Abstract: A sheet feeding mechanism for feeding sheets is described including an advance preventive member which is abuttable on the sheet feeding roller by a spring. The advance preventive member functions to prevent multiple feeding of sheets. The sheet feeding cassette has a first sheet advance preventive part which acts on a second sheet advance preventive part on the advance preventive member when the sheet feeding cassette is moved toward or away from the sheet feeding roller, to thereby separate the advance preventive member from the sheet feeding roller against the urging force of a spring. Specific designs of the first and second sheet advance preventive parts may be included to vibrate and rotate a roller of the advance preventive member.

Abstract: An arrangement for the step-by-step conveyance of printed products, such as, newspapers, magazines or the like from a removal location, wherein the printed products are supplied to the removal location by a conveying unit approximately vertically and spaced apart from each other. The arrangement includes at least one set of gripping tongs for gripping the lower ends of the printed products at the removal location. The gripping tongs are connected to a driven hub. The gripping tongs are retractably controlled by the periphery of the hub which interacts with a friction wheel arranged after the removal location. The gripping tongs extend through a space which is arranged downstream and is provided for the controlled release of the printed products. The space is defined by conveying members which are driven in the same direction.

Abstract: By a first conveying device printing products are fed in an imbricated formation (S), in which each printing product rests on the following one, the fold edge of the folded products forming the trailing edge. The printing products are pushed into an intermediate stack from below. The respectively uppermost product of this intermediate stack is seized in the region of the fold edge by at least one sucker of a sucker arrangement, raised upward and brought into the conveying region (F) of a second conveying device. The latter has individually controllable grippers which are arranged at regular intervals, circulate along a closed path, seize the fold edges delivered by the sucker arrangement and convey away the printing products thus seized. By forming an intermediate stack, from which the printing products are then raised by the sucker arrangement at the desired rate and fed to the grippers, even imbricated formations (S) occurring with irregularities can be processed satisfactorily.

Abstract: A sheet justifier provides a table having at least one rotational surface thereon that is substantially aligned with the table. A sheet is input to the table into contact with the rotational surface. A weighted ball is positioned over the rotating surface proximate an outer edge of the rotating surface. The sheet is grasped between the ball and the rotating surface and forced against a raised guide edge. Once the sheet is forced against the guide edge, all rotational driving force is translated in a downstream direction therealong so that the sheet is driven out of the guide edge with its edge aligned therewith in a justified orientation.

Abstract: A low cost, compact inverter for reversing the lead and trail edges of a sheet. The inverter includes a reversible roller of about 2" in diameter onto which a sheet is scrolled and subsequently unscrolled, thereby reversing the lead and trail edges of the sheet.

Abstract: A feeding apparatus has a large turntable mounted rotatably on a tray and two paper cassettes installed on the turntable. The paper cassette are movable in a radial direction of rotation of the turntable. Carriage driving mechanisms for moving the paper cassettes are controlled to move the respective paper cassettes to positions closest to the axis of rotation of the turntable when rotating the turntable so that the space occupied by the paper cassettes is minimized. A 180-degree rotation mechanism for rotating the turntable is controlled to rotate the turntable after the respective paper cassettes are moved to the positions closest to the axis of rotation of the turntable, for interchanging the paper cassette on a feeding side and the paper cassette on a non-feeding side. This enables a reduction in the size of the apparatus, irrespective of the sizes and positions of the paper cassettes on the feeding side and non-feeding side.

Abstract: A mesh screen comprising a pair of rings open at each end. A piece of mesh material is releasably clamped between the rings. The inner face of one cylindrical ring is provided with a circumferential groove and a circumferential flange projecting in the same direction as the mouth of the groove. The inner face of the other cylindrical ring is provided with a circumferential flange which is adapted to mate with the circumferential flange of the first cylindrical ring so that the mesh material may be interposed between the flanges, and the free edge of the circumferential flange of the other cylindrical ring is accommodated within the groove.

Abstract: An apparatus for feeding individual sheets from the bottom of a sheet stack. The sheet stack is placed in the paper tray with the lead edge abutting the sheet feeding apparatus. The face of the stack rests against the main fang. As a nudger forwards the sheets from the bottom of the stack to a position under the main fang, further sheet separation occurs as the lead edges of the sheets strike a corrugated fang located between the main fang and the retard roll. The corrugated portion of the fang causes the sheets to be shingled out permitting a single sheet to pass under the retard roll and to be advanced by the feed roll.

