GB1248100A - Improvements in collator devices - Google Patents

Abstract

1,248,100. Sheet delivering and collating apparatus. NORFIN Inc. 17 July, 1969 [29 July, 1968], No. 35991/69. Heading B8R. Apparatus for collating sheets or signatures received from a printing or copying machine or fed one at a time by hand comprises a vertical column of bins 12, a conveyer belt 13 with suction means for holding the sheets against the run of the belt adjacent to the bins 12, and a deflector device 14 which is stepped downwardly to deflect successive sheets into successive bins. As shown, the angle-belt conveyer 13 passes around drums 29, 31, and a sheet is guided by plates 51, 52 and a spring-pressed roller 53 on to the surface of the belt 13, driven by a motor 37, Fig. 2, so that the run opposite the bin moves downwardly. On the side of this run away from the bins is situated a vacuum chamber 42 to which vacuum is applied from a source 44. The side of the chamber adjacent to the belt is open and has inturned flanges (Fig. 4) which taper and are wider near their lower ends. The flanges partially cover staggered holes 41, Fig. 1, adjacent the edges of the belt, suction being applied through the holes to the sheets. The tapering of the flanges causes the suction effect to be evenly distributed along the length of the chamber 42. The deflector device 14 comprises side plates 57, Fig. 3, with forwardly-extending fins 62 with edges 63 intersecting the conveyer 13 to deflect sheets into the bins 12. Other plates 64 attached to the side plates 57 carry a rod 67 to which is attached the lower ends of tapes 68 attached at their upper ends to a spring drum 91. Co-operating with the tapes 68 are fixed strips 92, Fig. 1, to retain the sheets against the surface of the conveyer 13. To move the deflector device 14 up and down in front of the bins 12, rollers 89 on chains 81 engage slots 71 in the end plates, the chains 81 being driven by chain-and-sprocket devices 78, 79, 81, 82 from a motor 72, Fig. 1. The upper sprocket 82 is carried by pivoted arms 83 urged upwardy by springs 87 to maintain the chains 81 taut. A ray of light from a lamp 94 near the base of the apparatus and directed towards a photo-cell 96, Fig. 1, at the top of the apparatus and senses the passage of a sheet to the conveyer 13 to control the working of the apparatus. The power supply to the circuitry controlling the operation of the apparatus may be such that it is completed only when the copying machine is operative and a door giving access to the apparatus is closed. Upon switching on the power supply, the motors driving the vacuum pump, the belt 13, and the lamp 94 are energized. The ray of light from the lamp 94 impinges on the photocell 94 causing, through relays, the deflector motor 72 to be energized to move the deflector device 14 from whatever initial position it occupies to a position opposite the uppermost bin 12 where a member 160 on the chain opens a switch 159 to break the motor circuit. The deflector remains in this position until an entering sheet just breaks the light ray, and then as it enters the bin, allows the ray to again impinge on on the photo-cell to again energize the motor. Subsequently radial contact arms on the shaft of the upper chain-sprocket 82 engage in turn a fixed contact to control the motor 72 to move the deflector into alignment with the bins in turn as the sheets enter the apparatus. If a sheet jam occurs, the breaking of the light ray for a substantial time, resets the copy machine and the collator. A switch is provided in the circuit and can be set so that indexing of the deflector device 14 can be effected by manual operation of the switch, or so that all the sheets enter one bin. A number of collating apparatus so described can be assembled in tandem and a deflector may be positioned adjacent to each upper belt-roller 29. After the last bin 12 in one apparatus has received a sheet, a part 165 on one of the plates 57 contacts a switch arm causing a solenoid to be energized to move the deflector so as to divert sheets into the next apparatus. The bins 12 are accessible from the side of the apparatus and can be moved as an entity away from the conveyer 13 by mounting them on members slidable on supporting rollers 111, Fig. 2. Stops 102, Fig. 2, passing through slots in the bins can be adjusted according to the size of the sheets.