US3690644A

US3690644A - Card handling mechanism

Info

Publication number: US3690644A
Application number: US102796A
Authority: US
Inventors: Silas Ray Halbert
Original assignee: DOCUMATION Inc
Current assignee: DOCUMATION Inc
Priority date: 1970-12-30
Filing date: 1970-12-30
Publication date: 1972-09-12
Anticipated expiration: 1989-09-12
Also published as: IT942842B; JPS5112907B1; DE2162265A1; CA949989A; GB1339997A; DE2162265C2; FR2121113A5

Abstract

Picker used in a processing apparatus wherein a stack of data processing cards or other paper, checks, or the like, are fed along an input hopper to an end wall plate where each of the cards are sequentially ejected from the stack in a direction at right angles to the previous travel path. The picker seizes each card as it reaches the end plate and directs the card one at a time in the new direction past a throat formed by a throat bar defining the throat passage past the end plate. The end plate has a window for the picker face near the throat bar. The picker is a substantially hollow body with angular walls and a generally arcuate picker face having holes therein and is supported in the window so that it can be turned by a drive means a predetermined angle of rotation in the direction of the throat. Suction means are connected to the picker to generate a negative pressure force through the holes therein to cause the foremost card to adhere to the face upon reaching the end place and be directed past the throat as the picker turns.

Description

United. States Patent Halbert [54] CARD HANDLING MECHANISM [72] Inventor: Silas Ray Halbert, Brevard, Fla.

Stemmler....' "271/29 X Primary Examiner-Joseph Wegbreit Att0rney-Duckworth and Hobby [451 Sept. 12, 1972 [57] ABSTRACT Picker used in a processing apparatus wherein a stack of data processing cards or other paper, checks, or the like, are fed along an input hopper to an end wall plate where each of the cards are sequentially ejected from the stack in a direction at right angles to the previous travel path. The picker seizes each card as it reaches the end plate and directs the card one at a time in the new direction past a throat formed by a throat bar defining the throat passage past the end plate. The end plate has a window for the picker face near the throat bar. The picker is a substantially hollow body with angular walls and a generally arcuate picker face having holes therein and is supported in the window so that it can be turned by a drive means a predetermined angle of rotation in the direction of the throat. Suction means are connected to the picker to generate a negative pressure force through the holes therein to cause the foremost card to adhere to the face upon reaching the end place and be directed past the throat as the picker turns.

20 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures T a /b fon/ro/ FIG.1

PATENTED SEP 12 m2 SHEET 1 [IF 5 57/45 A. //d/er/ PATENTEDsEP 12 1912 SHEET 2 OF 5 INVEA/iQQ W PATENTEDSEP 12 I972 SHEET 3 [IF 5 PATENTED SEP 12 m2 sum 5 or 5 FIG. II

1 CARD HANDLING MECHANISM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION cost construction which can easily be repaired and replaced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART In the S. R. HALBERT U.S. Pat. No. 3,252,702 there has been described a picker arrangement for ejecting the bottom card of a vertical stack of cards. This type of apparatus is useful to feed unpunched cards to a high speed card puncher. However, in the later processing of the cards, the cards are fed horizontally with the cards standing vertically on one of the longer edges forming a horizontal stack. A card picker to handle such a horizontal stack is described in the HALBERT, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,245,68l,and and generally comprises a central chunker mechanism and a plurality of belts having holes therein passing before the chunker mechanism. These belts and chunker arrangement, although suitable for certain processing operations, have been found unwieldy or unhandy in othercases, requiring the designing and engineering of the arrangement herein described. This belt picker has two major drawbacks that thepresent picker overcomes. First, the belts are moving at high velocity when they are engaged into the card by the chunker which produces an instantaneous acceleration to the card which is stationary causing relative motion between the belt and card creating a wear problem due to skidding. Second, the belts exert large amounts of force to the cards especially if there is a large mass of cards in the hopper as the belts physically displace the mass a certain distance when the chunker is actuated. This force causes damage to cards that are heavily punched due to interlocking of holes and lands.

