Patents Examined by Boris Milef
  • Patent number: 5716046
    Abstract: In an apparatus for feeding an original document, the time which is needed until the first original document is transported onto a transportation path after storing original documents is shortened. The original documents stacked on an original document supporting plate are successively supplied one by one in order from an uppermost original document. A discharged original document is steadily and easily inserted between the original document supporting plate and the original documents stacked on the original document supporting plate. When a hopper sensor detects that the original documents are stacked on the original document supporting plate, the original document supporting plate is moved upward until the upper surface of the uppermost one of the original documents contact a level sensor. At this stage, the original documents are supplied successively one by one from the uppermost original document by a paper feeding mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1998
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Koji Katamoto, Yuji Okamoto, Naoya Okamura
  • Patent number: 5716048
    Abstract: A vacuum drum apparatus on which a mask is mounted having a resilient surface and an array of holes suitable for a substrate of a given size. The drum is a circular cylinder perforated with an array of holes. A hollow chamber within the drum is connected to a controlled pressure source for providing a vacuum. The mask may be magnetically attracted about the outer surface of the drum. Thus, the mask may be made of a flexible ferromagnetic sheet. The mask is preferably elastomeric and may include an inextensible layer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 21, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1998
    Assignee: Optronics International Corporation
    Inventor: Roger J. Morrissette
  • Patent number: 5716047
    Abstract: An apparatus for recording or reading information on or from a sheet is disclosed. The apparatus includes a holding unit for holding a sheet, a first arm which has one end pivotally fixed to the holding unit, a second arm whose one end or a specific point is pivotally fixed to the first arm, and a driving system. The driving system can integrally move the other end of the first arm and the other end of the second arm, and can change the interval between the other end of the first arm and the other end of the second arm. The apparatus also includes a posture regulating mechanism for regulating the posture of the holding unit with respect to the first arm, a sheet supply unit provided with the holding unit, the first arm, the second arm, the driving system, and the posture regulating mechanism, and a recording or reading unit for performing information recording or information reading on a sheet supplied to the sheet supply unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 10, 1998
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Keiji Ohkoda, Tomohiro Kudo
  • Patent number: 5713434
    Abstract: Disclosed is a system for engaging safeties on an elevator car. The system comprising a contact surface in a hoistway and a safety tripping lever pivotally mounted on an elevator car. Upon contact by the lever with the contact surface, the safeties engage, with the contact surface preventing the safeties from disengaging until the car comes to a stop. A feature of the system for engaging safeties on an elevator car is the ability of a portion of the safety tripping lever to retract away from the contact surface upon movement of the elevator car in a direction opposite of the car's braking direction, wherein the retraction of the lever facilitates the disengagement of the safeties.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: February 3, 1998
    Assignee: Otis Elevator Company
    Inventor: Lu Sun
  • Patent number: 5713567
    Abstract: A paperboard sheet has a longitudinal scoreline defining a narrow flap portion on one side thereof and a body potion on the other side. The sheet is packaged flat together with a set of tabbed dividers thereby protecting the dividers. With the sheet and dividers removed from the packaging, the flap portion is folded up ninety degrees on the scoreline to define a guide tray. The guide tray is inserted into a printer feed tray and the set of tabbed dividers is placed on the body portion with the tabs thereof abutting the upturned flap portion, and the feed tray guides adjusted. The flap guides the dividers as they are fed into the printer, preventing skewing thereof. Guide tray instructions are conveniently printed on the paperboard sheet. The guide tray can be used for guiding sheets, other than tabbed dividers, which have irregular longitudinal edges.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 1996
    Date of Patent: February 3, 1998
    Assignee: Avery Dennison Corporation
    Inventors: Sonia Owen, David Robertson
  • Patent number: 5711516
    Abstract: The present invention is related to a sheet feeder used with an image scanner for transmitting a sheet object to be scanned through the image scanner which has a sloping plane detachably mounting thereon the image scanner and allowing the sheet object to be transmitted between the image scanner and the sheet feeder along the sloping plane for assisting in monitoring a transmission situation of the sheet object. The present invention utilizes an improvement on a sheet feeder structure to make the sheet feeder more pragmatic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 1995
    Date of Patent: January 27, 1998
    Assignee: Storm Technology Inc.
