoing advantages in which the paper ejecting fingers are electrically operated, and in which such electrical operation is connected through a pressure sensitive switch responsive to passage of sheets of paper over said roller guide means to recycle the machine and eject further sheets of paper therefrom.

It is another objective of this invention to provide a paper collator of the aforementioned type in which the paper-ejecting fingers associated with the individual paper-supporting trays can be selectively disabled to permit the controlled ejection of sheets from any desired combination of the paper-supporting trays.

lt will be understood that this is essentially a general outline of the invention, and that other variations and modifications may be made within the scope of the appended claims.

The foregoing and other advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which is given here by way of example only with reference to the following drawings in which like reference devices refer to like parts thereof throughout the various views and diagrams and in which;

FIG. 1 is an'end perspective illustration of the paper collator according to the present invention showing the side ways tilting ofthe trays;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective of a detail of the collator shown in FIG. l;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged perspective of an alternative embodiment ofthe detail of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective of a detail of the paper ejecting finger means shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. S is a schematic side elevational view showing the mechanism for operating the paper ejecting finger, and the electrical control means thereof;

FIG. 6 is an end elevational view of the paper collating apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and,

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective of the frictionless glide members of the collator of FIG. l.

Referring now to FIG. l, it will be seen that Athis preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a pair of spaced apart sheet metal leg members l0, having lower edges l1 which are of sufficient breadth to support the entire structure in a stable manner on a floor. The upper edges l2 of the support members 10 are tilted downwardly towards the front of the machine. A housing member indicated generally as l13 is mounted on the upper edges 12 of support members l0, and is provided with parallel front and rear side walls 14 and 14A respectively provided with a plurality of slotted recesses l5 and 15A to be described hereinafter in greater detail.

It will be noted that the front side wall 14 is made deeper from its top to bottom edge than the back side wall 14A, this being achieved by making the entire housing member 13 so that it has a generally trapezoidal, vertical cross-sectional configuration, for purposes to be described hereinafter. In addition, and in order to allow for the difference in height of the front and rear side walls 14 and 14A respectively, the slotted recesses 15 and 15A in these side walls 14 and 14A are transversely misaligned with respect to one another substantially as shown in FIG. 2, the dotted line X indicating a line parallel to the end 13A of the housing 13. It will thus be seen that the righthand edge of the recess 15 in the front side wall 14 is generally aligned with the top of the sloping left-hand edge of the recess 15A in the rear side wall 14A.

In order to hold a plurality of separate pads or stacks of paper, indicated generally by the reference P, there are provided the paper receiving tray members 16, of flat sheet metal construction, which are supported at their lower front edges within the recesses l5 in the front side wall 14. On the other side of each tray 16, there is provided the extended leg portion 16A of generally L-shaped construction in section, adapted to extend downwardly further than the lower edge of the tray 16 as shown in FIG. 2, and to fit within one of the recesses 15A and to extend around the side wall 14A as shown in FIG. 1 whereby to support the tray 16 finnly'in position, while the same is tilted over endwardly at an angle as shown in FIGS. l

. fect of bringing the trays 16 back into I and 5. The tray members 16 are thus supported in parallel `locking openings 19 formed in the trays 16, and the struck out tongues 20 fonned in the support members 18.

As stated above, the front side wall 14 of housing 13 is deeper than the back side wall 14A, having the effect of making the vertical cross-sectional shape of the housing 13 generally trapezoidal, the upper edge of this housing being inclined transversely at a different angle than the lower edge, when viewed end on as shown in FIGS. l and 6. The purpose of this form of construction is to ensure that the upper or rear side edges of the trays 16 are free of any obstmction from the back side wall 14A of housing 13 whereby to permit oversized sheets of paper to be supported on the trays 16. In this way, it becomes possible to construct the machine with overall compact dimensions, while in fact being able to handle sheets of paper which are considerably wider than the spacing between side walls 14 and 14A. The extended leg portion 16A which extends below the lower edge of each tray 16 co-operates in achieving this objective, by extending down to the bottom of its respective recess 15A in the side wall 14A to provide complete support. The extension of the leg portion 16A for this purpose would have the effect of swinging the trays into a plane which was not parallel to the front wall 13A of the housing 13, and it is for this reason that the recesses 15A in the back side wall 14A are transversely misaligned with respect to the recesses l5 in the front side wall 14, thereby having the efparallel alignment with the front wall 13A of the housing 13.