Abstract: Device for controlling an individual separation of sheets incorrectly separated from a sheet pile, including a lifting device for lifting an uppermost sheet of the sheet pile so as to feed it to a machine associated therewith, includes a structure having parts of a contactless measuring arrangement insertable between the lifted sheet and the remainder of the sheet pile for measuring the thickness of the lifted sheet, and a circuit arrangement connected to the lifting device and the measuring arrangement for evaluating signals of the measuring arrangement regarding a presence of double or multiple sheets and generating a switching signal for starting or stopping the operation of the lifting device, the structure being formed as a bifurcated contact foot having two legs and a scanning gap defined therebetween, each of the legs, respectively, including parts of the measuring arrangement for measuring the sheet thickness and, in a measuring position of the measuring arrangement, one of the legs being inserted bet

Abstract: A large turntable is mounted rotatably on a tray, and two paper cassettes are rotatably installed on the turntable. The turntable is rotated by a 180-degree rotating mechanism and a small angle rotating mechanism, while the paper cassette is rotated by a cassette rotating mechanism. The 180-degree rotating mechanism interchanges the paper cassette on a feeding side and the paper cassette on a non-feeding side by rotating the turntable. The small angle rotating mechanism aligns the center of paper stored in the paper cassette on the feeding side with a feeding center line by rotating the turntable. The cassette rotating mechanism positions the leading edge of the paper in the paper cassette on the feeding side at right angles to a feeding direction by rotating the paper cassette. Since the 180-degree rotating mechanism and the small angle rotating mechanism are installed in positions on the tray outside of the turning space of the turntable, an apparatus of a reduced height and size is achieved.

Abstract: A grader drum has fixed grader bars which extend between two annular end plates. Rotatable grader bars extend between the end plates between each pair of fixed bars. A generally frustoconical cam is movable axially with respect to the drum. A cam follower with a roller which engages against the cam is connected to each rotatable grader bar. A looped elastic belt encircles the cam followers and engages with radially outwardly facing grooves on the cam follower arms to retain the cam followers in engagement with the cam as the cam is displaced axially to adjust the spacing between the fixed and rotatable grader bars.

Abstract: An automatic document feeder installed on a copying machine. This document feeder is constructed such that one reversible motor provides the drive power for all of drive parts of the document feeder, that is, a document feeding part, a document conveying part and a document recovering part, thus substantially reducing the manufacturing cost of the feeder. The document conveyor belt, on which a document to be copied is closely laid, moves in the forward and reversed direction, thereby causing the document to be exactly set on a reference copying position of a contact glass of the copying machine and, in this respect, improving the operational efficiency of the automatic document feeder. The present invention also provides a control circuit for automatically controlling such an automatic document feeder.

Abstract: A mechanical buffer for imparting a substantial delay to paper items, such as envelopes which are being individually and sequentially conveyed in a high-speed paper transport system, maintains physical separation between the conveyed items and does not require termination of item movement or item encoding. The buffer employs a directional translation of item motion, i.e., envelope motion in the length-wise direction is changed to motion in the direction of thickness, to achieve a velocity-distance compression. The buffer apparatus includes a continuous loop of item carriers which are individually positioned to have incoming items sequentially and individually inserted therein, the carriers imposing a retarding frictional force proportional to item thickness and mass to arrest item motion in the longitudinal direction as the direction of item motion undergoes the translation.

Abstract: A paper discharging apparatus sequentially discharges a sheet of paper having an image on a surface thereof and stacks the paper sheet on a paper discharging base. The paper discharging apparatus has a blower for sending a gas flow to a space between a surface of the paper sheet previously discharged and arranged on the paper discharging base and a rear face of the next discharged paper sheet. A paper discharging apparatus of a printer has a paper discharging section having a paper discharging base for stacking a sheet of paper having a printed image on a surface thereof, and a paper feeding section for feeding the paper sheet to this paper discharging section. The paper feeding section has a blowing member for sending a gas to a space between a surface of the paper sheet previously fed and a rear face of the next fed paper sheet. The paper discharging section has a restraining member for restraining the gas supplied by the blowing member from being leaked on a side of the paper sheet.

