GB1345709A - Sheet feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

1345709 Feeding and delivering sheets CROSFIELD BUSINESS MACHINES Ltd 2 June 1971 [9 June 1970] 27902/70 Heading B8R Sheet feeding apparatus includes a chamber extensible and contractable by a movable section in response to a reduction of pressure within the chamber, an aperture in the section serving to hold a sheet at a first station upon withdrawal of air from the chamber, further withdrawal causing the section to move and thereby contract the chamber resulting in transfer of the sheet from the first to a second station. The chamber may comprise a sleeve 3 slidably mounted on a pivoted tube 1. Application of suction via a valve 15 attracts the topmost sheet from a pile 17 to the sleeve 3 which then slides up the tube 1, linkage 10, 8 causing the chamber to pivot into a vertical position where a stripper plate 20 or pinch rollers 21 urge the sheet into a stack 18, suction being simultaneously released as a duet 6 in sleeve 3 coincides with a duct 5 in the tube 1. An arm on the sleeve 3 operates a ratchet or toothed wheel for raising the pile. Alternatively the chamber may comprise the periphery 31, side walls (36), Fig. 4 (not shown), and an end wall 35 of a sector of a cylinder rotatably mounted about a pivot 32, together with a fixed wall 37, withdrawal of air via duct 33 attracting a sheet from a pile 39 to apertures 40 and grooves (40a), Fig. 3 (not shown), on the sector periphery and causing rotation of the sector to a second station where a stripper 43 deposits the sheet in a stack 42, a depression 41 releasing the suction when it reaches the end wall 37. A vacuum port 44 may assist separation. In a third embodiment, two symmetrical chambers 54, 58, Fig. 5 are formed between a rotatable cylinder 50 and an internal, eccentrically mounted cam 51 which controls the movement of two interconnected vanes 59a, 59b, the vanes defining ends of the chambers. Suction applied via a duct 53 in the cam attracts a sheet from the bottom of an upper pile 55 to a chamber aperture 56 in the cylinder wall and causes the cylinder to rotate thereby contracting the chamber. A stripper 62 then removes the sheet from the aperture to a lower stack 57 after a half revolution of the cylinder whilst an aperture 61 in the second chamber attracts the next sheet from pile 55 to repeat the cycle. The vanes 59a, 59b may be pivoted.