GB1577298A

GB1577298A - Copy set collecting apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB1577298A
Application number: GB24899/78A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Xerox Corp
Current assignee: Xerox Corp
Priority date: 1977-08-05
Filing date: 1978-05-31
Publication date: 1980-10-22
Also published as: BE869497A; FR2399375A1; DE2828144A1; JPS6122657B2; CA1096413A; FR2399375B1; JPS5429481A

Description

(54) COPY SET COLLECTING APPARATUS (71) We, XEROX CORPORATION of Xerox Square, Rochester, New York, United States of America, a corporation organised under the laws of the State of New York, United States of America, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to copy set collecting apparatus for collecting copies produced by a reproduction machine.

With the advent of higher speed and more sophisticated copying producing machines, printing presses, and the like, considerations as to how the mass of copies generated can best and most effectively be handled has assumed increasing importance. One way has been to provide a sorter at the machine output, the sorter serving to place the copies in accordance with a selected program in various bins of the sorter as described, for example, by U.S. Patents .3,788,640 and 3,995,748. While sorters as known to the art have taken various and sundry forms, many suffer from an inability to provide or permit a relatively uninterrupted operational system. This is in the sense that the feed of sheets to the sorter must be interrupted when the sorter has been filled and while unloading of the sorter takes place.

Where, for example, the source of sheets to be sorted is a relatively high speed copying machine, the machine must be stopped during this period with attendant loss in production time. Furthermore, other types of handling devices, such as belts have not been altogether satisfactory from the standpoint of separating the copy sets into identifiable bundles.

The present invention consists in copy set collecting apparatus comprising: a belt conveyor for receiving copy sheets in sets in succession, a transport for transporting said sets in seriatim onto said conveyor, first means for moving said conveyor vertically relative to said transport, and second means for incrementally advancing said conveyor horizontally in reciprocating fashion so that the conveyor advances after receiving a set and reverses after the next set, and repeats this operation to form separately identifiable copy sets within a stack.

In a preferred form, copy set collecting apparatus of this invention can run in different modes of operation to produce sets which are separated within a stack, as aforesaid, spaced or overlapped and, from another aspect, the invention consists in copy set collecting apparatus comprising: a belt conveyor for receiving copy sheet in sets in succession, transport means for transporting said sets in seriation onto said conveyor, first means for moving said conveyor vertically relative to said transport, and second means for incrementally advancing said conveyor horizontally to form separately identifiable copy sets in any one of three preselected modes wherein, a) in a first mode single sets are expelled in discrete units by advancing said conveyor in increments sufficiently long to produce a predetermined distance between sets, b) in a second mode single sets are expelled overlapped by advancing said conveyor in increments which are sufficiently short so as to cause an overlap between sets, and c) in a third mode said conveyor is advanced in reciprocating fashion to form separately identifiable copy sets within a stack.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is an isometric view of the copy set collecting apparatus according to the invention; and Figures 2--4 illustrate different modes of operation for the apparatus.

Referring to Figure 1 the copy set collecting apparatus there shown is designated generally by the numeral 10. The apparatus includes a belt conveyor 12 which receives copy sheets in sets S before advancing them towards an unloading station in the direction of the arrow. The conveyor 12 is adapted to be moved vertically in either direction as an entire unit, and is supported for horizontal conveying movement by a pair of frame plates 19, each plate of which is arranged on either side of belt 12. To accomplish vertical movement of the conveyor 12, there is provided an elevator mechanism 14 comprising a pair of vertically movable belts 16, one pair associated with each of the framed plates 19. Each of the belts 16 of both pairs is provided with a clamp 18 secured thereto to be moved therewith as the belts are moved vertically. The four clamps are arranged in a common horizontal plane and are driven vertically from an uppermost position, as illustrated in Figure 1, to a lower position and then back to the uppermost position. The clamps 18 are secured to the respective plates 19 and thereby effect vertical movement of the conveyor belt 12 in either vertical direction. The four belts 16 are driven in unison by way of belts 22 and 24 by a motor 26. The motor 26 is energized to return the conveyor 12 to its uppermost starting position by a sensing device 28 which is activated when the conveyor reaches its lowermost position. Motor 26 is deenergized by another sensing device 32 upon reaching the uppermost starting position. The sensing device 32 also serves to provide energizing signals to the motor 26 to lower the conveyor 12 incrementally by sensing the height of the stack as each set is added thereto.

Copy sheets in sets S are piled on the conveyor 12 by a set transport 40 which uses a clamp 42 to withdraw the sets S from each of trays or bins 50 which move relative to transport 40 in the direction of the arrow.

The trays 50 are a part of a vertically arranged sorter or collating mechanism which in turn cooperates with a reproduction machine as described in the aforementioned U.S. Patents, 3,788,640 and 3,995,748. Set transport 40 carries each set S across the conveyor belt 12 and then reverses to deliver the trail edge of each set under sensing device 32. The device 32 is pivotable on the axis of a pin 33 to move on top the set as the same is applied thereto.

In this manner sensing device 32 is able to sense the height of the stack.

The conveyor 12 is incrementally advanced by a drive and motor 58 in three modes of operation. In one mode, each stack of sets S is advanced step by step as shown in Figure 2.

In order to accomplish this result, motor 58 drives conveyor 12 in increment which are sufficiently long to produce predetermined spacing between sets. In a second mode the sets S are overlapped as shown in Figure 3, and, therefore, the incremental movement of the belt 12 is relatively short and directly related to the amount of each set overlap.

