Abstract: A conveyor has an endless belt which encompasses a gate section and a fixed section thereof Both the gate section and fixed section have beds which extend lengthwise and widthwise thereof between rails which extend along the lengths of the section. The edges of the belt run along the rails and are hence guarded by the rails. The sections are joined at adjacent edges by hinges pivotally connected to the bed of the fixed section and extending across the joint to the gate section. The hinges are within the confines of the belt, that is within the path of the belt and between the edges of the belt, so as to enable the gate section to be pivoted to an open position allowing a passageway via the width of the conveyor. When in closed position, the hinge enables the ends of the rails to move into abutting relationship. Permanent guards on the outsides of the fixed section can extend above the belt to maintain safe operating conditions without interfering with the opening and closing of the gate section.

Abstract: A low cost, self contained endless conveyor belt assembly includes a flat conveyor bed, an endless conveyor belt and a plurality of frame members mounted thereto. The bed mounted frame members support and house a drive shaft which includes sprockets for engaging the front inside radius of the endless conveyor belt and a remote mounted drive motor. The self contained conveyor belt assembly is adjustably mounted to complemental frame rails, one of which includes the drive motor to which can be coupled the drive pulley of the endless conveyor belt.

Abstract: A web feed device, particularly a tractor for feeding perforated paper, is provided with the capability of automatically cutting a margin along the edge of the paper. Where this margin is defined by side perforations, the apparatus is operative to burst the perforations automatically. The tractor has a lid which is spring biased in a closed position spaced from a surface of the frame of the tractor over which the paper is driven, as by a belt having pins which are received in feed perforations along the margin between the side perforations and the edge where the belt is entrained around a sprocket which drives the belt. The mechanism has a lower cutting disk, driven with the sprocket and presenting a cutting edge along an outside surface.

Abstract: A link assembly for an endless conveyor belt includes a pair of side links and a center link interconnected together by way of a spring-biasing mechanism such that the conveyor belt provides its own tension without auxiliary tensioning apparatus.

Abstract: An improved protective storage cap for a rod-shaped device or instrument, particularly a fountain pen, wherein the female threads for securing the device within the cap are disposed within an axially and rotationally moveable ring. The ring is held stationary in the cap by the axial thrust of a compression spring while the male threads of the device are being rotationally engaged with or disengaged from the female threads of the cap. The cap cannot be overtightened and thereby damaged because further rotation of the device after full engagement of the threads serves only to overcome the restraining thrust of the spring and the moveable ring simply rotates in its cap with the device. The axial freedom of the ring and spring also permit the device to enter the cap to a depth sufficient to form a snap seal between the working end of the device and a chamber recessed within the cap, whereby the tool of the device, for example the writing nib of a fountain pen, sealingly is isolated from the outside environment.

Abstract: A document feed tractor in which pins which drive the paper upon entry into perforations in margins of the paper along the edges thereof are connected to a belt on beams cantilever mounted thereto. A guide and support bar holds the beams and the pins down so that they travel along a linear path entering and leaving the perforations at opposite ends of the path. In order to drive the paper precisely, especially at high speeds where the belt and pins start and stop, without denting or ticking the paper and to maintain alignment of multi-part documents (without shingling), an adjustable shelf is located on the inside of the tractor so that the paper overlies the shelf. The elevation of the shelf with respect to the pins is selectively set in accordance with the thickness of the paper. The tractor can then be set so that the web is maintained at the center line or pitch line of the belt, thereby insuring precision feeding of the form even at high speeds with rapid accelerations and decelerations.

Abstract: A perforated paper feed mechanism such as a tractor has an optical system for detecting the presence of the form and particularly the motion of the form and utilizes a reflector which may be mounted on the lid of the tractor at one end of the tractor (where the paper enters or leaves the tractor). The optical system may be implemented by a prism which folds the path of light from a light source (an LED) to a photo detector (a photo-transistor) the path is aligned with the perforations in the paper. Since the perforations are spaced, the photo transistor provides a train of pulses as the paper is fed by the tractor. A pulse detector responds to the presence or absence of pulses within a given period of time comparable to the time when perforations are fed past the optical path. An output from the detector thus indicates whether the paper is in motion and is being fed by the tractor. Failure to receive pulses indicates either the absence of paper (paper out) or a jam in the feed.