Individual sheets of paper are moved upwardly from the pads P by means of the paper ejection finger members 21 provided with frictional paper engaging members 22. The gathering of the individually ejected sheets of paper is facilitated by the anti-friction glide members 23 attached to the upper edges of the trays 16 and provided with recessed roller members 24 therein for ease of movement. It will be noted that the glide members 23 and roller members 24 are arranged in a generally horizontal alignment and are tilted to the front ofthe machine, so as to lie in a plane parallel to the upper edges of the tray 16 and the supporting means 18. Corner separator members 17A are provided on the side edge supporting means 17, and assist in the separation of the uppermost sheet of l paper from the pad of paper P, when such uppermost sheet is ejected upwardly by means of the fingers 2l. Preferably, as shown in more detail in FIG. 7 the roller members 24 are mounted and located so as to be rotatable about an axis spaced below the upper surface of the glide members 23. Generally speaking, the passage of sheets of paper around rollers such as rollers 24 will tend to curl the sheets of paper in the process, and result in misfeeding of the paper under certain circumstances. However, according to the present invention the rollers 24 are recessed in the sheet metal glide members 23, and the tendency for such curling to develop is avoided.

With reference to FIG. 2, it will be noted that the fingers 2l consist essentially of thin flexible blades, having at their upper ends the paper engaging members 22 which consist of ribbed rubber or synthetic plastic sleeves fastened on a common rod 25. Rod 25 is 'rotatably and slidably mounted in flange member 26 having angularly slotted openings therein (not shown) of the types shown in U.S. Letters Pat. No. 3,269,719, thereby permitting the rod 25 to slide therein along an angled path thereby bringing the central sleeve 22a either into or out of engagement with the finger member 21. In this way, the sleeve member 22 will be held against rotation due to contact between sleeve 22a and finger 2l, while the finger 21 is moving upwardly, but will be released from such engagement and free to rotate when the finger 21 is drawn downwardly. At

their lower ends, fingers 2l are mounted on any suitable carriage system for moving them downwardly and upwardly. ln this preferred embodiment, it is considered desirable that the fingers should be moved both downwardly and forwardly and in the reverse direction to eject individual sheets of paper. Accordingly, a composite finger carriage frame is provided con sisting of the carriage bar 27, and the bearing pins 28 mounted in equally spaced 'apart relation along bar 27. Fingers 21 are swingably connected to pins 28 by means of the yoke member 29 welded to the lower end of each finger 21 fitting around bar 27.

Carriage bar 27 is itself movably mounted on the two parallel spaced apart link members 30 the upper ends of which are swingably connected to bar 27 by meansof bolts 31 and the lower ends of which are swingably mounted within the housing 13 to the mounting brackets 32 by means of bolts 33. In order to move the carriage bar 27, there is provided the electric drive motor 34 at one end of housing 13, connecting with the rearward end of bar 27 by means of the connecting rod 35 joumalled at crank pin 36 on the control cam member 37. ln this way, rotation of control cam 37 by motor 34 through any suitable reduction drive means of conventional type (not shown) bar 27 will be moved forwardly and rearwardly and will swing about bolts 33 on brackets 32 thereby causing the carriage bar 27 to move along a predetermined reciprocal arcuate path, the radius of which corresponds to the length of the link members 30. Preferably, according to this preferred embodiment, the rearward and upward movement of the carriage bar 27 is assisted by the return spring 38, although such spring 38 may not always be necessary, depending upon the design and power of the motor 34.

