Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus includes a retard mechanism to prevent the inadvertent feeding of doubled or overlapped sheets. The retard mechanism includes a plurality of belts in an assembly positioned adjacent to a sheet feeding roller, and rotating in such a direction as to retard the sheets being fed. The retard assembly is mounted on the free end of a lever arm pivotally secured adjacent to its other end to the base of the sheet feeding apparatus. The lever arm with the retard assembly mounted thereon is spring-urged toward the feed roller, but may be moved slightly away from said roller to accommodate the thickness of the sheet being fed between the feed roller and the retard assembly. A dual spring arrangement contained in the lever arm permits the lever arm to move with relatively little force to accommodate passage of a single sheet, but to resist more vigorously any additional movement, such as would be required for the passage of double or overlapped sheets.

Abstract: Apparatus for driving sheets comprises a track assembly, a first plurality of drive rollers and a cooperating set of back-up rollers for transporting sheets in a first direction along the track assembly, a second plurality of drive rollers and a cooperating set of back-up rollers for driving said sheets in a second direction with respect to the track assembly, into proper position to cause them to be transported by said first plurality of drive rollers and cooperating back-up rollers, and solenoid-operated actuating mechanism for simultaneously operating both sets of back-up rollers to cause one set of back-up rollers to be moved into operative position when the other set of back-up rollers is moved out of operative position.

Abstract: A sheet decelerating and stopping apparatus which may be used as a staging apparatus in a sheet-feeding environment. A pivoting member having decelerating and stopping areas thereon is spring biased to an operating position in which the decelerating area on the member cooperates with a decelerating area on on wall of a sheet-feeding track in which the sheet is fed to decelerate the sheet. The stopping area on the member stops a sheet if it is not stopped by the cooperating decelerating areas. An actuator moves the member to an inoperative position to enable a sheet to be released from the apparatus.