Abstract: Air is drawn upwardly through a vertical air separation chamber with an open bottom. Material to be separated is introduced into the rising stream of air. Material having a smaller ballistic cross-section rises, while heavier material falls through the open bottom. The air stream is controlled to below about 1,500 feet per minute. The dispersion of the material is accomplished with a jet of air taken from a plenum connected to an air recirculation system. The air jet is introduced immediately below the material inlet to the chamber. The jet of air breaks up and disperses the material. An air recirculation system includes a fan which draws air out of the top of the air separation chamber by way of a hydrocyclone. The air extracted from the hydrocyclone is reintroduced at the bottom of the air separation chamber from a surrounding plenum.

Abstract: A trash conveyor has thin upstanding right triangular teeth mounted parallel to their direction of motion. A pivoting deck is positioned over the conveyor and has fixed isosceles-triangular teeth which interdigitate with the teeth on the conveyor. The deck is angled upwardly towards trash infeed end of the conveyor. The deck is suspended by four pivot arms arranged in a rectangular pattern which allow the deck to pivot up and in the direction of the motion of the conveyor. Rows of teeth attached to the deck are offset from previous rows so that the spaces between the teeth on the deck and the teeth on the conveyor varies as the teeth on the conveyor move under the deck. A blade cleaner and conveyor is located beneath the trash conveyor which removes plastic bags from the teeth of the trash conveyor and rolls them into compact shapes to facilitate disposal for recycling.

Abstract: A chip slicer has pivotably mounted chip-forming knives located so that the knife edges are in a plane which passes through the axis of rotation of the knives, as well as through the axis of pivoting. Another improvement is to employ a knife which has a blade which is bent at an obtuse angle to form a first and a second leg. The first leg has a cutting edge and an upper surface which defines a chip path. The second leg is bent with respect to the first leg in the direction of rotation of the knife ring. The knives are mounted to the ring by clamping wedges which are bolted to the knife ring so that they overlie the second leg and so clamp the knife blade by the second leg to thereby substantially remove obstructions from the chip path. A further improvement has chip depth gauges which are positioned in front of the knife edges. The depth gauges have trailing edges in the direction of rotation which extend substantially parallel to the upper surface of the blades.

Abstract: A plurality of parallel chain loops have outwardly extending blades and travel in plastic channels over an inclined deck. The chains extend between shafts which rotate in opposite directions and are mounted to the shafts so that alternating chains move up the incline and the others move down. Refuse bags deposited on the deck are torn open by the blades. Small refuse objects fall between the chains and slide down the deck to be discharged, while larger objects are carried by the upwardly moving chains to the top of the deck. Refuse objects are thereby initially segregated by size.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for separation and cleaning of fibers for papermaking machines for the removal of reject material such as tramp iron and knots, delivering a flow of fibers with mixed reject material and releasing the flow to descend gravitationally downwardly, splitting the flow into plural streams and deflecting the streams with an adjustable panel to control the angle, directing jets of air across the descending streams so that heavier reject materials falls downwardly and the fibers are carried laterally outwardly of each of the streams with a plate at the base of the streams adjustable to vary the zones for the rejects and for the acceptable fibers.

Abstract: A wavelength-selective pad that is transparent when viewed by light of a first wavelength .lambda..sub.1 (e.g., visible light) and is highly reflective when viewed by light of a second wavelength .lambda..sub.2 (e.g., infrared light). The pad has a grid positioned above the highly reflecting layer so that this grid can be sensed by use of light of wavelength .lambda..sub.2 while, simultaneously, images, graphics or text positioned below the pad may be read by use of light of wavelength .lambda..sub.1. A text scanner system that produces and senses light at the two wavelengths is used in combination with the pad to simultaneously read the graphics or text and the grid position of the beam that illuminates the graphics and text.

Abstract: An optical scanning device (14) receives information from a page (11) of printed text (12) via an electrooptical transducer (16) and uses that information to fill a bit map in a memory device (102). In order to track the location of the optical scanner relative to the printed page, thus facilitating entry of information into the bit map, an optical mouse (19) is included in the scanner. In accordance with another embodiment of this invention, two optical mice (19, 150) are provided on the scanner (148) to indicate not only the position of the scanner relative to the page but also the angle that the scanner is held at relative to the page. The scanner can be used in conjunction with an optical character recognition device, a photocopying device, or any of a number of other devices. In accordance with another embodiment of this invention, indicia of location (210) are placed either on a transparent sheet or a mechanical constraint (200).

Abstract: Bumper assembly having resilient energy absorbing media supported on a substantially rigid beam and adapted to absorb impact energy in response to deflection by impact load. A load spreader plate outwardly of the media is supported for pivotal movement about one end thereof for transferring impact forces and increasing deflection of the media thereby improving its performance in absorbing impact energy.

Abstract: A reflex reflector for retrodirecting illumination from the lamps of an approaching motor vehicle includes an array of interfitting V-block shaped cube corners having three mutually perpendicular reflecting faces within a frontal rectangular boundary. Each cube corner includes a first face bounded by a short side of the rectangle and the diagonals therefrom, a second face bounded by a long side and the diagonals therefrom including the diagonal common with the first face, and a third face bounded by the opposite short side and the diagonals therefrom including the diagonal common with the second face. In the array, the faces mate with the corresponding faces of juxtaposed adjacent cube corners to form a rectangular reflex strip. The reflector, when positioned vertically, redirects the intercepted illumination upwardly to the driver of the approaching vehicle.