Abstract: An improved car carrier of the type including a service vehicle having front and rear wheels, a frame, axle springs, and a displaceable platform is disclosed having structure for pivoting and sliding the displaceable platform along a specified path, and a support foot assembly capable of supporting the load on the displaceable platform during a predetermined interval, when the displaceable platform is displaced from a transport position to a load position. The displaceable platform is itself of angled configuration for ramping of a first car to be carried and for aft attachment and clearance of a second car to be towed.

Abstract: An original document feeder for copying machines, for automatically positioning originals of any substance on the exposure surface, so avoiding opening and closing the original pressing cover at each change of original, and with a considerable reduction in idle times. The feeder comprises a set of friction rollers of flexible material mounted on a single shaft, these facing each other in a transverse slot so as to compel each original sheet to bend in such a manner as to exert a force against the rollers which is greater the higher the substance or rigidity of the sheets. The feeder is also provided for a device for automatically aligning the originals, and a timer system for coordinating the conveying stages of the originals with the copying machine cycle.

Abstract: A front feed system that includes powered rollers for feeding sheet metal into the front of a shear. In one embodiment, the system uses ball transfer apparatus for facilitating feeding the sheet metal at various angles to the shear blade as desired by the operator. The transfer apparatus may then be lowered to rest the oriented sheet metal on the rollers for delivery to the shear. In a second embodiment, a turntable is positioned proximate the shear to further facilitate final orientation of the sheet material to be sheared. In a third embodiment, the sheet metal is automatically forced against a squaring arm on the shear to assure cuts perpendicular to the edge of the sheet metal, whether the sheet is positioned on the ball transfer apparatus or on the rollers through inclination of portions of the conveyor and/or the ball transfer apparatus.

Abstract: Lifting apparatus in combination with at least one substantially upright wall having an opening therein for providing access through the wall. The preferred combination comprises a vehicle, such as, a van (1), having a rear or side door opening therein, the lifting apparatus including a generally planar, load support portion (12) which is movable between a storage position (A,C) interior of the vehicle (1) and an operative position (B) exterior of the vehicle. In the operative position (B), the load support portion (12) lies in a generally horizontal plane substantially normal to that of the vehicle opening, with the support portion (12) being movable between its storage position (A,C) and its operative position (B) via an intermediate, inoperative position exterior of the vehicle (1).

Abstract: Hoist mechanism for a truck vehicle of the type having a pivotally movable load support frame. Opposed piston hydraulic cylinders are carried by the load support frame. Each of the hydraulic cylinders has a piston rod to which is attached a rotatable sheave. Another sheave is rotatably attched to the load support frame. A cable has one end thereof attached to the load support frame. The cable has portions in engagement with the sheaves and has a free end adapted to be attached to a load. A load is thus drawn upon the load support frame as the hydraulic cylinders are operated.

Abstract: Apparatus for delivering solid fuel into a fireplace safely and easily includes a fuel supporting rack which may be pivoted between a horizontal fuel supporting position to a downwardly angled unloading position by means of a control lever having its operating end positioned a substantial distance from the fireplace.

Abstract: Flattened tube sections for making sacks are continuously supplied by a main conveyor and selectively fed longitudinally to one of a plurality of connecting conveyors leading to respective production lines along which the sections are moved transversely after turning by respective turntables. The connecting conveyors for the second and subsequent production lines receive their tube sections from an intermediate conveyor. A deflector is pivotable between the intermediate conveyor and the connecting conveyor for the first production line.

Abstract: Disclosed is an intermodal railway car 100 capable of carrying a number of different designs of highway vehicle trailers or cargo containers used to ship goods over such distances as will make railway transportation of such trailers or containers economically advantageous over other forms of transporting such goods to the marketplace. The intermodal railway car 100 is designed with a reduced profile vertically and laterally to allow clearance of Association of American Railroads clearance diagram-plae "B". Furthermore, the car is designed to minimize cost in terms of the use of standard railway trucks 108 to support more than one intermodal railway car 100 thereby reducing the number of trucks 108 and the expense thereof for the construction of such intermodal railway cars 100 by the factor of the number of intermodal railway cars 100 minus one.

Abstract: An intermediate document storage chamber permitting coupling of two asynchronously operated document input and output devices together, the storage chamber having flexible guide members for bowing or arcing the portion of the document in the chamber, and control responsive to the level of the document portion in the chamber to control operation of the document input device to assure a continuous supply of document material to the document output device.

Abstract: Apparatus for transporting single flexible sheets having different rectangular formats in succession to an automatic device for further processing.

Abstract: An electrostatic copying apparatus in which the paper is fed from a cassette. The cassette has a casing for a stack of sheet-like copying papers of at least two different sizes, said casing being a box-like housing having an open top, a closure plate mounted detachably on the top surface of the housing and having at least one display window, and at least two restricting members mounted in spaced-apart relation in the longitudinal direction of the cassette casing so that they can pivot about the axial line of the cassette casing extending in the transverse direction of the cassette casing, each of the restricting members having a restricting portion for restricting the rear end of copying papers to be accommodated in the housing and a display portion having an indication of the size of copying papers, the display portion being positioned adjacent to the display window when the restricting portion is brought to its operative position beneath the closure plate.

