Abstract: In an original transfer apparatus, a pair of rollers around which a transfer belt is stretched and pressing rollers provided between the pair of rollers and adapted to press the transfer belt against the platen are held with each end portion of each shaft of the rollers being fixed to a frame of a body of the transfer apparatus so as to be attachable and detachable directly and separately. The fitting of these rollers is executed by fitting at least three end portions of the shafts of the pair of rollers and each end portion of each shaft of the pressing rollers to the frame from a side opposed to the platen of the frame of the body.

Abstract: The present invention provides a sheet feeding apparatus with a supporting member for supporting stacked sheets; a feed roller for feeding the sheets stacked in the support member; a driver for generating rotational forces in a predetermined direction and in an opposite direction opposite to the predetermined direction; and a shifter for shifting the feed roller to a position where the feed roller contacts the sheet stacked in the supporting member by the rotational force directed toward the predetermined direction, and for separating the feed roller from the sheet stacked in the supporting member by the rotational force directed toward the opposite direction.

Abstract: A catch tray for a copier/printer holds and stacks copies of a wide variety of sizes exiting a copier/printer without operator involvement. The copies are allowed to fall into a funnel type baffling device with flexible friction paddles that drive the incoming copies into the catch tray and holds them in place while simultaneously allowing a major portion of each copy sheet to flip and hang down over a curved portion of the outer wall of the catch tray.

Abstract: An apparatus in which a stack of sheets is detected at a preselected location. An air jet is directed towards an edge of the stack of sheets at a preselected location. A pressure transducer is located at the prescribed location and positioned to have the air jet at impact thereon. The pressure transducer is enabled to transmit a signal indicative of the absence of the stack of sheets at the preselected location in response to the air jet impacting thereon. The pressure transducer is inhibited from transmitting the signal in response to the stack of sheets blocking the air jet. When the stack of sheets blocks the air jet, the signal from the pressure transducer indicates the presence of the stack of sheets at the preselected location. A pneumatic stack height detector of this type may be used to regulate the movement of a stack of sheets used in electrophotographic printing machines.

Abstract: A modular frame for automotive vehicles, which comprises a pair of side rails oriented parallel to one another, each side rail having a plurality of apertures being substantially similar in size and shape with respect to one another. Cross members and auxiliary mounts are secured to the side rails by adapters that have a size and shape corresponding to the apertures in the side rails. The means for securing the adapters to the side rails allows the load to be distributed over a wide area of the side rail to reduce stress concentrations. The combination of the adapters and the plurality of similar sized apertures results in a modular structural frame connection system for vehicles.

Abstract: An apparatus feeds and separates sheets individually from a stack of sheets. A nudger is disposed adjacent to at least a portion of the stack, and a mechanism, including a rotatable friction feed belt thereon, is disposed adjacent a sheet on the stack to be fed. A variable normal force is provided between the nudger and the friction feed belt of the mechanism. A sensor detects a lead edge of a sheet at a preselected location relative to the mechanism, and the increase in the normal force between the mechanism and the nudger is stopped when the lead edge of a sheet is detected by the sensor.

Abstract: An on-edge stacker for stacking envelopes comprises a transporter and diverter, an accumulator, a spider wheel for delivering diverted envelopes to a conveyor belt of the accumulator, and a propelling arrangement to a drive diverted envelopes to the spider wheel. The diverter includes a gate for intercepting and diverting envelopes from the transporter. The stacker includes a device for laterally offsetting envelopes. In one embodiment, the spider wheel is suspended in a free-floating manner against a spring load. The floating spider wheel displacement as a consequence of stack increase is sensed to energize the accumulator conveyor belt drive to reduce the displacement. The actuation of the envelope propelling arrangement is sychronized in correlation with the positions of spaces between legs of the spider wheel. In operation, a diverted envelope is aligned, selectively offset, and propelled into the spider wheel.

Abstract: An apparatus for testing the stiffness of a sheet, such as a currency note, includes first cooperating rollers (36, 38) and second cooperating rollers (28, 32) arranged to urge the sheet along a feed path (48) The first rollers (36, 38) engage frictionally with the sheet and are caused to rotate with a greater peripheral speed than the second rollers (28, 32). As a result, there is a tendency for the first rollers (36, 38) to cause that portion of the sheet between the first and second rollers (36, 38; 28, 32) to buckle, this tendency being resisted if the sheet has a required degree of stiffness. First and second sensors (66, 68) are disposed on opposite sides of said feed path (48) for sensing a deflection of said portion of said sheet away from the feed path (48) by at least a predetermined amount, brought about by buckling of the sheet due to the sheet being insufficiently stiff.

Abstract: A method of controlling a drive unit of a pile-lifting device located at a sheet-fed printing machine includes starting-up the drive unit with a first mode of operation selected by an electronic current wherein rated torque is high and rated speed is low for respectively lifting and lowering the pile and, after a given period of time, following the starting-up of the drive unit, switching to a second mode of operation of the drive unit wherein the rated torque is low and the rated speed is high if the speed has exceeded a preset value during a lifting of the pile, and has not exceeded a preset value during a lowering of the pile; and a device for performing the method.