ln order to procure continuous automatic operation of the collator, means are provided for automatically recycling the machine each time an operator collects a series of sheets of paper from the trays 16. Such means comprise, according to this preferred embodiment of the invention, the electrical micro switch 39 mounted on the rearmost guide member 33 and having a manually movable operating arm 40 extending upwardly therefrom adapted to be depressed each time an operator moves his hand or any other suitable object over the rearmost glide member 23 in the act of collecting a complete set of sheets of paper from the tray 16. The micro switch 39 is in turn connected through suitable control relays (not shown) of known design, in a suitable control circuit with the micro switch 41 located adjacent the control cam 37 and having a cam follower co-operating therewith.

ln order to facilitate operation of the machine, any suitable on/off control switch (not shown) and any other suitable switching which may be considered desirable for the purpose of for example, cutting out altogether the micro switch 39 so as to provide for single sequence operation under the control of the operator may be provided in known manner, the description thereof being omitted for the sake of clarity.

ln order to permit an operator to selectively prevent the ejection of sheets of paper from one or more of the trays, means are provided for covering over the paper engaging sleeve members 22; such means comprise the plate members or shields 42 swingably mounted on the rods 25 by means of the brackets 43.

In operation, pads of paper P are placed in respective trays 16 as shown in FIG. 1, after the lower edge supports 18 are suitably adjusted on the trays 16 so as to locate the upper edges of the paper in the pads P a suitable distance from the glide members 23, although the precise distance is not considered critical, the upper edges of the pads P being preferably located more or less aligned with the upper edges of the trays 16 as shown in FIG. l.

The operator will then switch on the electrical power and sit at the front of the machine that is to say, on the lower side thereof with the trays 16 tilted towards him with his knees positioned in the knee space below the front side wall y14. He then depresses the operating member 40 of micro switch 39 which initiates the first cycle of the machine. Drive motor 34 will then rotate the control cam 37 causing connecting rod 35 to force carriage bar 27 endwardly and downwardly in the direction of the arrow A (FIG. 5) drawing with it the fingers 21 downwardly. As the fingers 21 are drawn downwardly, the paper engaging members 22 are free to rotate and will therefore roll freely across the surface of the top sheet of paper in each of the pads P without wrinkling or moving the same. When the carriage bar 27 has reached the lowermost position of its travel, the return spring 38 will draw the same endwardly and upwardly in the direction of the arrow A' the speed of movement being controlled by the electrical motor 34 and the inherent friction incorporated in the reduction drive mechanism (not shown), permitting the fingers 21 to move upwardly at a predetermined controlled rate. As the fingers 21 move endwardly and upwardly, the rotation of the paperlengaging members 22 will be prevented due to the engagement of the member 22A with the finger member 2l, and the uppermost sheet of paper in each of the pads P will be pushed upwardly and endwardly and will move over the glide members 23 and the roller members 24. When the fingers 21 have reached their uppermost position, the control cam 37 will operate the micro switch 4l causing the drive motor 34 to stop, thereby checking further movement of the carriage bar 27. The operator with his hand or with any suitable frictional object such as the pad of foam plastic or foam rubber or the like frictional material will then gather the upwardly ejected single sheets of paper by means of a continuous sweeping motion, pressing the hand or pad (not shown) downwardly onto the roller members 24. The inherent friction exterted onto the individual sheets of paper by such pressure will be suicient to withdraw them from their respective pads P, the roller members 24 effectively preventing the development of any friction between the lowermost such sheet of paper and permitting it to move freely over the glide member 23. Thus at the end of such gathering stroke, a single sheaf of sheets of paper is collected, arranged in the order in which the pads P are arranged in the tray 16, and all that is required is to align the sheets of paper by shaking the same, or by the use of any suitable paper jogging mechanism such as is well known in the art (not shown) moves over the last of the glide members 23, it will apply pressure to the operating member 40 of micro switch 39, thereby initiating a new cycle of operation without the need of any further operator control.

