GB820036A - - Google Patents

Abstract

820,036. Sorting records. REED RESEARCH Inc. Dec. 17, 1957 [Dec. 17, 1956], No. 38382/56. Class 106 (1). In a sorting machine records such as cheques bearing data representations are fed singly by pneumatic action along a transport track having a number of branches leading to receptacles, the documents being deflected along appropriate branches according to the sensed data. In the form of Fig. 1 the cheques are stacked on edge in a container 10 and advanced by a pneumatic separator 16 past a sensing station R into a transport track 11. Gates 12 are controlled by the data sensed from the cheque to deflect it along appropriate tracks 13 to receptacles 14. The track 11 ends in a reject receptacle 15 for any cheques not diverted by one of the gates 12. Separator.-The separator 16 consists of a slotted block, Figs. 2 and 3, each slot 20 being connected by ducts 19 to a source of compressed air, a rotating valve 18 serving to admit the air when required. The air escaping into the slots 20 from ducts 19 generate a low pressure which attracts the nearest cheque and the forward velocity of the air displaces the cheque into the track 11. In another arrangement each track to a receptacle has, instead of a gate 12, a feeding device similar to the separator 16 operable to deflect the cheque out of the main track. In the form of Fig. 6 a current of air is injected into the track 11 from one of the pipes 31, 32 to deflect the cheque to the required one of the receptacles 14. A flap 30 is set to govern the flow of air. An arrangement is described in which four such flaps working in combination direct air to one of four pipes to deflect the cheque into a corresponding one of four receptacles.