Abstract: A tractor for feeding perforated paper forms as in a printer, to and around a platen where a print head impresses characters or other symbols on the paper. The tractor has an endless belt with pins engageable in the paper before, during and after engagement with a drive sprocket which drives the belt in such a manner that the load on the paper is polarized to one side of the drive sprocket, preferably the side between the drive sprocket and the platen.

Abstract: An improved lid for a forms feed tractor, which feeds successive interconnected sheets of paper having edge perforations (feedholes), the sheets having forms printed thereon or being blank, in printers, copiers and the like is provided with an improved lid mechanism having an extension outboard of the tractor and over the form. A transparent or translucent window section in this extension is provided with markings which are seen when the lid is pivoted down and closed so as to capture the form. Then the form can be moved so that the edge of each sheet or certain markings on the form are in proper alignment in the printer or copier. Then when printing occurs or when copying onto the form occurs, the printing will be located in line with other material on the form or properly spaced from the top edge of each sheet.

Abstract: An improved lid mechanism for a web feed devices such as tractors for feeding perforated paper webs in printers, copiers and the like, wherein pins on which the lid is pivotally mounted for movement between open and closed position are unloaded (do not have any force or bias applied thereto) when the lid is in its open and closed position. The lid, when closed, covers the paper and is then spaced by a gap from the surface of a frame along which the paper is fed by a pin drive such as a belt having pins which extend into perforations of the paper. A depending leg of the lid has a block with surfaces disposed at an angled to each other. These surfaces extend from a corner of the block. One of these surfaces is preferably perpendicular to the surface of the lid which defines the gap. The other of these surfaces defines the position of the lid in its open position.

Abstract: A document feed tractor has a multiposition lid which is held by projections from the frame of the tractor in open position to enable loading of the perforated document (paper) in the tractor. The lid is pivotally mounted in openings in the projections which enable lid to be both rotated and translated from the open position over the projections, which then define ledges holding up the lid, to closed position when the lid is moved over the edges of the ledges. Then, the lid can snap down under a spring bias to the closed position where it confines the document on the tractor belt.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding perforated webs which has a form factor and cost which may be much less than conventional perforated paper feed mechanisms such as pinwheels and tractors, and in a preferred form is an elliptical path pin feed using an endless belt having pins which engage the perforations in the paper and a frame guides the belt over an elliptical path having major curved surfaces and minor curved surfaces along opposite sides and at the ends of the path, respectively. A sprocket journaled in the frame drives the belt. Guide members upstream and downstream of the web feed path and spaced from the opposite ends of one of the major surfaces guide the web so that it remains in contact with the belt along the major surface and enters and leaves the major surface along tangents thereto which are common to the major and minor end surfaces of the elliptical belt path.

Abstract: Web feeding apparatus which may be in the form of a tractor which feeds perforated webs, such as perforated paper in a computer printer, typewriter or the like has a frame which locates a belt having pins projecting from the belt which enter the perforations in the paper and drive the paper when the belt is driven, as by a sprocket which is journalled in the frame. In the closed position, the lid overlies the belt and presents a surface adjacent the belt which is separated by a gap through which the paper passes when it is engaged with the pins. The paper also overlies the surface of the inside side plate. The gap spacing (the distance which separates the surface of the belt on which the paper is disposed) is set automatically by a gap setting member which projects from the lid and is biased with the lid into engagement with the paper when the lid is in closed position and the belt is in driving relationship with the paper.