Advantageously the above problems are eliminated by the present picker mechanism due to the riffle air separating cards in a static condition and the accelerating uniformly up to a velocity equal to the pinch rollers.

Other prior art picker mechanisms utilize a continuously rotating cylinder having uniformly spaced holes in its periphery and having a vacuum placed in the ho]- low interior so that cards may be removed from a stack upon making contact with the cylinder. Another mechanism has cards picked from a stack by a picker with a vacuum applied through perforations therein which picker is placed on a reciprocating arm which transfers a card from input hopper to a stacker.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides fro a picker assembly used in a processing apparatus wherein a stack of thin, rectangular, flat members of substantially similar size are fed along a straight travel path of an input hopper to an end wall place where each of the flat members are sequentially ejected from the stack in a direction substantially at right angles to the previous travel path. The picker assembly seizes the flat members as they reach the end plate and directs each fiat member in the new direction past a throat formed by a throat defining means. The picker and throat block effectively create a fixed throad due to the adjustment screw setting off the throat block. As the picker rotates, it opens up the throat to a geometrically larger passage as the card moves. Separation comes from the warping action of the card, also the picker, due to eccentric mounting, pushes the cards away from the support plate. These throat defining means have a front end defining the throat passage pase the end plate so as to permit only one of the flat members to pass across the throad in the new direction. In the end plate towards the throat defining means is a window for the picker face. The picker is a substantially hollow body with generally angular walls and a generally arcuate picker face having at least one hole therein. The picker is supported with the face disposed in the window and can rotate a predetermined angle of rotation in the direction of the throat. Drive means are attached to the picker to turn the face in the window. Connected to the picker are suction means creating a suction force through at least one hole to cause the foremost of said flat members to adhere to the face upon reaching the end plate and be directed past the throat as the picker turns.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS I The invention as well as other objects and advantages thereof will be better understood from the following detailed description when taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a top plan view of a processing apparatus wherein the picker assembly herein contemplated is employed;

FIG. 2 illustrates a fragmentary plan view of the picker assembly herein contemplated and its-relationship with other components, with parts broken away and in section;

FIG. 3 is a right end elevation as seen in FIG. 1 with parts broken away and in section showing a part of the forward feed mechanism of the processing apparatus;

FIG. 4 presents a fragmentary bottom plan view showing the drive arrangement, air feed and vacuum exhaust outlets;

FIG. 5 is a sectional elevation along lines 5-5 of FIG. 2 showing drive mechanism and a front view of the picker assembly;

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of the picker mechanism;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the picker mechanism at rest;

FIG. 8 shows a sectional view similar to FIG. 7 but with vacuum applied;

FIG. 9 illustrates a sectional view similar to FIG. 8 showing the movement of the vacuum head;

FIG. 10 is a bottom perspective view of the picker body; and

FIG. 11 is a sectional view along lines 11-11 of FIG. 8.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The mechanism herein further described is designed to handle thin rectangular flat members such as punched cards 10 and similar sheet-like documents which are to be processed in a card reader 12 and consists primarily of an input hopper 14, a picker mechanism 16 illustrated in FIG. 6, a card track 18, and a stacker mechanism 20. The picker mechanism 16 selectively picks the foremost card from the stack and feeds the card to a pair of rotating pinch rollers 22, best seen in FIG. 2. These rollers 22 pinch the card and draw it off the forward end of the stack and pass the card along card track 18. This action transports the card through a reading station 24 and delivers it to the stacker mechanism 20. The stacker mechanism 20 injects the card into the output hopper, clearing the card track 18 for the next feed cycle. The input hopper l4 occupies about quarter of the card reader when viewed from above as in FIG. 1 and has a flat input table 26 to receive the cards 10. The cards are then urged towards the center of the card reader 12 by the forward feed mechanism.

