Abstract: An apparatus and method for aligning a continuous web of material with an entry point of a machine that utilizes the web as a source material. The web may include pre-processed materials that may be thicker than conventional webs and/or have uneven thickness, and/or are susceptible to excessive compression forces and/or tensions which may be found in ordinary straight-wound rolls. Such pre-processed materials may be wound in traverse-wound rolls or festooned into a container forming a web source structure which is wider than the web width. The web is pulled from such web source structure by the machine through a series of guides which include surfaces having various properties and shapes to create tensions in the web and to align the web with the entry point of the machine.

Abstract: A card reader includes a housing enclosing the operating components thereof which is provided with a card insertion slot. A baffle is movable between blocking and unblocking positions to block and unblock the card insertion slot, as desired. Located interiorly of the housing is a card carriage which reciprocates between a first limit position proximate the card insertion slot and a second limit position remote therefrom for transporting an inserted card along a path past a transducer located inside the housing proximate the second limit of travel for reading information from the card. A cam is provided on the carriage which cooperates with a cam follower associated with the baffle for camming the baffle from its card insertion slot blocking position to its card insertion slot unblocking position and vice versa, as the carriage moves toward and away from, respectively, its first limit position proximate the card insertion slot.

Abstract: Apparatus for capturing a card and/or reading and/or writing data bits on a record stripe of the card, including a carriage for supporting a card inserted into the apparatus via a slot, the carriage being bidirectionally selectively driven past a transducer on elongated guide means by a motorized rotatable screw threadably engaging the carriage. A card clamp assembly is associated with the carriage for clamping an inserted card thereto when the carriage is located in other than its home position, whereat positive transfer of a card between the insertion slot and carriage occurs, which home position is proximate the card insertion slot. Stationarily mounted cams cooperating with cam followers of the card clamp assembly deactivate the clamp when the carriage is in its home position to facilitate transfer of an inserted card to and from the carriage.

Abstract: Currency dispensing apparatus is disclosed in which vertically stacked bills located in a removable container positioned in the dispenser are fed one-by-one from the top of the stack through an opening in the container ceiling by a proximately located overlying rotary suction head. The head advances the bills to the nip of a pair of superimposed bill transport belts overlying the stack from which point they are then transported by the belts back over the top of the stack to a diverter whereat the bills are either diverted to an underlying reject bin located adjacent the stack or to a delivery chute for manual removal by a customer. A multiple, or overlapped, bill sensor is located along the bill transport path between the suction pickup head and the diverter which, in cooperation with suitable control circuitry responsive to the sensor, controls the diverter for diverting multiple, or overlapped, bills into the underlying reject bin while allowing single bills to be transported to the customer delivery chute.

Abstract: A depository for receiving, imprinting and storing deposited articles of varying thickness including a housing having a slot in the front thereof through which articles of variable thickness are inserted, a vault also located within the housing into which articles inserted through the housing slot are ultimately transferred for storage, and a movable tube for temporarily storing an article inserted therein through the housing slot while the same is imprinted with a date of deposit or the like and thereafter transferring the imprinted article to the vault.