Abstract: In order to maintain document feed tractors, especially of the type which have timing belts made of the elastomeric (rubber or plastic) material, in circumferential registration with the sprocket which engages and can drive the belt, a member is disposed circumferentially outward from the sprocket between the sides of the belt where the pins thereon can engage the perforations in the document. This member presents a spaced circumferential retainer outward from the sprocket a distance slightly greater than the altitude of the pins. Preferably this wall has a notch in alignment with the pins and which the pins slightly clear and are guided. The member provides for minimal frictional drag on the belt while maintaining the circumferential registration of the belt on the sprocket.

Abstract: An overhead unit used with a printer having a platen for feeding continuous, fan-folded, edge perforated forms. Tractors engage the feed perforations on the forms. The unit automatically bursts the side perforations by the use of flexural members which extract energy from the forms feed and oscillate to burst the side perforations. Bursting of the cross perforations is carried out by a pivotally mounted, lever actuated bar which engages the platen and forms a toggle therewith to engage the successive forms against the platen just below the cross perforations; the toggle being arranged to tighten and increase the clamping force, as the form is pulled away from the platen when bursting the cross perforations. A roller assembly including rollers engaging the outside of the loop on the infeed or upstream side of the platen removes any platen wave due to differential displacement of the forms as they travel with linear motion through the tractors and with rotational motion around the platen.

Abstract: A drive mechanism having a sprocket and a belt with inter-engaging lugs and receptacles on the belt and sprocket, respectively, wherein orthographic motion is obtained of the lugs into and out of the receptacles so as to provide for smooth, high efficiency transmission of drive forces by providing a fulcrum at inter-pitch spacing positions about which the belt bends along a radius centered at the fulcrum to bring the lugs directly into registry with the receptacles in the sprocket. The system provides virtual sprocket teeth, thereby effectively doubling or multiplying the number of teeth on the sprocket, compared to lugs on the belt so that a small, low-inertia, sprocket-belt drive system effectively provides the smoothness of transmission of a system with twice or greater the number of sprocket teeth than lugs, but without the cost of such additional teeth and lugs and without sacrificing belt life due to additional flexures of the belt.

Abstract: A tractor for feeding perforated webs, such as perforated paper in a computer printer, typewriter or the like has a frame which locates a sprocket and a belt having pins projecting from the belt and lugs driven by the sprocket. To provide precision feeding of the web the lid is arranged with respect to the frame so that the web is maintained substantially at the pitch line of the belt where the pins enter, are engaged by and leave the perforations. The distance between the surface of the lid which faces the belt and the belt surface is limited such that the perforations contact the pin surface below a critical position where the web clings to the pins. This is the position where the angle between the surface of the belt and a line from the position of repose perpendicular to a tangent to pin surface which intersects the belt surface is equal to the art tangent of the coefficient of friction between the web and pin materials.

Abstract: An impact dot matrix print head has a body with a coil frame assembly and a nose piece on the rear of which the coil frame assembly is mounted. The nose piece has guides for print wires which are maintained in sliding relationship by a linear slot guide at the front end of the nose piece. Armatures are freely disposed at one end on the frame and at the other end on the rear ends of the print wires. An end cap which bears on the frame assembly has a plurality of posts which extend through holes in each of the armatures and holes in spider springs which bear against the end cap and against the armatures where they bear against and pivot on the frame whereby to provide for ease of assembly and low friction guidance of the armatures and the spider springs which retain them.

Abstract: A web feed tractor having an endless belt with drive pins which engage the perforations in a web such as computer forms which are to be driven has a frame which define concave and convex reaches of the belt. An outwardly open convex slot and a partially closed concave slot along opposite edges of the frame support and guide the belt reaches. The tips of the pins extending from the belt along the concave reach of the belt are in sliding contact with the outer wall of the partially closed slot. The tractor is compact and the concave reach of the belt which is not in driving relationship with the web is retained inside the tractor structure so that it does not interfere with other parts of the equipment in which the tractor is installed. The tractor is concavo-convex and oblong in shape or somewhat banana shaped.