THE FORWARD FEED MECHANISM The forward feed mechanism 28 is depicted in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 with FIG. 3 showing the right hand side only of the mechanism when viewed with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. The left hand side is not shown in detail in .the drawing since it is quite similar to the right hand side in operation, and it can be partially seen from above FIG. 2. This forward feed mechanism 28 is where the cards are fitted so that they can be fed to the picker mechanism. The forward feed mechanism 28 has a long pusher plate 30 extending across flat input table 26. The cards 10 will be inserted between pusher plate 30 and the picker mechanism so that the plate 30 can urge the cards forward. The travel path of the pusher plate 30 is determined by guide rails 32 located in the side wall on the outer side of the flat input table 26. These guide rails 32 will maintain the pusher plate 30 at a proper orientation with respect to the picker mechanism as the pusher plate 30 moves forward. Urging the pusher plate 30 forward is a spring loaded pulley system 34 consisting of a spring 36 located at the inner end of the flat input table 26, which extends parallel to the surface of input table 26. At the outer end of spring 36 is a first pulley 38; a second pulley 40 is attached to and moving with the pusher plate 30. Towards the outer end of the input hopper 14 is an anchor post 42 affixed to the center of pusher plate 30 is an anchor point 44. Anchor point 44 and anchor post 42 are connected by a resilient belt 46 passing between

pulleys

38 and 40. As will be apparent when looking at FIG. 3, the pusher plate 30 is pulled back towards the feeding end of the input hopper 14 when the spring 36 is stretched forward and tends to force pusher plate 30 forward towards the picker mechanism 16. To facilitate the forward movement of pusher plate 30, rollers 48 are provided.

THE PICKER MECHANISM As the cards 10 are pushed forward, they reach a throat bar 50, having an adjustment screw 52 as best seen in FIG. 6. The picker mechanism 16 must pick one card at a time and slide it past the throat 54 to the pair of rotating pinch rollers 22 which will draw off the card 10. The width of throat 54 is defined by the front end of the throat bar 50, and the size of the throat as determined by the front end of the throat bar must be such as to permit only one card at a time to pass across the throat. At the forward end of the flat input table 26 is the input hopper and wall plate 56 to hold the cards 10 as they are picked by the picker mechanism 16. Input hopper end wall plate 56 has a picker window 58 located next to the throat bar 50 for providing a work station for the action of the picker 60. The end wall plate 56 has an outwardly curved section 62 towards the throat 54 to facilitate passage of the picked card across the throat. The picker 60 is a hollow body which when viewed from above, or in a horizontal cross-section as shown in FIGS. 7 to 9 has a generally triangular configuration, with a curved face resembling the segment of a cylinder. This hollow body segment preferably is eccentrically mounted on a drive shaft 64 passing through the picker towards the apex of the cylinder. This eccentrically set drive shaft is set in back of the end wall plate 56 and is at right angles to the plane of the flat input table 26 permitting the picker to move in a rotary motion in a horizontal plane. The drive shaft is fastened to the picker 60 by means of screws 66 passing through the apex of the picker. Thus, the picker 60 has a triangular floor 68, a triangular roof 70 and a generally convex rubber face 72. Instead of having the picker body eccentrically mounted on the drive shaft, the same effect may be attained by designing the convex rubber face 72 so that it is not really a circular arc, but has only a slightly curved surface and an almost straight tangential portion 74 towards the outer side which will be almost flush with the outer wall of picker window 58. As seen in FIGS. 7 to 9, the inner secton 76 of the convex face of the picker appears to have a greater angle of curvature. This is achieved either by the eccentric mounting of the picker or the special shaping of the face so that the face will move eccentrically as it turns. The outer portion 74 of the picker face has a plurality of perforations 68, while the floor 68 of the picker has an elongated opening 80 somewhat forward of the apex and towards the face of the picker. Disposed under this opening 80 is a suction or vacuum hose 82, the open end of which provides a negative pressure in the picker 60 through opening 80. Opening 80 will be in alignment with the end of hose 82 at the beginning of a cycle providing maximum negative pressure in the picker and thereby maximum suction through perforations 78. However, as the picker rotates opening 80 becomes out of alignment with the open end of hose 82 partially or fully shutting off the suction through perforations 78 just as the card is being gripped by the feed rollers. Opposite both triangular walls of the picker 60 are limit stops 84 and 86, one of said limit stops 84 is connected to a switch which will deenergize the picker drive shaft. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 6 to 9, when a card 10 arrives at the picker end wall 56, air through holes 78 on the left side of the card will bend the left side of the card across the face of the picker so that the card outer edge fits between the throat bar 50 and the picker. The picker 60 then turns by the action of its drive shaft 64, and, as it turns, the leading edge of card 10 is seized by the pinch rollers 22. Thus, the picker and throat block effectively create a fixed throat due to the alignment of the throat block. As the picker rotates, it opens up the throat to a geometrically larger passage as the card moves. Separation comes from the warping action of the cards.