According to a further embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, provision may be made for use ofthe invention in a machine of greater dimensions for sheets of paper of unusually large dimensions. In these figures, structural components generally corresponding to those already described with reference to the collator of FIG, l will be identified by three-digit legends commencing with the numeral 1. The housing 113 of the collator of FIGS. 3 and 4 is made of considerably greater width than that of the collator of FIG. 1, and it therefore becomes unnecessary to provide the offset arrangement of the slots 115 and 115A. In addition, each tray 116 is simply made wider and may optionally be prol vided with an additional side guide member 117B. ln addition,

particularly where the machine is to be used with large sheets of flimsy paper it may be necessary to provide two operating fingers 121 spaced apart from one another as shown and in this case, the carriage bar 27 is replaced by a pair of carriage bars 150 arranged side by side in parallel spaced apart relation, and a series of spaced apart mounting rods 151 extend therebetween. The fingers 121 are provided at their lower ends with the yoke members 152 welded thereto, and each of such yoke members 152 incorporates the slotted recesses 153 adapted to fit over the rods 151 as shown, and a spring locking member 154 is attached to each finger 121 and extends downwardly and around the yoke 152 and is provided with a lower portion 155 adapted to engage and fit around the rod 151. In this way, the finger members 121 may readily be attached and detached from the rods 151 or moved sideways therealong as the occasion demands. The other details of the operating mechanism are essentially the same as in the embodiment of FIG. 2. Obviously, the lower edge supporting member 118 may be shaped somewhat differently as compared with the member 18 of the embodiment of FIG. 2 to accommodate the two spaced apart fingers 121 as shown.

What I claim is:

1. A collator which comprises:

a supporting structure;

longitudinally extending and transversely spaced apart first and second upstanding side walls forming part of said supporting structure, said first and second side walls being disposed in forwardly inclined planes to provide forwardly of said first side wall knee space for an operator sitting forwardly of said rst side wall;

a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart and transversely disposed inclined trays mounted on said first and second side walls and lying in a forwardly inclined plane directed towards said operator and extending over said knee space;

a plurality of pairs of tray supporting recesses formed in respective said first and second side walls, said recesses in each of said pairs of recesses being transversely misaligned so that said trays supported thereby are disposed substantially transversely of said collator;

a paper-supporting face on each such tray for supporting a stack of sheets disposed thereon and, for this purpose, including a transversely inclined first paper-supporting member for supporting lower edges of said sheets disposed on said paper-supporting face, and a second paper-supporting member generally perpendicular to said first paper-supporting member for supporting an adjacent side edge of said sheets of each said stack of sheets, whereby said sheets on each said tray are disposed in mutual edge alignment by virtue of their gravitational engagement with both said first and second paper-supporting members;

downwardly extending leg means on each said tray supportingly received in a respective one of said recesses in said second side wall thereby permitting sheets on said trays to extend rearwardly beyond said second side wall;

a plurality of sheet-ejecting members movably mounted on said supporting structure in a forwardly inclined plane for downward and upward movement along paths substantially parallelto said second paper-supporting members so as to engage uppermost sheets of said stacks of sheets supported on said trays, and,

a drive mechanism adapted to move said sheet-ejecting members upwardly along said paths in frictional engagement with said uppermost sheets to move said uppermost sheets partially out ofA said trays for subsequent withdrawal from said collator, and to move said sheetejecting members downwardly along said path across said sheets in non-frictional engagement therewith for subsequent ejecting engagement with successive uppermost ones of said sheets disposed on said trays.

2. A collator as claimed in claim 1 wherein the top edges of said side walls lie in a forwardly inclined transverse plane tilted at a predetermined first angle relative to the horizontal and wherein said trays lie in a forwardly inclined transverse plane tilted at an angle greater than said predetermined rst angle.

3. A collator as claimed in claim l wherein said second side wall is shorter than said first side wall, and wherein said leg means comprises a downward extension of each said tray adjacent said second side wall, thereby tilting said trays into a forwardly inclined plane parallel to said first and second side walls.

4. A collator as claimed in claim l in which each said first paper-supporting member is adjustably mounted on a respective one of said trays to pennit the use of said collator with sheets of various dimensions and in which each said tray has a third paper-supporting member detachably mounted thereon, each said third paper-supporting member being disposed generally parallel to the respective second paper-supporting member and being spaced transversely therefrom.