Abstract: An auger assembly for transporting seed, fertilizer or other particulate material. The assembly provides an auger within a stationary tube; the auger is mounted to allow free axial movement between adjustable limits. In the normal augering position, the auger extends beyond the tube into the particulate material. Should the particulate material become packed or jammed, preventing the auger from turning, the auger can be driven in reverse, causing it to unscrew itself up into the tube and allowing the auger to then take a fresh bite at the particulate material.

Abstract: An improved reciprocating ram for an envelope inserter includes a pusher which drives an enclosure from a ram pick-up station to an envelope station. Cycle time has been reduced by providing a ram return path which is beneath the elevation of the pick-up station. Thus, the next enclosure is fed to the pick-up station before the ram has completed its return stroke. The ram mechanism includes a ram carriage which rides along a pair of longitudinal rods. A ram block carrying a ram blade rides with the carriage and is keyed for vertical movement relative to the carriage. The block includes a follower which engages a longitudinal box cam having a latch adjacent its envelope station end. When the ram blade reaches the envelope station, the latch directs the follower to a lower elevation camming surface for the return stroke. The pusher is secured to the ram blade by a leaf spring catch which engages a grating on the undersurface of the blade.

Abstract: The device comprises a container defining an inlet opening, an input area in alignment with the inlet opening and a stacking area adjoining the input area. A feeding mechanism, such as two pairs of worm conveyors, a pair of frictional rollers, a conveyor belt, a vane shaft and the like, is arranged in the input area near the inlet opening to transfer a print at an accelerated speed from the inlet area into the stacking area.

Abstract: A device for preventing a sheet-like original, when conveyed to a position for reading the image information of the original, from being conveyed to the reading position in an oblique condition with respect to a proper direction. When the original 14, 25, 81 is conveyed along a guide surface 5 while being held between a ball, 8, 23, 33, 44, 51, 71, 75 and an opposed member 6, 22, 29, 31, 50, 70, 76, this device conveys the original at a certain angle with respect to the guide surface, thereby automatically correcting to a proper direction the original being obliquely fed.

Abstract: Apparatus for the shingling of cut sheets of paper as they pass between conveyance on a high-speed tape conveyor and a low-speed tape conveyor is provided by a two-stage slowdown arrangement. At the first stage, a slowdown mechanism, comprising two rolls arranged respectively above and below each sheet passing through a drop-off area from the high-speed conveyor to the low-speed conveyor, serves to engage the tail portion of the sheet in a nip such that the sheet is slowed down to a speed approximately 30 to 40% of the speed of the high-speed conveyor. In this manner, the lead edge of a next succeeding sheet overlaps with the trailing edge of the nipped sheet in a drop-off area from the high-speed tape conveyor.

Abstract: A recirculating document handler having a document restack transport. The transport includes a series of spaced vacuum assisted drive belts for transporting successive documents to a position above a document stacking tray. A sensor is used to note the passage of a document lead edge past an input to the restack transport. After a delay which allows the document to be driven to the position above the stacking tray the document is separated from the drive belts by a knockdown bail and a reduction in the vacuum attraction between the document and the drive belts. The bail comprises a series of rods supported in locations between the drive belts which pivot into contact with the document and drive it into the stacking tray. The rods contact the document near its trailing edge to force the trail edge to the stacking tray.

Abstract: A paper sheet stripper device of the type used in a paper sheet dispenser, such as a bank note dispenser, in which sheets of paper are sucked by a suction head assembly one by one and passed to a conveyer assembly by the swinging action of the suction head assembly. The improvement proposed is the use of a vacuum source for generating a constant reduced pressure for sucking operation, instead of the conventionally used vacuum source which fluctuates between positive and negative pressures. A valve is interposed between the suction head assembly and the vacuum source so that the suction head assembly communicates with the vacuum source only when the suction head assembly is swung from a sucking position at which it engages with a lower portion of the first sheet of a bundle of paper sheets to a take-up position at which the sucked paper sheet is passed to the conveyer assembly.

Abstract: Articles, such as fragile, delicate semiconductor wafers, in a first carrier member are caused to pass nearly, but not quite wholly, into a second carrier member by being pushed--against gravity--thereinto. The carrier members are then subjected to a displacement, e.g. by inversion, and said articles are allowed to drop wholly into said second carrier member. The further distance travelled by the articles after rotational displacement of a housing retaining the carrier members is very small, e.g. about 2 mm.

Abstract: A dispenser for dispensing photographic sheets from a stack, comprising a dispensing mechanism including a bodily displaceable rotatably supported dispensing roller that is provided with uni-directional anti-rotation device, and a bodily stationary, driven roller for cooperation with the bodily displaceable roller.