GB976299A - Improved sheet feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

976,299. Feeding sheets. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION. April 25, 1963 [April 25, 1962], No. 16237/63. Heading B6B. The top sheet of a stack is separated through a throat formed by an upper guide in contact with the top of the stack and projecting beyond the front edge thereof and a lower guide urged resiliently towards the upper guide. Pile tables and supports.-A pile of sheets 12 supported on a table 11, is raised or lowered to maintain the top sheet in the pile at a predetermined height by a piston 13. The height of the pile is sensed by a finger 19 pivoted at 22 with its free end resting on a plate 24. The latter is fixed to one arm of a two-armed lever pivotally mounted on a shaft 28 and carries a castor wheel 32 resting on the pile. The other arm 27 of the twoarmed lever supports a counter-weight 33 counterbalancing a substantial part of the load on the castor wheel 32. An arm 17 of a valve 15, controlling the supply of pressure fluid to a cylinder 14, is urged into engagement with a collar 18 on the finger 19. Separators.-Sheets are separated from the top of the pile by a friction belt 60 passing around a driven pulley 61 and idler pulley 63, the latter being carried by a support 64 pivoted on the shaft 62. A weight 65 is adjustably mounted on the support whereby the separating force applied to the top sheet is adjusted according to the stock being fed. A friction belt 72 moving in a clockwise direction as shown is provided to prevent double feed. Sheet guides and smoothers.-Upper guides 35a provided on each side of the castor wheel 32, rest on top of the stack and extend beyond the leading edge of the stack. Secured to the upperside of each guide are two brackets 37a, 38a having pairs of aligned holes in which longitudinally aligned pins 39a and 40a are received.. A lever 41a pivoted on the shaft 28 is secured to one end of the pin 39a. A link 42a has its lower end staked to the pin 40a by a pin 48a which projects through a slot 49a in a side wall of the bracket 38a, and its upper end pivotally connected to one arm 44a of a two-armed lever pivotally mounted on the shaft 28. The other arm 45a of said lever carries a counterweight 47a. Thus each upper guide is movable in a vertical direction and pivotable about the axis of the pins 39a, 40a. A lower guide member 50 pivoted on a shaft 54, having two spaced arms 83 co-operating with the spaced guides 35a, and linked by a crosspiece 82, forms a throat 58 with the upper guides into which the separated sheet is fed. The lower guide member is urged into contact with the upper guides by a spring 55 and is moved clockwise by the passage of a separated sheet between the upper and lower guide members. The side edges of the lower guide member are bevelled to prevent jamming of bowed sheets. The separated sheets are guided by stationary members 73, 74. Sheet fowarders.-The sheets are fed between the stationary guides by a rotating friction wheel 69. Registering.-The castor wheel 30 may swivel between a position parallel to the direction-of feed and an acute angle thereto, so that it tends to urge the top sheet against a side wall 23.