Abstract: A method is disclosed for collating a plurality of sets of pages from multiple copies of the pages arranged into groups, using a collating machine having plural input bins and a single output hopper. According to the method, visually distinctive X-cards are placed either on the tops of all the groups or on the bottoms of all the groups. If necessary, blank sheets may be added to form additional groups, and X-cards are likewise placed on these. After repeated distributions of the sheets between the bins and repeated feedings of the hopper, the visually distinctive X-cards will end up grouped together in the hopper. In the intermediate stages of the method, the X-cards serve aws convenient guides for the proper redistributions of the hopper contents to the bins.

Abstract: A sorting machine receives M successive groups of copies, each group consisting of N identical copies, to be converted into N complete sets of copies. N may considerably exceed the number of collecting bins of the sorting machine. In a first sorting operation, the cards are distributively sorted into a predetermined number of the collecting bins, until all cards have been deposited into bins. The stacks in the bins are then removed and laid one atop the other to form a new infeed stack, which is deposited into the infeed bin of the machine, and a second sorting operation is performed, until all cards have again been deposited into bins. This is repeated, if and as necessary, until the desired conversion has been accomplished. The sequence in which the cards are distributed into bins during especially the second and any subsequent sorting operations is so controlled that the desired sets are actually formed, no matter what the values of M and N and no matter what the number of collecting bins available.