Abstract: A multi-ream paper sheet feeder for use with high speed copiers, printing machines and the like "host machines" has a sturdy frame supporting an upwardly sloping ramp overlying a motor driven feed screw. A pusher plate drives a feed block of as many as thirty reams of edgewise stacked paper sheets up the ramp to a singulating feed assembly. A feed screw drive nut carriage engages and drives the pusher plate up ramp, then disengages, retracts under the ramp and travels to a new start position at the ramp's lower end. Sensors and limit switches govern forward and reverse feed screw motor operation; another sensor governs the operation of the singulating feed assembly, delivering shingled sheets on demand to the feeder's infeed tray. The entire sheet feeder is track-mounted, latched in feed position, disengageable for retraction away from the host machine when desired.

Abstract: High speed sheet feeders receive blocks or bricks of paper sheets, cards or folders stacked edgewise on a downsloping supply ramp, and singulate these for edgewise feeding in rapid succession. The frontmost sheets ready for feeding are buckled and fanned at their upper edges, and their lower edges are arched forward to form a dimple or ridge-shaped pocket by an underlying central traction singulator. A pair of ganged or synchronized feed belts engage the frontmost sheet and propel it rapidly downward edgewise, and a slanting discharge belt receives and diverts the sheet at even higher speed between the discharge belt and a tractive pinch roller. A transfer assembly beneath the discharge belt may receive sheets from an adjacent feeder and interleave them upon command with sheets delivered by the discharge belt.