Abstract: Sheet transport apparatus has a pair of driven transport rolls and a pair of associated idler nip rolls forming sheet transport nips therebetween and defining a sheet transport path, one of the pair of transport rolls and pair of idler rolls being fixedly supported in a sheet feed table, the other of the pair of transport rolls and pair of idler rolls being mounted on a shaft which is pivotally mounted about an axis perpendicular to the shaft and parallel to the sheet feeding path, the shaft being pivotally mounted at the midpoint between the pair of rolls in a pivot housing extending across the sheet feeding path, one end of the pivot housing fixedly engaging the sheet feed table and including a spring to bias the other end of the pivot housing toward the sheet feed table to enable the shaft to pivot about the axis to provide the same nip force between each of the driven transport roll and its associated idler nip roll.

Abstract: A motor vehicle body structure has a pair of side frames each comprising a core layer having opposite surfaces and a pair of outer skin layers covering the opposite surfaces, a motor vehicle component, and joints disposed between the side frames and the motor vehicle component, for joining the motor vehicle component to the side frames through surface-to-surface contact therebetween.

Abstract: An apparatus for preventing a bill from being pulled out. The apparatus includes a hang preventing mechanism which has a tongue for preventing a bill from hanging from a bill accumulating box into a bill passage. The bill is conveyed through the bill passage to the bill accumulating box. The hang preventing mechanism is pivotally supported and is spring biased by a biasing mechanism for holding the tongue to prevent a bill, received in the bill accumulating box, from hanging from the bill accumulating box while the tongue is allowed to turn by a bill which passes through the bill passage for entering the bill accumulating box.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device for a copier, facsimile transceiver, printer or similar image forming equipment has a first tray and a second tray each being capable of accommodating part of a great amount of sheets and, therefore, has a thin configuration. The first tray can be pulled out along guide rails together with the first tray, facilitating the continuous supplement and feed of sheets.

Abstract: A moving bin sheet sorter has rotatable cams which engage portions of the sorter trays to move the trays at the ends adjacent to a sheet entry location between positions at which those tray ends are closely spaced above and below the sheet entry location and further spaced apart at the sheet entry location for receiving sheets supplied from a copier or printer. The cams are driven by an electric motor which is controlled to operate at a low speed as the trays are initially engaged and disengaged from the cam and a high speed during the major movement of the trays, thereby reducing noise resulting from high speed impact and shock loading of the cams and cooperative portions of the trays, as well as reducing noise resulting from high speed impact of said cooperative portions of the trays in guides for the trays.

Abstract: There is disclosed a sheet stacker, for use in combination with a copying machine, a printer or the like, capable of ensuring satisfactory sheet stacking regardless whether the sheet is folded or not. The apparatus controls the stacking operation in different modes in accordance with whether the sheets to be stacked are folded or not.

Abstract: The multi-pass sorting machine of this disclosure includes a supporting structure which has the configuration of an A-Frame. The A-Frame structure has a slanting front side supporting several individually functional devices and a slanting back side supporting other individually functional devices. The devices of the front side include an input feeding means, a first transporting means, a singulating means, an accelerating means, a second transporting means, a bar code reader and associated electronic and computer means, a plurality of first sorting means in the form of diverting vanes, an equal number of first pass stacker buffer means, and a reversing member for transporting letters from the front side to the back side while at the same time retaining the same orientation of the letters to the planar surface as the letters go around the corner.

Abstract: A copy output stacker for a wide format copier/printer holds and stacks a wide range of copy sizes exiting a copier/printer. The copies are stacked conveniently in front of the copier/printer without occupying much space. The stacker includes the use of an inverted "window shade" assembly with its roller spring mechanism attached on one end of the base of the roll feed/cutter assembly of the copier/printer, while the other end is pulled out and attached at an angle in front of the media supply drawer in order to form a pocket to catch copy sheets exiting the copier/printer.

Abstract: A sheet feeder having a stationary sheet feed rollers fixed on and rotatable integrally with a rotary shaft, each having a sheet contact portion for contact with the uppermost one of a plurality of sheets and a relief portion spaced from the uppermost sheet. Freely rotatable feed rollers are fitted on the rotary shaft and each free roller has contact portion for contact with the uppermost sheet and a relief portion spaced from the uppermost paper. Urging members for urging engagement members on the stationary sheet feed rollers into engagement with engagement recesses on the free sheet feed rollers in normal state are disposed on the shaft. A pair of transportation rollers are disposed upstream in the sheet transportation direction beyond the stationary and free sheet feed rollers. Upon the rotation of the stationary sheet feed rollers, the stationary and free sheet feed rollers feed the uppermost one of the plurality of sheets.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to the provision of a sheet feeder unit mounted in a copying machine or the like having a sheet transport mechanism. The sheet feeder unit feeds sheets to the sheet transport mechanism, and the sheets fed into the sheet transport mechanism are transported by the sheet transport mechanism. Each sheet being transported by the sheet transport mechanism is detected by a pair of sensors disposed with a prescribed space provided between each other, and the sheet transporting speed is calculated from the time in which the sheet travels the distance between the two sensors. The sheet feeding condition is set on the basis of the sheet transporting speed of the sheet feeder unit so that the sheets fed from the sheet feeder unit do not overlap each other.

Abstract: An integrated group of mechanical aids and a method related to the coupling and the uncoupling of a towed vehicle of the well-known tongue-loaded, weight-transfer type, which aids and method permit the uncoupling of the towed vehicle from a prime mover while allowing all components of the coupling assembly to remain in place and attached to the towed vehicle all positioned for subsequent recoupling.