GB1259221A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,259,221. Separating sheets. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. 2 July, 1969 [11 July, 1968], No. 33305/69. Heading B8R. A sheet-feeding device comprises a stack hopper, separating means to feed sheets in turn from the stack, a side wall along which sheets being separated are guided, a guide mounted at an adjustable distance from the side wall to position the stack therebetween, and means interconnecting the adjustable guide and the separating means to cause proportional relative movement between the separating means, the adjustable guide and the side wall. General arrangement, Fig. 1.-Documents are stacked on a bed-plate 19 within a hopper, one side edge of the stack 18 abutting against a wall 21, and the leading edge abutting against a front wall 14. Individual documents are separated by friction belt 26 and then pass between a further belt 44, moving in the same sense as belt 26 at a higher speed, and reverse-acting belt 60 which prevents double feed by holding back a second document until the first has passed over guide plate 30; rollers 35, formed of segmented resilient material, project through apertures in plate 30 and are angled in the feed path to co-operate with idler rollers 36 and align the documents against side guide plate 33, which is a continuation of the wall 21 of the hopper. Adjustment of separating device, Fig. 3.-After positioning of the stack 18 of documents on plate 19 in alignment with walls 14, 21, an edge guide surface 70 mounted on a lever 65 pivoted at pin 66, Fig. 1, is brought into engagement with the side of the stack opposite to that abutting wall 21. Pivoting movement of lever 65, through connecting link 72, causes a plate 54, carrying belt 60, and a separator frame 40, carrying belts 26 and 44, to move horizontally along a pair of shafts 38. Thus the position of belts 26, 44 is dependent on the width of the sheets being fed. Preferably, belt 44 is arranged so that its centre line is one-third of the width of the sheets away from wall 21.