Abstract: A device for removing printed products, having a fold and being transported uniformly spaced and astraddle by a transport device, has a rotatingly driven gripping device with controlled gripping elements for gripping one of the printed products by the fold on the transport device and removing the printed product while stably holding the printed product. The rotatingly driven gripping device has control elements for controlling an opening movement and a closing movement of the gripping elements and is adjustable for adaptation to the different thicknesses of the printed products during running.

Abstract: A print media deskew apparatus includes a print media support having a first surface defining a plane for a print media transport path and a second surface parallel to the print media transport path and two apertures in the first surface aligned in the print media transport path. A first set of selectively driven spheres in the print media transport path and a second set of selectively driven spheres in the print media transport path downstream from the first impart a paper path force and a lateral driving force on a media sheet such that the sheet is driven laterally to the print media transport path until edge contact with the second surface removes any skew from the sheet.

Abstract: A single pass color printer employs a band drive to move media sheets through plural developer stations. The band drive also provides motive power to drive, in common (via frictional engagement with their respective peripheries), all of the organic photoconductor (OPC) rollers that are present in plural developer stations that are arrayed along the media movement path. The use of the common band drive assures that the surface speeds of the OPC drums and media sheets are synchronized at their respective points of contact, thus eliminating much of the station to station variations due to differences in diameters and runout of the plural OPC rollers.

Abstract: The present invention provides a sheet conveying apparatus, and an image reading apparatus and an image forming apparatus having such a sheet conveying apparatus, in which skew correction of a sheet can be effected with high accuracy. A sheet convey means is provided at an upstream side of a skew correction means for correcting skew-feed of a sheet, and the sheet convey means is shifted by a shift means in a direction substantially perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction. A control means drives the shift means to shift the sheet convey means pinching the sheet to be skew-corrected by the skew correction means by a distance corresponding to a sheet skew amount on the basis of sheet skew amount information from a sheet skew amount detection means for detecting a skew amount of the sheet, thereby shifting the sheet in a skew correction direction.

Abstract: In a sheet conveying device, sheets having of various width sizes can be adjusted to sheet conveyance reference of a regulating device without moving the regulating device in the lateral direction of a sheet. An image forming apparatus uses two kinds or sheets of different width sizes (the LTR-size and the A4-size). The regulating device is fixed to a position where an LTR-size sheet can be regulated. When performing switchback conveyance of an A4-size sheet, switchback conveying devices convey the sheet while moving it toward the sheet conveyance reference of the regulating device by a predetermined amount.

Abstract: A sheet feeder includes a feed roller and pressure rollers for feeding a sheet of paper through the nips each between the feed roller and one of the pressure rollers. The feeder also includes a sheet passage for feeding a sheet of paper through it with an edge of the sheet guided along a side edge of the passage. Each of the pressure rollers is urged against the feed roller by an urging member. The guide edge of the passage is spaced from the adjacent end of the feed roller. Fitted between the edge and the end is a detector for detecting the presence of a sheet of paper. The urging member nearest to the guide edge of the passage is greater in urging force than any other urging member. Therefore, the feeder can feed a sheet of paper without inclining it.

Abstract: A sheet registration and deskew assembly including a force reducing deskew roll having deflectable ribs, and alternating grooves for enabling the ribs to deflect once the sheet is in resisting contact against a registration edge guide member of the registration assembly, thus reducing a driving force on the sheet, and hence preventing damage to the sheet as well as excessive wear on the registration edge guide member.

Abstract: Method for laterally aligning a sheet to be aligned at front lays in a revolving direction of the sheet includes, in a first alignment step, moving the sheet against a side stop; in a second alignment step, moving the sheet against front lays; and in a third alignment step, moving the sheet a second time against the side stop; and device for performing the method.

Abstract: Sheet collation apparatus and method operate on a random array of seriatim sheets to effect ordered stack collation. An edge guide surface is located along a sheet support surface extending from a sheet ingress to egress. A plurality of conical rollers are configured and relatively overdriven to effect edge alignment and sheet end separations between the sheet ingress and egress.