5. A collator as claimed in claim 4 in which said sheet-ejecting members are transversely adjustable.

6. A collator as claimed in claim l which additionally comprises a roller rotatably mounted at the top of each of said trays about an axis parallel to the respective first paper-supporting member to support a sheet on its movement out of said tray, a pressure-actuated switch responsive to movement of a set of said sheets over said rollers to actuate said drive mechanism to move said ejecting members downwardly and upwardly, and a second switch responsive to such upward movement of said sheet-ejecting members to de-actuate said drive mechanism.

7. A collator as claimed in claim 6 in which said pressureactuated switch is disposed at the top of a tenninal one of said trays and in which each said roller is rotatably mounted on an axis disposed generally parallel to and below an upwardly and endwardly extending glide plate secured to the top of a respective one of said trays, said roller projecting partially upwardly i through a corresponding opening formed in said glide plate.

8.A collator as claimed in claim 7 in which said drive mechanism comprises an electrically operated motor drivingly -connected to a rotary cam element connected through a crank arm to a longitudinally extending carriage bar pivotally supported by two spaced apart pivotal link arms whereby rotational movement of said sheet-ejecting members pivotally mounted thereon, in which actuation of said drive mechanism by said pressure-actuated switch causes rotation of said cam element by said electrically operated motor, and in which said second switch comprises a cam follower co-operating with said cam element and adapted to de-actuate said electrically operated motor to terminate rotation of said cam element on movement of said sheet-ejecting members to their uppermost positions.

9. A collator as claimed in claim l which additionally comprises individual shield members associated with said sheetejecting members and each adapted removably and slidingly to engage an uppermost sheet of a respective stack of sheets disposed on one of said trays to prevent said frictional engagement of said sheet-ejecting member with that uppermost sheet, whereby the uppennost sheets ejected from said collator on operation thereof can be selectively controlled by appropriate disposition of said shield members.

l0. A collator as claimed in claim 9 in which each said shield member is pivotally mounted on its associated sheetejecting member for movement between a disabling position in which it is interposed between said sheet-ejecting member and the respective uppermost sheet and an ejecting position in which said frictional engagement of said sheet-ejecting member and the respective uppermost sheet occurs.

11. A collator as claimed in claim 10 in which each sheetejecting member comprises a sheet-enegaging roller carried on a transversely extending shaft supported in slotted openings in transversely spaced apart flanges secured to said sheet-ejecting member in proximity to the upper end thereof, whereby free rotation of said roller is possible on downward movement of said sheet-ejecting member but not on upwardv movement thereof, and in which said shield member is pivotally mounted on said transversely extending shaft for rotation thereabout between said disabling position and said ejecting position.

12. A collator as claimed in claim 3 in which said first and second upstanding side walls are supported by first and second, longitudinally spaced apart end supports dimensioned so as effectively to support said collator on a supporting surface.

Claims (12)

1. A collator which comprises: a supporting structure; longitudinally extending and transversely spaced apart first and second upstanding side walls forming part of said supporting structure, said first and second side walls being disposed in forwardly inclined planes to provide forwardly of said first side wall knee space for an operator sitting forwardly of said first side wall; a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart and transversely disposed inclined trays mounted on said first and second side walls and lying in a forwardly inclined plane directed towards said operator and extending over said knee space; a plurality of pairs of tray supporting recesses formed in respective said first and second side walls, said recesses in each of said pairs of recesses being transversely misaligned so that said trays supported thereby are disposed substantially transversely of said collator; a paper-supporting face on each such tray for supporting a stack of sheets disposed thereon and, for this purpose, including a transversely inclined first paper-supporting member for supporting lower edges of said sheets disposed on said papersupporting face, and a second paper-supporting member generally perpendicular to said first paper-supportinG member for supporting an adjacent side edge of said sheets of each said stack of sheets, whereby said sheets on each said tray are disposed in mutual edge alignment by virtue of their gravitational engagement with both said first and second papersupporting members; downwardly extending leg means on each said tray supportingly received in a respective one of said recesses in said second side wall thereby permitting sheets on said trays to extend rearwardly beyond said second side wall; a plurality of sheet-ejecting members movably mounted on said supporting structure in a forwardly inclined plane for downward and upward movement along paths substantially parallel to said second paper-supporting members so as to engage uppermost sheets of said stacks of sheets supported on said trays, and, a drive mechanism adapted to move said sheet-ejecting members upwardly along said paths in frictional engagement with said uppermost sheets to move said uppermost sheets partially out of said trays for subsequent withdrawal from said collator, and to move said sheet-ejecting members downwardly along said path across said sheets in non-frictional engagement therewith for subsequent ejecting engagement with successive uppermost ones of said sheets disposed on said trays.