In a third mode the conveyor is advanced in reciprocating fashion by a position encoder 62 to produce separately identifiable sets in multiple stacks as shown in Figure 4.

To form each stack the position encoder 62 causes the drive of the conveyor 12 to advance a predetermined distance after receiving a set S, then reverse to the original position after receiving the next set, and then advance after the next set and so on until offset separately identifiable sets are arranged in a stack. When a stack has reached a predetermined height, or the uppermost position of belt 12, the conveyor belt 12 is advanced towards the unloading station for a predetermined distance W to provide room for another stack and the operation continues in the manner already described.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS 1. Copy set collecting apparatus comprising: a belt conveyor for receiving copy sheets in sets in succession, a transport for transporting said sets in seriatim onto said conveyor, first means for moving said conveyor vertically relative to said transport, and second means for incrementally advancing said conveyor horizontally in reciprocating fashion so that the conveyor advances after receiving a set and reverses after the next set, and repeats this operation to form separately identifiable copy sets within a stack.

2. Copy set collecting apparatus comprising: a belt conveyor for receiving copy sheets in sets in succession, transport means for transporting said sets in seriatim onto said conveyor, first means for moving said conveyor vertically relative to said transport, and second means for incrementally advancing said conveyor horizontally to form separately identifiable copy sets in any one of three preselected modes wherein a) in a first mode single sets are expelled in discrete units by advancing said conveyor in increments sufficiently long to produce a predetermined distance between sets, b) in a second mode single sets are expelled overlapped by advancing said conveyor in increments which are sufficiently short so as to cause an overlap between sets, and c) in a third mode said conveyor is advanced in reciprocating fashion to form separately identifiable copy sets within a stack.

3. Apparatus according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein said first means moves said conveyor in response to a height sensing means.

4. Apparatus according to Claim 3, wherein said height sensing means signals said first and second means whereby said

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. copy sheets in sets S before advancing them towards an unloading station in the direction of the arrow. The conveyor 12 is adapted to be moved vertically in either direction as an entire unit, and is supported for horizontal conveying movement by a pair of frame plates 19, each plate of which is arranged on either side of belt 12. To accomplish vertical movement of the conveyor 12, there is provided an elevator mechanism 14 comprising a pair of vertically movable belts 16, one pair associated with each of the framed plates 19. Each of the belts 16 of both pairs is provided with a clamp 18 secured thereto to be moved therewith as the belts are moved vertically. The four clamps are arranged in a common horizontal plane and are driven vertically from an uppermost position, as illustrated in Figure 1, to a lower position and then back to the uppermost position. The clamps 18 are secured to the respective plates 19 and thereby effect vertical movement of the conveyor belt 12 in either vertical direction. The four belts 16 are driven in unison by way of belts 22 and 24 by a motor 26. The motor 26 is energized to return the conveyor 12 to its uppermost starting position by a sensing device 28 which is activated when the conveyor reaches its lowermost position. Motor 26 is deenergized by another sensing device 32 upon reaching the uppermost starting position. The sensing device 32 also serves to provide energizing signals to the motor 26 to lower the conveyor 12 incrementally by sensing the height of the stack as each set is added thereto. Copy sheets in sets S are piled on the conveyor 12 by a set transport 40 which uses a clamp 42 to withdraw the sets S from each of trays or bins 50 which move relative to transport 40 in the direction of the arrow. The trays 50 are a part of a vertically arranged sorter or collating mechanism which in turn cooperates with a reproduction machine as described in the aforementioned U.S. Patents, 3,788,640 and 3,995,748. Set transport 40 carries each set S across the conveyor belt 12 and then reverses to deliver the trail edge of each set under sensing device 32. The device 32 is pivotable on the axis of a pin 33 to move on top the set as the same is applied thereto. In this manner sensing device 32 is able to sense the height of the stack. The conveyor 12 is incrementally advanced by a drive and motor 58 in three modes of operation. In one mode, each stack of sets S is advanced step by step as shown in Figure 2. In order to accomplish this result, motor 58 drives conveyor 12 in increment which are sufficiently long to produce predetermined spacing between sets. In a second mode the sets S are overlapped as shown in Figure 3, and, therefore, the incremental movement of the belt 12 is relatively short and directly related to the amount of each set overlap. In a third mode the conveyor is advanced in reciprocating fashion by a position encoder 62 to produce separately identifiable sets in multiple stacks as shown in Figure 4. To form each stack the position encoder 62 causes the drive of the conveyor 12 to advance a predetermined distance after receiving a set S, then reverse to the original position after receiving the next set, and then advance after the next set and so on until offset separately identifiable sets are arranged in a stack. When a stack has reached a predetermined height, or the uppermost position of belt 12, the conveyor belt 12 is advanced towards the unloading station for a predetermined distance W to provide room for another stack and the operation continues in the manner already described. WHAT WE CLAIM IS

1. Copy set collecting apparatus comprising: a belt conveyor for receiving copy sheets in sets in succession, a transport for transporting said sets in seriatim onto said conveyor, first means for moving said conveyor vertically relative to said transport, and second means for incrementally advancing said conveyor horizontally in reciprocating fashion so that the conveyor advances after receiving a set and reverses after the next set, and repeats this operation to form separately identifiable copy sets within a stack.

first means lowers said conveyor incrementally during stacking from a raised position for receiving the first set of a stack to a lowered position corresponding to a completed stack, said second means advances said conveyor horizontally for a predetermined distance and said first means then raises said conveyor to said raised position for receiving the first set of the next stack alongside the first stack.

5. Copy set collecting apparatus constructed, arranged and adapted to operate substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.