Abstract: An adjustable skew offset device includes a tapered roll as a paper drive roll and a line contact idler roll which is axially adjustable. With these two rolls forming a nip, paper passing therethrough can be purposely skewed clockwise or counterclockwise and thereby serving either to compensate for any fixed skew offset in the paper path or to null out any skew offset between small and large size papers.

Abstract: A sheet handler for deskewing and registering sheets en route to a processing station in an image processing apparatus includes cross rolls that drive each copy sheet against a registration edge for deskewing purposes. The angle of a driven one of the cross rolls with respect to the registration edge is adjusted, as well as, its speed varied based on the output of a sheet weight detector to a controller that controls pivotal movement of the driven cross roll.

Abstract: A deposit processing module comprising a first transport having a first end for receiving envelopes and single document deposits and a second end from which the deposits are discharged, and a second transport operatively positioned for receiving and returning single document deposits to and from the first transport. Printing means are provided for printing deposit information on the deposits, a magnetic charge/read head is provided for charging and reading magnetic information on the single document deposits and an imager is provided for imaging one side of the single document deposits. A gate mechanism associated with the second end of the first transport is movable between a first position wherein envelopes and single document deposits may be discharged from the module and a second position wherein single document deposits may be transported between the first transport to the second transport.

Abstract: A device for driving documents having one edge in contact with a reference plane includes a drive roller having its axis perpendicular to the reference plane, and an idle roller pressing a drive document against the drive roller. The axis of the idle roller can be freely tilted in a plane parallel to the plane of the driven document, between two limit positions on either side of a position perpendicular to the reference plane. A spring urges the idle roller against an abutment at one end of its axis to create friction.

Abstract: In order to make it unnecessary to shift a finishing machine (12) out of a position adjacent to a printing or copying machine (10) the invention provides a transfer device for sets of sheets leaving the printing or copying machine (10) for the set finishing machine (12). The printing or copying machine (10) comprises a door (14) with an ejection opening for the sets and the said finishing machine (12) possesses an inlet side opposite such opening, such door (14) opening toward the inlet side of the finishing machine (12).

Abstract: A sheet feeding and corrugating system, especially for output of image substrate sheets of a reproduction apparatus, wherein the sheets are fed in a normal path through a sheet feeding nip comprising plural spaced sheet feeding rollers. Both feeding and variable corrugating of flimsy or stiff sheets is provided by spherical balls freely mounted in generally vertical ball retainers providing for vertical movement and dual axis rotation against the sheet feeding rollers to define the sheet feeding nip and by additional similar balls (in additional similar ball retainers) intermediately of the feed rollers, which additional balls are unsupported vertically except by bottom-of-travel retainers so that these additional intermediate balls roll gravity-loaded against a sheet being fed through the nip to provide sheet corrugation varying automatically with the stiffness of the sheet, and are freely liftable up to the level of the nip by stiff sheets resisting corrugation.

Abstract: A mechanism for inserting a flat object into a processing device for processing the object, the processing device including a fixed frame having an insertion slot via which the object is inserted, the slot forming a passage having a wall which is perpendicular to the surface of said flat object, and which serves as a reference abutment surface for one side of said flat object, the mechanism being wherein the mechanism includes two wheels, each of which penetrates into the slot via a respective aperture, at least one of the wheels being mounted at the end of a rocker arm whose other end is mounted in a cradle to pivot about a rocking axis that is parallel to the direction F in which the flat object is inserted, wherein the cradle is in turn mounted in the fixed frame to pivot about a swivel axis that is perpendicular to the plane of the insertion slot, wherein resilient elements apply a certain pressure to press the wheels together, and wherein an abutment delimits the swivelling stroke of the cradle about the

Abstract: An apparatus to bilaterally register and deskew sheets in an electrophotographic printing machine by driving the sheet against a pair of stalled drive rolls and then activating the drive rolls when the sheet is deskewed. The drive rolls are then laterally translated while the sheet is within the nips of the drive rolls. The proper side registration position of the sheet is sensed and stored and the sheet is brought to that proper registration position. Once the sheet has passed through the drive rolls, the rolls return to the center of the paper path to receive subsequent sheets. A stepper motor is used to translate the roll pairs in a lateral direction and the pulse counts are utilized to store the side registration and sheet acquisition positions thereby eliminating the need for a home position sensor or switch.

