GB981109A - Document feeding and aligning apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

981,109. Feeding sheets. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. Aug. 20, 1963 [Sept. 7, 1962], No. 32803/63. Heading B6B. Sheets such as cheques 50 fed along a feed path are aligned against a side registration edge 51 by passing them beneath a pair of caster rollers 10 which are biased to an angle oblique to the edge 51. As shown, the casters 10 are urged against two inclined rollers 12 having develled drive surfaces 11, these rollers being driven at the same speed by belts 17, and the cheques 50 are guided by a pair of spaced plates 14, 15. The registration edge 51 comprises a radial shoulder of a rotating drum 52. The coefficient of friction between the surfaces 11 of the rollers 12 and a cheque, is less than that between the casters 10 and a cheque. Each caster 10 is freely rotatable in the lower end of a laterally offset support arm 19, the upper end of which has a vertical spindle arranged in bearings in a housing 23. Each arm 19 is urged by a spring 25 to turn relatively to the housing 23 through a preselected cocking angle. Each housing 23 is fulcrumed on a fixed frame 31 and is urged downwardly by a constant-force type of helical spring towards the rollers 12. Associated with each caster 10 and housing 23 is a damping control mechanism 35 which ensures that a constant downward force is exerted on each caster, and that upward movements thereof are damped. Each damper 35 is in a casing secured to an arm 38 of the fixed frame 31, and includes a central fixed rod which passes freely through two co-operating locking members. The bottom locking member is urged upwardly by a coil spring which abuts the top of the associated housing 23, and has an upper tapered mouth containing a ring of steel bars which are in contact with the central rod; the top locking member is urged downwardly by a coil spring and engages and confines the steel balls. Thus, sudden upward movements of the housing 23 and caster 10 cause the balls to lock against the central rod in the damper 35. In operation, when the leading end of a cheque 50 is pinched between the pair of casters 10 and the tapered surfaces of the rollers 12, the casters are first pulled into the line of feeding against the action of their springs 25; thereafter, on continued feeding of the cheque, the casters are swung by their springs to rotate in a plane inclined to the line of cheque feed to urge the cheque against the registration edge 51. As the casters are swivelled to their inclined positions, they engage larger diameter portions of the rollers 12 and are caused to run at increased speeds; thus, the resultant velocity of the cheques in the direction of cheque feed is substantially the same before, during, and after side registration.