2. A collator as claimed in claim 1 wherein the top edges of said side walls lie in a forwardly inclined transverse plane tilted at a predetermined first angle relative to the horizontal and wherein said trays lie in a forwardly inclined transverse plane tilted at an angle greater than said predetermined first angle.

3. A collator as claimed in claim 1 wherein said second side wall is shorter than said first side wall, and wherein said leg means comprises a downward extension of each said tray adjacent said second side wall, thereby tilting said trays into a forwardly inclined plane parallel to said first and second side walls.

4. A collator as claimed in claim 1 in which each said first paper-supporting member is adjustably mounted on a respective one of said trays to permit the use of said collator with sheets of various dimensions and in which each said tray has a third paper-supporting member detachably mounted thereon, each said third paper-supporting member being disposed generally parallel to the respective second paper-supporting member and being spaced transversely therefrom.

5. A collator as claimed in claim 4 in which said sheet-ejecting members are transversely adjustable.

6. A collator as claimed in claim 1 which additionally comprises a roller rotatably mounted at the top of each of said trays about an axis parallel to the respective first paper-supporting member to support a sheet on its movement out of said tray, a pressure-actuated switch responsive to movement of a set of said sheets over said rollers to actuate said drive mechanism to move said ejecting members downwardly and upwardly, and a second switch responsive to such upward movement of said sheet-ejecting members to de-actuate said drive mechanism.

7. A collator as claimed in claim 6 in which said pressure-actuated switch is disposed at the top of a terminal one of said trays and in which each said roller is rotatably mounted on an axis disposed generally parallel to and below an upwardly and endwardly extending glide plate secured to the top of a respective one of said trays, said roller projecting partially upwardly through a corresponding opening formed in said glide plate.

8. A collator as claimed in claim 7 in which said drive mechanism comprises an electrically operated motor drivingly connected to a rotary cam element connected through a crank arm to a longitudinally extending carriage bar pivotally supported by two spaced apart pivotal link arms whereby rotational movement of said sheet-ejecting members pivotally mounted thereon, in which actuation of said drive mechanism by said pressure-actuated switch causes rotation of said cam element by said electrically operated motor, and in which said second switCh comprises a cam follower co-operating with said cam element and adapted to de-actuate said electrically operated motor to terminate rotation of said cam element on movement of said sheet-ejecting members to their uppermost positions.

9. A collator as claimed in claim 1 which additionally comprises individual shield members associated with said sheet-ejecting members and each adapted removably and slidingly to engage an uppermost sheet of a respective stack of sheets disposed on one of said trays to prevent said frictional engagement of said sheet-ejecting member with that uppermost sheet, whereby the uppermost sheets ejected from said collator on operation thereof can be selectively controlled by appropriate disposition of said shield members.

10. A collator as claimed in claim 9 in which each said shield member is pivotally mounted on its associated sheet-ejecting member for movement between a disabling position in which it is interposed between said sheet-ejecting member and the respective uppermost sheet and an ejecting position in which said frictional engagement of said sheet-ejecting member and the respective uppermost sheet occurs.

11. A collator as claimed in claim 10 in which each sheet-ejecting member comprises a sheet-enegaging roller carried on a transversely extending shaft supported in slotted openings in transversely spaced apart flanges secured to said sheet-ejecting member in proximity to the upper end thereof, whereby free rotation of said roller is possible on downward movement of said sheet-ejecting member but not on upward movement thereof, and in which said shield member is pivotally mounted on said transversely extending shaft for rotation thereabout between said disabling position and said ejecting position.

12. A collator as claimed in claim 3 in which said first and second upstanding side walls are supported by first and second, longitudinally spaced apart end supports dimensioned so as effectively to support said collator on a supporting surface.

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