Abstract: A transport device consists of a drive roller and a follower roller. The medium to be transported, for example a card, is inserted between the two rollers. The follower roller is able to pivot on its mountings in order to bring the medium to a predetermined orientation by applying a tractive force to the medium.

Abstract: A device conveys and aligns sheets on a feed table of a printing machine having a single-sheet feeder, an aligning section, and a conveying device revolving on shafts for conveying the sheets in a direction across the aligning section to feed rollers for feeding the sheets to an impression cylinder. Bearings are secured to side frames of the feed table so as to be cyclically adjustable in elevation. The shafts are rotatably mounted in the bearings and are cyclically displaceable laterally to the sheet-conveying direction. A guide device is secured in the side frames. A feed plate is carried by the guide device above the feed table and is laterally adjustable with respect to the position thereof on the guide device. The conveying device includes a revolving conveyor device disposed below the feed plate. The feed plate is formed with aligning edges disposed laterally forward of and behind the revolving conveyor device and constitutes a lateral aligning limit.

Abstract: A simplified low cost, low wear, sheet registration and feeding system for laterally (side) registering a sheet without frictional drive slippage against the sheet and while maintaining feeding control in the primary forward feeding direction of the sheet. The sheet may be fed both forward and laterally (towards a side guide edge for side registration) utilizing only multiple sheet-engaging rotatable ellipsoidal rollers angularly mounted around the periphery of a fixed angle rotating hub member. The sheet-engaging rollers rotate with the hub member to so feed the sheet, but are also rotatable about their own, different, axes of rotation, which axes are parallel to the forward feeding direction of the sheet and the side guide to allow the sheet-engaging rollers to roll after side registration is achieved to prevent excessive lateral feeding force and undesirable slippage, smearing and/or wear.

Abstract: A pull guide mechanism for moving a copy sheet transversely of a conveyor board into proper registration in a printing, duplicating or like machine. A drive wheel is rotatably mounted in the conveyor board and a pressure wheel is disposed above the conveyor board for sandwiching a copy sheet therebetween and pulling the sheet into proper registration in response to driven rotation of the drive wheel. A carriage is mounted on the machine for reciprocal movement toward and away from the conveyor board and the drive wheel. A spring biased piston is mounted on the carriage for limited yielding movement relative to the carriage. The pressure wheel is rotatably mounted on the piston for movement with the carriage toward and away from the drive wheel and for gripping a copy sheet between the wheels against the spring bias. A first adjusting device adjusts the position of the piston relative to the carriage and thereby adjusts the dwell time that the wheels grip the copy sheet.

Abstract: A circulation-type bill deposit and dispensing apparatus, is provided with a shift mechanism which moves the bills to a predetermined position to the left or right side with respect to their feed direction so as to eliminate dispersion of bills in the lateral direction. Thus errors in discrimination of truth or falsehood or in discrimination of denominations and feed jams are prevented. An inverse shifting mechanism is also provided for moving bills to the opposite side from the initial shift (with respect to the feed direction) by a predetermined amount.

Abstract: Side registration of a moving sheet against a registration bar or abutment line may be accomplished by a roll nip that is slightly angled toward the registration line, and is thereafter self-pivotable from that angle to one angle nearly in alignment with the direction of sheet travel. The roll nip is spring urged toward the angled position, and moves toward the alignment position in response to the reaction force of the sheet when it engages the registration bar. More specifically, side registration and deskewing of a delicate or flimsy sheet is provided by driving the sheet sideways (transversely) against a side registration edge guide in the sheet path while the sheet is primarily being driven downstream by a roller drive system comprising a mating pair of rollers on opposite sides of the sheet path to form a non-slip nip engagement of the sheet. The rollers are not skewed relative to one another.