PICKER DRIVE AND CARD DRIVE ARRANGEMENT Disposed over the picker mechanism 16 and supported on picker end wall 56 is a riffler 88 which is supplied with air by an air feed hose 90. Suction hose 82 and air feed hose 90 are both connected to the same pump 92 so that air passing through perforations 78 is pumped by pump 92 to the riffler 88. This advantageously utilizes both the positive and negative pressure sides of pump 92. The riffler 88 blows this air down on the cards arriving at the picker mechanism so between limit stops 86 and 84, sending the firstcard along thetrack. Upon reaching limit stop 84, the solenoid is deenergized by a switch and the vacuum has beenpartially cut off by the misalignment of the related holes connecting the vacuum to the picker head. The return spring 100 then takes over and pulls the picker 60 back to its original position against limit stop 86. If the track is clear, and no error signal is being furnished to pick control 98, the picking operation is repeated and a second card is then picked and sent along the track. The drive shaft operation is shown in FIGS. 4 and 6.

Upon entering the card track 18, the card 10 is seized by pinch rollers 22 forming the entrance to the reading station 24. Further along the card track 18, past the first pinch rollers 22 there is a second set of pinch rollers 102.

STACKER MECHANISM The stacker mechanism consists of a pair of powered first and second stacker drive rollers 104 and 106, an eccentric stacker roller 108, and a spring loaded follower assembly ll0. The spring loaded follower assembly 110 maintains a constant pressure between the cards in the hopper and the drive rollers. The card track pinch rollers drive the card into the stacker hard enough to overcome the follower pressure momentarily. The returning follower pressure forces the entering card into contact with the stacker drive rollers 104 and 106. The entering card then depends on the frictional drive from the rollers to draw it on into the stacker hopper. This contact creates enough frictional drive to keep the card moving into the stacker hopper.

A vibrating action can be produced by one of the stacker feed wheels being mounted eccentrically to improve the stacking action. The reason for this improvement in the stacking efficiency is that this action imparts a vibration throughout the card stack and in the spring loaded follower assembly 110. The vibration and displacement breaks the static friction of the cards in the stacker hopper pressing down against the base plate and momentarily displaces the assembly away from the stack drive rollers. This constant agitation of the card stack allows the spring loaded follower assembly 110 to maintain a constant pressure against the stacker drive rollers 104 and 106, regardless of the number of cards in the hopper because it minimizes the effects of card drag. Due to the geometry of the card stacker and the placement of the drive rollers relative to the eccentric roller, there is always some friction between the stack drive roller and the card stack which is adequate to drive the card against the card stop. The eccentric rollers, due to the support point and location of the wabble, displaces approximately percent of the force of the card stacker assembly each time it lifts the assembly.