    Inventor: Ampere Pan
  • Patent number: 5707058
    Abstract: Method of introducing an auxiliary sheet pile carrier above a main sheet pile to be removed, the introduction being effected during uninterrupted feeding of additional sheets above the main sheet pile in a sheet travel direction and in synchronism with the travel of a sheet to be deposited, includes controlling respective drives at a sheet delivery by a control device which determines actual data of a printing press, so that the auxiliary pile carrier traverses a velocity profile identical with a velocity profile of the sheet to be deposited in order to avoid relative movement between the auxiliary pile carrier and the sheet to be deposited.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 1996
    Date of Patent: January 13, 1998
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Roland Hirth, Edmund Klein, Richard Mack
  • Patent number: 5700006
    Abstract: This invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus having sheet carrying device unit for carrying sheets suspended by suspending unit, which is taken up by winding unit and thereby moves the sheet carrying device up and down to render the sheets fed from the topmost side of the sheets. Connection positions between the suspending unit and the sheet carrying device are located, in a direction perpendicular to a feeding direction of the sheets, at positions on a side of the sheet reference which is one end in the direction perpendicular to the feeding direction of the sheets, closer to the center of the sheets with respect to a position of a suspending original point of the suspending unit located over the sheet carrying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 23, 1997
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Harukazu Sekiya, Jun Saito, Yuzo Isoda, Yasuhiro Uchida, Makoto Izumi, Takashi Kuwata
  • Patent number: 5700005
    Abstract: An apparatus for sheet feed-out control is provided on an automatic sheet feeder used in conjunction with scanners, fax machines, printers, copiers, and the like. The apparatus comprises a feed-in roller set for feeding the sheet into a scanning position where a scanning process is performed and a feed-out roller set for pulling the sheet away from the scanning position and delivering the sheet onto a receiving tray. A pivotal pressing member is pivotally affixed proximate to the feed-out rollers. The pivotal pressing member is pivotally turned by the sheet as the sheet is being fed out of the feed-out rollers. As the sheet is entirely fed out of the feed-out roller set, the pivotal pressing member presses down against the tail edge of the sheet, thus flipping the sheet off the feed-out roller set. Since the sheet can be placed flat on the receiving tray right after it is entirely fed out of the feed-out roller set, a stack of sheets after being scanned can be piled up neatly on the receiving tray.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 23, 1997
    Assignee: Must Systems Inc.
    Inventor: Hsi-Min Chen
  • Patent number: 5697610
    Abstract: A mail separating device has a conveyor channel, an input of which is connected to a sorting device for successively supplying the channel with flat mail items. The separating device includes a sensor which is located along the channel for generating a double-withdrawal signal on detecting a pair of at least partly superimposed mail items. The double-withdrawal signal activates a stop device, which is located along the channel and moves an appendix from an idle position to an activating position. A stop portion of the appendix contacts the vertical end edge of a first item in the pair. The impact of the stop portion on the vertical end edge arrests the first item while the second item in the pair continues traveling along the channel and is detached from the first item.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 11, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1997
    Assignee: Finmeccanica S.p.A.
    Inventors: Lawrence B. Holmes, Massimo Camoriano, Renato Gritti
  • Patent number: 5697504
    Abstract: The video coding system picks up the whole image of postal matter, inputs the picked image to a character/code & image reader to read a user code on the postal matter, prints bar code information corresponding to the read result on the postal matter, and sorts the postal matter according to the bar code information. In this system, a display device displays the whole image of postal matter from which the user code cannot be read, and user code candidate characters, together with a user code input area for inputting the user code, an image of a specific user code location, and images of a plurality of user code candidate areas. An operator inputs the user code, which the character/code & image reader failed to read, in the user code input area while visually checking the displayed whole image and the images of the user code candidate areas. The input user code is stored in a memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 27, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1997
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Ryosuke Hiramatsu, Hitoshi Yoneda
  • Patent number: 5692745
    Abstract: A document accumulator for high-speed document assembly includes first and second pulleys, a first outer belt extending between the first and second pulleys for contacting and transporting a document, a second outer belt extending between the first and second pulleys, and extending generally parallel to and horizontally displaced from the first outer belt, for contacting and transporting a document, and an inner belt generally parallel to and horizontally displaced from both the first and second outer belts such that it lies between the first and second outer belts. A first side guide has a first vertical surface adjacent to a horizontal reach of the first outer belt, and a second side guide has a second vertical surface adjacent to a horizontal reach of the second outer belt. A belt-dampening table having a horizontal surface adjacent to it horizontal reach of the inner belt is provided for dampening oscillations of the inner belts which occur at high speeds.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 2, 1997
    Assignee: Bell and Howell Phillipsburg Company
    Inventors: Leonard Neifert, Mark Ricker
  • Patent number: 5692741
    Abstract: In an operation for transporting a sheet by a first roller to a second roller pair downstream of the first roller, and further transporting the sheet by the second roller pair, the time during which the sheet is transported by the first roller is controlled, responsive to a comparison of a reference time and the actual time required for a sheet to be transported from the first roller to a predetermined position in the sheet transport path, to suppress disadvantages such as jamming and deformation into a Z-form, which may be caused by reduction of a transporting performance due to wear of the rollers and adhesion of paper powder to the rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 2, 1997
    Assignee: Minolta Camera Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hidenobu Nakamura, Koji Naito, Yoshiaki Nakajima
  • Patent number: 5690325
    Abstract: A triple-roller device having paper-feeding and sending driven rollers, a paper-feeding guide section and a paper-reversing guide section are provided on both sides of a driving roller that rotates in one direction. The paper-reversing guide section has an upper guide section that corresponds to an upper portion from a mid-point of its curved section, and the upper guide section is driven by a solenoid, and allowed to shift. The upper guide section is allowed to shift to a position at which its end on the paper-feeding and sending side is placed between the driving roller and the paper-feeding driven roller, as well as to a position at which it is placed between the driving roller and the paper-sending driven roller. A sheet of paper, which has entered the paper-reversing guide section, is held by a paper-holding roller device. It is possible to provide a shorter paper interval with respect to the paper-sending operation from the paper-reversing guide section.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 5, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1997
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Toshihide Morimoto
  • Patent number: 5690329
    Abstract: A stack of image receiving sheets, wherein each image receiving sheet has on one side of a support an image receiving layer, includes a cover sheet protecting the image receiving layer of an outermost image receiving sheet. The cover sheet has a detection mark distinguishing it from the image receiving sheets.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 1994
    Date of Patent: November 25, 1997
    Assignee: Agfa-Gevaert N.V.