Abstract: An axially shiftable sheet gripper assembly includes cooperating gripper fingers and gripper abutment surfaces mounted on an axially slidable carriage. The carriage is located in a groove in a sheet transfer drum and carries a control roller at one end. The control roller rides on a control surface of a pivotable control disk. This control disk is movable toward and away from a side face of the sheet transfer drum to regulate the axial movement of the sheet transfer mechanism carriage.

Abstract: The device comprises a conveyor (A) driven with a reciprocating movement by means of a jack (V1) and on which the object (T) is placed in any way, wherein a stationary stop (CO), located crosswise with respect to said movement, acts as a deviating means as the object comes into contact with it. The device is completed with a vertically movable parts (BP), which almost comes into flush relationship with the upper part of the object so as to abviate any distortion in the plane (FIG. 3).

Abstract: Apparatus for aligning a sack disposed at the leading end of a series of shingled sacks, which have been unwound from a roll of shingled sacks and which have openings at their leading ends. The sack is aligned by transversely spaced gripping rollers that are operable to align the leading edge of a sack for proper orientation prior to transfer of the sack to a filling apparatus. An intermittently driven conveyor belt conveys the unwound series of shingled sacks as they are unwound from a roll. At least one pressure-applying roller is disposed above the conveyor belt and acts on the leading sack of the series of shingled sacks and cooperates with a backing roller, which is adapted to be driven, and optional pressure-applying elements, which are adapted to be lowered onto the next following sack.

Abstract: A device for aligning sheets fed by a sheet feeder to a sheet-processing machine includes a suction pull bar located in an aligning region of the sheet feeder, drive device for reciprocatingly displacing the suction pull bar in the plane of a sheet transversely to sheet travel direction through the sheet feeder, air control device through which the drive device is connected to a vacuum generator, positioning device for controlling the drive device the suction pull bar being acuatable for applying suction to the underside of a sheet which has reached the aligning region and after the sheet has been aligned by the leading edge thereof, the suction bar being actuatable for moving the sheet into an in-register side position and having device for applying fresh air thereto for releasing the sheet exactly in the side position simultaneously with a take-over of the sheet-in register by the sheet conveying device and a method for operating the device.

Abstract: A transport mechanism for film cards having two rocker levers supported on a pivoting lever that can swivel around a shaft, with the rocker levers being capable of pivoting around a rocker lever shaft. The two rocker levers, in turn, support two opposite discs, one of which is driven by a motor. A gripping motion of the discs is brought about by provision of guide grooves located on the rocker levers, with each groove accommodating a stationary pin. Through provision of an intermediate carrier, the upper disc is fixed to the upper rocker lever in a manner that it can pivot around a horizontal axis which is at right angles to the rocker lever shaft. Therefore the upper disc can be tilted in the respective direction of transport.

Abstract: Assembly for stream feeding sheets overlappingly staggered relative to one another via a feed table to an aligning device and for delivering the sheets aligned by the aligning device to a sheet-processing machine, the assembly maintaining movement of the sheets in direction towards the sheet-processing machine during alignment of the sheets by the aligning device, includes an aligning cylinder disposed under the feed table for receiving a sheet to be aligned which is fed thereto via the feed table, at least two rows of front lays disposed symmetrically on and around the circumference of the aligning cylinder, as well as a respective device disposed adjacent the rows of front lays for aligning side edges of the sheet, and a gripping device for holding the sheet until other further-transferring conveying device take over the sheet in-register.

Abstract: Panel-like members are aligned as they are transferred sequentially from a pick-up station to a discharge station by a primary carriage mounted for linear movement selectively to the pick-up position and to a position adjacent the discharge station. At least one extensible, secondary carriage is carried by the primary carriage and is rotatable about a vertical axis selectively to a transport position and to an aligned position and is movable linearly to an extended position and to a retracted position. The secondary carriage and a pick-up head carried thereby is movable selectively to an upper transport position and to a lower pick-up and discharge position. Linear movement of the primary carriage is stopped prior to its reaching the discharge station with the secondary carriage being movable toward an extended position after movement of the primary carriage is stopped.