OPERATION OF THE PICKER MECHANISM It is to be observed therefore that the picker consists of a hollow segment body of a cylinder eccentrically mounted on a drive shaft 64 or with an eccentric face and coupled to a rotary solenoid 94 by the drive shaft. The hollow picker 60 is connected by a vacuum hose to a vacuum source 92 which feeds a vacuum to the inner chamber of the picker hollow body. This vacuum is presented to the outside face of the picker by a pattern of small holes 78 on its face. This face is normally in partial contact with the surface of the foremost card in the input hopper 14. The vacuum action sucks the card down intofull contact with the rubber face 72 of the picker andthus securely adhered the card to the surface of the picker at the beginning of the cycle. Due to the geometry of the picker face or the eccentric mounting of the picker and the location of the picker relative to the flat and wall plate and window 58, the clamping action of the vacuum pulling the midsection of the card against the picker face creates a bending or warping action in the card. This how is intentional and produced by the support points of the wall plate and the surface of the picker face. This bowing of the cards separates the foremost card from the second card, and the clam ping of the card to the picker face pulls the card leading edge below the plane of the wall plate and beyond the edge of the throat bar which is located slightly below the plane of the wall plate. This bowing of the foremost card insures complete separation of theforemost card from the second card and allows the foremost card a clear path out of the input hopper. This separation action is an important and necessary feature since it allows a wide range of card thickness or damaged leading edges to be selectively fed into the card track.

This action takes place with the picker face in the rest or home position. The actual feeding or card picking" action is initiated by energizing the rotary solenoid 94 attached to the picker drive shaft 64. The picker moves through an angular displacement of approximately 20 at which time it is stopped by a rubber bumper stop 84. As the picker passes the throat bar 50 the suction holes 78 are separated from the card which is then free of the negative pressure force. The solenoid is de-energized when it hits the bumper stop 84 and the picker face is then returned to rest by spring 100.

The card moves with the picker face due to the clamping force of the vacuum and frictional resistance to slip created by this force on the rubber surface of the picker face. The picker face rotates the leading edge of the card into a position between the pair of pinch rollers 22, drawing the card out of the input hopper and into the grip of the spinning pinch rollers. The pinch rollers strip the card from the surface of the picker face and feed it on through the card track. The second card is constrained by the throat bar from moving until the first card has been fed. The vacuum holding the card to the picker is partially or fully cut off by the rotation of the picker bringing the alignment of the vacuum holes in the picker out of alignment with its counterpart in the frame thereby reducing the vacuum just as the card reaches the feed rollers. When the picker returns to rest, the second card is then exposed to the vacuum and is drawn into contact with the face of the picker segment. The cycle is now ready to start again when the rotary solenoid is energized. The picker and card track used herein is designed to operate in the horizontal plane with the earth (130) in order to minimize gravitational loading forces on the bottom cards when the hoppers are full. This position of the track also minimizes the wear forces imposed on the cards, thereby lengthening their useful life when read many times. The cards are top loaded into the input hopper on their longitudinal bottom edges and moved into contact with the end wall surface plate by the spring loaded follower as the cards are fed from the bottom of the stack. The follower forces are just enough to keep the card stack in gentle contact with the picker and stack mechanism. The forcesare considerably less than most current mechanisms due to this fact, and there is less tendency for cards which are heavily punched to interlock with each other thereby minimizing damage to the cards.

It will be clear to those skilled in the art that a card handling mechanism has been provided which will pick cards from a stack one at a time, feed them past a reader into a stacker. However, it should also be clear that the mechanism will operate with sheets of paper, checks, and the like, in addition to cards and that this invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed herein since these are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

I claim:

1. in an apparatus wherein a stack of thin, flat members of similar thickness are fed from an input hopper to a stacker, a picker assembly to seize said flat members as they reach an end place and direct said flat members one at a time toward said stacker, comprising in combination:

a. throat defining means having a front end defining a throat passage between said throat defining means and said end plate permitting the passage of one of said flat members therethrough;

. a window in said end plate in spaced relationship with said throat defining means;