Abstract: A device for stacking sheets in a pile in a sheet delivery of a printing press having a conveying mechanism for transporting sheets in a given direction onto the pile, and a lifting table whereon the sheets are lowerable, includes a front stop for leading edges of the sheets disposed in a region wherein an upper end of the sheet pile is located, side stops disposed laterally of the front stop and adjustable to varying formats of the sheets, each of the stops having a multiplicity of sections successively arranged in the given sheet transport direction and being movable relative to one another, those of the sections exceeding a successive arrangement of the sections which matches the format length of the sheets in the sheet pile being displaceable into a waiting position wherein they avoid any obstruction to the transport of the sheets onto the pile, and respective multipartite guides for the sections of the side stops each of the multipartite guides being formed of two parts telescopically slidable into one a

Abstract: A parallel transport apparatus for transporting sheets side by side along a plurality of transport paths is provided with a feed roller which is brought into contact with uppermost sheets of a plurality of stacks of sheet contained side by side in a cassette and is adapted for feeding the uppermost sheets side by side; a separation roller pair arranged at a specified position of each of the plurality of transport paths and adapted for separating the sheets fed side by side so that one each of sheets are transported along the respective transport paths simultaneously; a sheet detector arranged downstream from the separation roller pair with respect to a sheet transport direction and adapted for detecting the presence or absence of sheets being transported side by side; and a multifeed discriminator for discriminating whether the multiple feeding has been occurred along any of the transport paths in accordance with an output from the sheet detector.

Abstract: In order to enable a gripper carried by a rapid moving gripper conveyor to be opened and therewith release an object gripped by the gripper, for instance a newspaper, without influencing neighboring grippers, the gripper is opened (45', 47) while moving along a path which is shorter than the distance (t) at which the grippers are spaced on the gripper chain (1) and the opened gripper is held open by means (4, 45') which only act on the thus opened gripper. The means which holds the gripper open accompanies the movement of the gripper conveyor. The method and the arrangement find use in conveyors that are provided with self-closing grippers where the conveyors have a high conveying capacity and enable independent release of individual objects. An opened gripper is held open while the gripper moves through a distance which is greater than the gripper spacing interval and which is sufficiently long to ensure that the object will fall free from the gripper.

Abstract: A rotatable cassette-type paper feeding apparatus includes a tray, a turning member mounted rotatably on the tray. A first rotating device is used for rotating the turning member, a plurality of paper cassettes installed rotatably on the turning member. A second rotating device is used for rotating the paper cassette in a paper feeding side, and a controller which controls the first rotating device to interchange the paper cassettes in the paper feeding side and in the non-paper-feeding side and which controls the second rotating device to switch the position of the paper cassette in the paper feeding side between sideways and lengthways. This structure achieves a compact rotatable cassette-type paper feeding apparatus capable of storing sheets of paper of various sizes and of feeding the paper sheets both sideways and lengthways by switching their positions.

Abstract: On a suction device (4, 5, 6, 21) for separating sheet films (3a) from a sheet-film stack (3), a thickness sensor (10, 11, 15, 17, 19) is mounted so as to be pivotable together with said suction device. The suction device (6, 21) releases the sheet film (3a) to be removed from a sheet-film stack (3) by bending its front section. The thickness sensor (10, 11, 15, 17) which has a forklike design is spring-biased to move onto the bent area of the sheet film (3a) still located on sheet-film stack (3). The thickness sensor comprises two levers (10, 11) with rollers (15, 17), one lever (11) being pivotable relative to the other lever (10). Depending on its path of pivotal movement the pivotably mounted lever (11) actuates a switch (19). If there is more than one sheet film (3a) between the rollers (15, 17) of the levers (10, 11) switch (19) is actuated which interrupts the sheet-film removal operation and causes its repetition.

Abstract: The driver (12) comprises a carrier (14) for attachment to a conveyor, for example an endless chain. A pusher (16) made of hard-wearing material is attached to the carrier (14) in such a way that when the support moves forwards the pusher engages a rear edge of a sheet (10) to be fed. The pusher (16) is supported through at least one elastic spacer (18) on the carrier (14), in a rearwardly resilient manner. In a preferred embodiment of the driver (12), the pusher (16) comprises a flexible metal sleeve (30) which near each of its two ends rests, by way of a respective spacer (18) in the form of an electrically insulating washer, on a shaft (20) attached to the carrier (16). This makes high rates of acceleration possible when feeding thin metal sheets on a can welding machine, without the sheets being damaged by the driver (12).