    Inventors: Willy Van Peteghem, Eric Goos, Jan Zwijsen
  • Patent number: 5687851
    Abstract: Described is a method of sorting a plurality of individually conveyed articles in groups in at least one sorting step in a suspension-type conveyor, the articles being introduced in substantially unsorted manner into a first conveyor circle and being delivered from said circle in sorted fashion to at least one second conveyor circle, with an identification source identifying every article to be conveyed individually. To be able to use such a method in a universal manner and to accelerate the sorting process, the articles are delivered in a partial quantity containing a predetermined number in a first sorting step, independently of the loaded state of the first conveyor circle, from the first conveyor circle to the second conveyor circle as soon as the partial quantity of articles to be sorted in the first sorting step has been identified on the first conveyor circle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 4, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignee: RSL Logistik GmbH & Co.
    Inventor: Rolf Schonenberger
  • Patent number: 5688219
    Abstract: Device for transporting copies inside a folder which is equipped with at least one cutting cylinder for cutting individual copies from a web, the copies being transportable from the cutting cylinder to at least one copy-guiding component, and groups of tapes for transporting the copies being associated with the cutting cylinder and the copy-guiding component, includes deflector members for the groups of tapes and the at least one copy-guiding component, the deflector members having opposite ends at which the deflector members are supportingly engaged, and adjusting members for disengaging one of the ends of the respective deflector members.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 18, 1997
    Assignees: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, Heidelberg Harris SA
    Inventors: Rene Renard, Guy Loquet, Frank Bausela
  • Patent number: 5685534
    Abstract: Method for controlling a valve unit having a rotatable inner part, by which at least one of positive pressure and negative-pressure consumers of a sheet-processing machine is connectible to and disconnectible from a source of positive pressure and negative pressure, respectively, in accordance with an operating cycle of the sheet-processing machine, the operating cycle being repeated at a frequency variable between a minimum cycle frequency and a maximum cycle frequency, includes superimposing an adjusting speed on a rotary speed of the rotatable inner part of the valve unit; and device for performing the method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 1996
    Date of Patent: November 11, 1997
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Jurgen Zeltner
  • Patent number: 5678815
    Abstract: An automatic document feeding device has a document feeding roller which feeds a document from a stack to a conveying roller which conveys the document for further processing. The document feeding roller has intermittent motion which feeds the conveying roller with three different speeds: first, at a first speed for feeding the document; then, at a speed faster than the first speed as dragged by the document; and finally, a temporary stop. The temporary stop provides sufficient interspace between the successive documents so that a correct pagination signal is generated. The intermittent motion is provided by a power transmitting component which is coupled to the document feeding roller to speed it up when engaged and is decoupled during the stop interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 1997
    Date of Patent: October 21, 1997
    Assignee: Avision Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas Sheng
  • Patent number: 5676367
    Abstract: A press force control apparatus for use in a apparatus for stacking sheets of paper that have been cut from a continuous roll of paper by inserting each successive sheet of paper beneath a previously stacked sheet of paper. The press force control apparatus includes a paper press for pressing a top surface of the sheets of paper, after the sheets of paper have been placed in a stacked position, wherein the paper press is translatable up and down with respect to a stack height of the sheets of paper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 7, 1995
    Date of Patent: October 14, 1997
    Assignee: Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Genzi Oshino, Katsuhiko Obata