0. a partially hollow body serving as a picker and having walls and a partially arcuate picker face having a plurality of holes therein, said hollow body being supported in said window so that a portion of said face turns a predetermined angle of rotation past said throat, including drive means coupled to said picker to turn said face in said window;

(1. suction means connected to said picker hollow body creating a suction force acting through said holes to cause the foremost of said flat members to adhere to said picker face upon reaching said end plate and be directed past said throat, as said face turns; and

c. said partially hollow body being spaced in said window so as to warp said foremost flat members into said window to adhere to said picker face to allow said foremost flat member to pass said throat defining means one flat member at a time when said partially hollow body rotates and said partially hollow body bowing said foremost flat member during rotation thereof whereby the combination of warping and bowing separates one fiat member at a time from the stack of flat members.

2. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including a drive shaft, disposed in the vicinity of said window behind said end wall plate, said picker hollow body being mounted thereon for eccentric rotation of said arcuate picker face before said window.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, said drive shaft including a solenoid connected thereto for turning saididrive shaft, a picker stop disposed in the travel path of one of said picker walls, said solenoid being deenergized as said picker hits said stop and, spring means connected to said picker restoring said picker to its original position.

4. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, including a riffler disposed over said end wall plate to blow air down on several of the foremost flat members, an air feed hose operatively connected to said riffler to feed air thereto, and a pump to which said suction means and air feed hose are connected.

5. An apparatus as claimed in claim 4, said suction means including an elongated aperture in said picker hollow body, a suction hose with an opening partially covering said aperture so that the turning movement of said picker partially blocks said suction of said aperture.

6. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said throat defining means including a throat bar disposed to one side of said end wall plate disposed to engage a side edge of the foremost card, and adjustment means to adjust the distance between said front end and said end plate.

7. An apparatus as claimed in claim 1, said picker face including a plurality of holes on the side of the face located towards said throat.

8. An apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein said throat and said end wall plate partially define the inner portion of the input hopper, and a pair of pinch rollers past said throat on the outside of said input hopper to grab said flat member passing through said throat.

9. A picker mechanism for picking thin, flat members one at a time from an input hopper and feeding each said flat member towards a stacker comprising in combination: throat defining means located at one end of said input hopper, said throat defining means defining a throat between an adjustable throat block and a hopper and plate means whereby one flat member at a time can pass through said throat defining means; picker head means rotatably mounted to said picker mechanism in close juxtaposition to said throat defining means and having a face with perforations therein for the passage of air for gripping one flat member at a time with the suction of air through said perforations, said picker head means face coacting with said hopper end plate and being shaped to bow said flat member in one direction and to warp said flat member transverse to said bowing around said throat block while rotating said picker head with said flat member until said flat memberis engaged by a feeding means.

10. The apparatus in accordance with claim 9 in which said picker mechanism has a suction generating means connected to said picker head means by connecting means to produce suction through said perforations therein and said connecting means is adapted to reduce said suction through said perforations as said picker head rotates, whereby said picker head means will reduce its grip on said flat member as said flat member engages said feeding means.

11. The apparatus in accordance with claim 10 in which said connection means includes holes that are aligned in one position but become out of alignment when said picker head means rotates a predetermined distance.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said picker head means has a generally arcuate shaped face and is eccentrically mounted for rotation relative to said are.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said picker head means has a face shaped to bow arid warp said flat members during rotation so that said bow and warped flat member has one portion thereof being fed through said throat defining means and a second portion thereof driving any remaining flat members in said hopper from said throat defining means.

14. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said suction generating means blows air being sucked therethrough onto the top of one end of said input hopper for riffling flat members located in said one end of said hopper.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14 in which said picker mechanism feeds a pinch roller feed means for feeding said flat members to said stacker.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 in which said picker mechanism rotates approximately 20 prior to returning to its starting position.