Abstract: A trail edge registration system is disclosed that includes drive belts adapted to accept sheets from a source. The drive belts have pin-like members on the surface thereof that are adapted to contact the trail edge of the sheets and provide the timing and skew registration function, as well as the transport function for the system. A scuffer roll mechanism side registers the sheets in the transport before they are contacted by the pin-like members on the belts.

Abstract: An apparatus for automatically aligning a workpiece along the line of feed is comprised of two pivotally interconnected arms extending transversely to the line of feed with each arm having a workpiece gripping element at one end thereof adapted to engage the workpiece adjacent an edge thereof. A solenoid is operatively connected to the opposite end of one of said arms for pivoting said one of said arms on the frame of a sewing machine to move the workpiece gripping element thereon into and out of engagement with said workpiece along a substantially vertical path. A servo motor operated eccentric is connected to the opposite end of the other of said arms for moving the workpiece gripping element thereon transverse to the edge of the workpiece along a substantially semi-oval path in opposite directions to periodically engage and shift said workpiece transversely to the line of feed.

Abstract: An apparatus for positioning a sheet-like original on the feed table of a copying machine comprises a plurality of sensors, mounted on the table, that have different states of response corresponding to the presence or absence of an original at the sensor on the table. The sensors are mounted in pairs, the sensors in each pair being arranged symmetrically with respect to the center line of the feed table that extends parallel to the direction of feed of sheet-like originals. A lateral transport mechanism causes an original, lying ready to be copied, to be displaced in a lateral direction, transverse to the feed direction.

Abstract: To align sheets being fed to a printing machine without interruption of smooth flow of sheet feeding, the sheets are aligned while they are being fed from a stack to a set-up or alignment table 19 by imparting thereto a lateral force to direct the moving sheets towards a side or lateral stop. The vectorial lateral force component can be obtained by skewing transport belts 33 laterally, providing a transversely running belt 83 with freely movable engagement balls to press the sheets against the transversely moving belt, or tilting the transport table or conveyor system 17 and imparting vibration thereto so that the sheets will be jogged against a lateral stop 45, arriving properly longitudinally as well as laterally oriented at the set-up or alignment table for subsequent feeding into the printing machine. Preferably, the drive mechanism for the transport conveyor belts includes a variable speed transmission to selectively control overlap of subsequent sheets being fed.

Abstract: A device for registering of sheets, received in an underlapped stream, upon a feed table. The feed table has a retractable front stop and a side guide defining a condition of accurate register for the sheet. Cooperating with the side guide is a wiping mechanism which includes a lower wiping member and a cooperating upper wiping member for engaging a sheet between them for wiping the same into laterally registered position. A pre-gripper grips the leading edge of a registered leading sheet for transporting it forwardly and upwardly to a receiving cylinder thereby forming a wedged-shaped gap above the following sheet. Upon formation of the gap the upper wiping member is momentarily inserted into the gap in active wiping position, with the result that the following sheet is fully registered while it is still partially covered by the leading sheet.

Abstract: A device for the lateral and longitudinal positioning of sheets on the feed table of a printing press, with the leading edge of the sheet engaging a set of front stops and the lateral edge of the sheet in contact with a side guide, enabling accurate registered pick up by a transfer cylinder or the like. Cooperating laterally swingable wiper members are provided both above and below the sheet having friction shoes for wiping the sheet in the direction of the side guide. The friction shoes are connected to the respective wiper members in such a way as to provide freedom of relative movement at right angles to the direction of wipe so that the sheet may move against the front stops at the same time that is being wiped toward the side guide.

Abstract: A wiper mechanism for lateral shifting of a sheet against a side guide defining a registered reference position. The mechanism includes an oscillated wiper arm under the sheet having an arcuate sheet-engaging wiper surface with a tap roller for pressing the sheet against the wiper surface during the outward movement of the arm. The wiper surface has axially adjacent strips surfaced for different amounts of friction. The roller has an effective width corresponding to the width of one of the strips and is movable into a position of engagement with a selected strip for changing the degree of friction applied to the sheet depending upon the thickness of the sheet being handled.