Abstract: A friction retard sheet feeding apparatus including a feed member for engaging a stack of sheets and a retard member having a friction surface arranged in nipped engagement with the feed member. The sheets are supported in a stack configuration upon an elevator arranged for movement between an elevated position for sheet feeding and a lowered position. Drives are provided to raise the elevator. An incrementing apparatus is provided for advancing the retard member relative to the feed member in response to the operation of the drives for elevating the stack.

Abstract: In the arrangement, a batch or stack of vertically oriented recording media sheets is supported on edge on a horizontal vibrating table which is vibrated by a vibrating conveyor and the sheets are advanced singly, starting with the leading or frontmost sheet, through a separating slot between a pair of endless belts constituting a transporting arrangement. A first rotating suction drum is mounted at the rear end of the vibrating table and is formed with circumferentially spaced suction bores for operative relation with a rotary slide valve to connect the suction bores intermittently to a suction system. A second rotating suction drum is arranged within the range of the separating slot and serves as a separating drum, and a hold-back suction drum is also arranged within the range of the separating slot and serves as a hold-back device, the hold-back suction drum having the same design as the first rotating suction drum.

Abstract: A sheet separating device for mechanically feeding single sheets from a magazine having a stack of intermixed sheets of different thicknesses. The apparatus includes a conveyor assembly having an endless belt provided with integral feed pads for successively contacting and transporting sheets from the stack. A feed limiting barrier directs movement of the sheets toward a pair of discharge rollers which rotate in a direction for advancing the movement of the sheets. A separator roller mounted in confronting, overlapping relationship with the discharge rollers rotates in a direction opposing forward movement of the sheets to prevent passage of more than one sheet between the separator and discharge rollers. The conveyor assembly is spring-biased and swingably displaceable with respect to the separator roller for variable clearance in order to accommodate sheets of different thicknesses. Additionally, the discharge rollers are urged into contact with idler rollers to automatically compensate for wear.

Abstract: Disclosed is a rotatably powered roller feed assembly for transporting documents from a stack in a forward feed direction toward utilization apparatus, a clockspring appropriately coupled to the feed assembly for rotatably powering the feed rollers in a direction opposite to the feed direction of rotation in order to drive documents out of, and to therefore clear, the nip point of the roller assembly. The reverse rotation is initiated at the end of each feed cycle by control means, including an optical sensor assembly responsive to a document exiting the nip point, interrupting the powering of the roller assembly in the feed direction.

Abstract: Document transport apparatus in a document reader sorter is provided with a vacuum assisted friction feeder for picking documents one at a time from a document hopper and for advancing the documents at high speed along a document transport guideway to the control of a transport burst roller, the picking of the documents from the hopper by an apertured friction feed belt being assisted and facilitated by a low pressure vacuum directed upon a linearly disposed section thereof adjacent the hopper, and the high speed advancement of the documents into and along the document guideway to the control of the transport burst roller being assisted and facilitated by a high pressure vacuum directed upon a curvilinear section of the apertured belt cooperably disposed relative to the apertured circumference of a drive pulley, said high pressure vacuum being effective to lock the picked documents and particularly the leading edges thereof to the feed belt for an accelerated feeding thereof, said accelerated feeding of the d

Abstract: Apparatus for counting and endorsing documents and more particularly tickets dimensionally within the preferred range from 1 inch by 2 inches to 2 inches by 5.5 inches and in the thickness range from two mils to 14 mils. The stack of tickets is placed in an in-feed hopper and is engaged by an eccentric bottom feed picker to drive preferably the bottom-most document toward a drive wheel and stripper wheel assembly to permit documents to pass only in single file beyond the stripper device. The documents are fed in single file between cooperating belts until they are picked up by acceleration means which abruptly accelerates the documents to provide a gap therebetween suitable for counting purposes.The documents are driven into a stacker wherein they are stacked in the same order in which they were loaded into the in-feed hopper. A stacker arm provides pressure on the building stack which pressure is continually reduced as the stack increases in height to assure a smooth stacking operation.

Abstract: A letter feeder including a pair of belts mounted perpendicular to each other for transporting letters positioned thereon, a rotating brush roller and a control assembly both selectively movable to a position to stop a letter being transported by the belts and to separate double letters a selectively operated stop member for controlling the movement of letters from the feeder and a plurality of sensing members for selectively operating the brush roller, the control assembly and the stop member.

Abstract: Banking machines for dispensing paper currency require a document transport for accurately and reliably delivering a single bill or piece of currency from a storage bin to a customer. The document transport includes a feeder unit for delivering single pieces of currency from a stack to a pair of separator rollers and past a double document detector. Upon detection of more than one document passing through the separator rollers, a clutch is energized to cause one of the rollers to rotate in a direction opposite the other to separate the several bills and allow only the top one to be forwarded into a flat belt transport. As a piece of paper currency passes through the flat belt transport, spaced detectors produce a signal that indicates an overlapping or trailing document condition. This overlapping or trailing condition is measured by the spacing of detectors in the flat belt transport.

Abstract: Apparatus for feeding individual sheets from a hopper, including a rotating prefeed member positioned near the exit end of the hopper and having projections for repeatedly beating the next sheet to be fed from the stack of sheets, to help separate the sheets and to urge the next sheet out of the hopper.

Abstract: Adjustable guides for a sheet stack are frictionally secured to the stack support by bristle pads provided on each adjustable guide and on the stack support. Each pad has bristles inclined at an acute angle relative to the surface of the pad. Interleafing of the bristles on the guides and the stack support provides adjustable, frictional securement of the guides to the stack support.