17. A method of picking thin, fiat members one at a time from an input hopper and feeding each flat member to a stacker comprising the steps of: gripping one fiat member at a time onto a rotatable head by a suction through perforations in said rotatable head; rotating said rotatable head with said flat member gripped thereto; bowing said flat member in accordance with said rotation of said rotatable head; warping said flat member transverse to said bowing thereof around a fixed throat bar during rotation of said rotatable head whereby only one card at a time can pass by said throat bar.

18. The method according to claim 17 in which the step of gripping includes reducing the suction through the perforations in said head upon said head being rotated a predetermined angle of rotation by rotation of said head blocking a portion of an opening thereinto.

19. The method according to claim 18 but including the step of riffling said fiat members in said input hopper with said suction of air from the suction through said perforations.

20. The method according to claim 19 in which said step of rotating includes rotating said head a predetermined angle of rotation releasing said flat member and returning said head to its original position.

Claims

1. In an apparatus wherein a stack of thin, flat members of similar thickness are fed from an input hopper to a stacker, a picker assembly to seize said flat members as they reach an end place and direct said flat members one at a time toward said stacker, comprising in combination: a. throat defining means having a front end defining a throat passage between said throat defining means and said end plate permitting the passage of one of said flat members therethrough; b. a window in said end plate in spaced relationship with said throat defining means; c. a partially hollow body serving as a picker and having walls and a partially arcuate picker face having a plurality of holes therein, said hollow body being supported in said window so that a portion of said face turns a predEtermined angle of rotation past said throat, including drive means coupled to said picker to turn said face in said window; d. suction means connected to said picker hollow body creating a suction force acting through said holes to cause the foremost of said flat members to adhere to said picker face upon reaching said end plate and be directed past said throat, as said face turns; and e. said partially hollow body being spaced in said window so as to warp said foremost flat members into said window to adhere to said picker face to allow said foremost flat member to pass said throat defining means one flat member at a time when said partially hollow body rotates and said partially hollow body bowing said foremost flat member during rotation thereof whereby the combination of warping and bowing separates one flat member at a time from the stack of flat members.

3. An apparatus as claimed in claim 2, said drive shaft including a solenoid connected thereto for turning said drive shaft, a picker stop disposed in the travel path of one of said picker walls, said solenoid being de-energized as said picker hits said stop and, spring means connected to said picker restoring said picker to its original position.

9. A picker mechanism for picking thin, flat members one at a time from an input hopper and feeding each said flat member towards a stacker comprising in combination: throat defining means located at one end of said input hopper, said throat defining means defining a throat between an adjustable throat block and a hopper and plate means whereby one flat member at a time can pass through said throat defining means; picker head means rotatably mounted to said picker mechanism in close juxtaposition to said throat defining means and having a face with perforations therein for the passage of air for gripping one flat member at a time with the suction of air through said perforations, said picker head means face coacting with said hopper end plate and being shaped to bow said flat member in one direction and to warp said flat member transverse to said bowing around said throat block while rotating said picker head with said flat member until said flat member is engaged by a feeding means.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said picker head means has a generally arcuate shaped face and is eccentrically mounted for rotation relative to said arc.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11 in which said picker head means has a face shaped to bow and warp said flat members during rotation so that said bow and warped flat member has one portion thereof being fed through said throat defining means and a second portion thereof driving any remaining flat members in said hopper from said throat defining means.

16. The apparatus according to claim 15 in which said picker mechanism rotates approximately 20* prior to returning to its starting position.

17. A method of picking thin, flat members one at a time from an input hopper and feeding each flat member to a stacker comprising the steps of: gripping one flat member at a time onto a rotatable head by a suction through perforations in said rotatable head; rotating said rotatable head with said flat member gripped thereto; bowing said flat member in accordance with said rotation of said rotatable head; warping said flat member transverse to said bowing thereof around a fixed throat bar during rotation of said rotatable head whereby only one card at a time can pass by said throat bar.

19. The method according to claim 18 but including the step of riffling said flat members in said input hopper with said suction of air from the suction through said perforations.