Other

Norfin, Inc.

Norfin International, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Donald L Snellman

Bernard A Pearson

Arthur G Saunders

John C Kuspert

Dean G Tonkin

John W Jacobs

Wade C Vaughn

Barry J Lewis

Wesley W Hester

Osceola J Gerbracht

Marvin H Haapala

Willard G Hudson

Michael L Kingsley

Apparatus and method for separating book covers or other items joined by a continuously moving web. A double-walled tubular attachment strip is adhesively attached to the spine portion of successive spaced covers in a continuous process. Covers are fed onto a conveyor at a constant speed with a spacing between covers and adhesive is applied to the spine areas. Simultaneously a continuous double-walled attachment strip is formed and pressed onto the cover spines to form a continuous string of covers. The attachment strip is cut by laser cutting beam between each cover while the covers are moving by moving a focussed cutting beam in a plane normal to the plane of the strip transversely to the direction of movement of the strip.

Method and apparatus for laser cutting separate items carried on a

Apparatus and method are disclosed for preparing a preprinted book cover for application to a book block in a perfect binding system A double-walled tubular attachment strip is adhesively attached to the cover spine portion of successive covers in a continuous process. Covers are fed onto a conveyor at a constant speed with a spacing between covers and adhesive is applied to the spine areas. Simultaneously a continuous double-walled attachment strip with a longitudinal lap joint in one wall is formed without adhesive from a source of paper web stock and pressed, lap joint down, onto the cover spines to form a continuous string of covers. The attachment strip is cut by laser cutting beam between each cover while the covers are moving. The double-walled attachment strip is formed by pulling the web under constant tension through side scoring wheels, hold-down shoes, and forming devices which have surfaces to fold the edges of the moving web through 180.degree. toward each other to form a lap joint. Prior to forming the double-walled strip, job information is printed on the web stock at a location which appears as the inside surface of the wall of the strip opposite the longitudinal lap joint. Laser cutting is accomplished by moving a focused cutting beam in a plane normal to the plane of the strip transversely to the direction of movement of the strip.

Method and apparatus for forming bookbinding strips

Apparatus and method are disclosed for preparing a preprinted book cover for application to a book block in a perfect binding system A double-walled tubular attachment strip is adhesively attached to the cover spine portion of successive covers in a continuous process. Covers are fed onto a conveyor at a constant speed with a spacing between covers and adhesives is applied to the spine areas. Simultaneously a continuous double-walled attachment strip with a longitudinal lap joint in one wall is formed without adhesive from a source of paper web stock and pressed, lap joint down, onto the cover spines to form a continuous string of covers. The attachment strip is cut by laser cutting beam between each cover while the covers are moving. The double-walled attachment strip is formed by pulling the web under constant tension through side scoring wheels, hold-down shoes, and forming devices which have surfaces to fold the edges of the moving web through 180.degree. toward each other to form a lap joint, Prior to forming the double-walled strip, job information is printed on the web stock at a location which appears as the inside surface of the wall of the strip opposite the longitudinal lap joint. Laser cutting is accomplished by moving a focused cutting beam in a plane normal to the plane of the strip transversely to the direction of movement of the strip.

Method and apparatus for preparing book covers

A sheet feeder with a feed wheel assembly for conveying an end sheet from a stack of sheets. The feed wheel assembly has a rotatable engagement wheel positioned to contact the end sheet of the stack, and operable to separate and convey the end sheet from the stack; a horizontally extending first shaft on which the wheel is mounted, with the first shaft being angularly movable in a generally vertical direction; a horizontally extending second shaft positioned spaced apart from the first shaft, the second shaft being mounted in a substantially fixed planar orientation to a support frame; and a pair of laterally spaced-apart first and second arms extending between the first and second shafts. Each of the first and second arms has a first portion retaining the first shaft and a second portion longitudinally spaced from the first portion and pivotally connected to the second shaft. The first and second arms are independently-pivotally movable about the second shaft within at least a limited range to permit uninhibited angular movement of the first shaft in a generally vertical direction during operation.

Sheet feeder

A sheet deflector drive for driving a sheet-delivering deflector between a plurality of vertically stacked paper-receiving shelves, including a pair of deflector carrying belts for moving the deflector between the shelves; a rotatable drive shaft for driving the belts to move the deflector, rotation of the shaft in one direction moving the deflector upward and rotation of the shaft in the other direction moving the deflector downward; a bidirectional drive motor selectively engageable with the shaft for rotating the shaft to one or the other rotational direction; a cam connected to the shaft for rotation therewith and having three radially projecting lobes, the lobes having an angular spacing therebetween corresponding to the rotational movement of the shaft necessary to move the deflector from a sheet-delivering position adjacent to one of the shelves to such a position adjacent to an immediately neighboring one of the shelves; a pivoted cam follower arm biased toward the cam for engaging the lobes, the follow arm rotating the shaft upon disengagement of the motor to bring the follow arm into simultaneous engagement with two of the lobes, the cam and follower arm being aligned with the shaft to position the deflector in a sheet delivery position adjacent to one of the shelves when the follower arm engages the two lobes; and a selectively operable brake having an engagement member for moving into frictional contact with a free end of the follower arm when the brake is applied, the brake holding the engagement member in frictional contact with the free end with a force permitting movement of the follower arm away from the cam under the influence of the lobes, but sufficient to hold the follower arm at substantially the farthest distance the lobes move the follower arm from the cam. The release of the brake moves the engagement member substantially out of frictional contact with the free end to permit the biasing of the follower arm to move the arm toward the cam and to engagement therewith for positioning of the deflector.

Sheet deflector and conveyor drive

An improved collator uses a novel sliding deflector assembly to allow greater spacing between the sheet conveyor 13 and trays 23. It also uses a novel sheet retention system which winds or unwinds as the sliding deflector assembly moves. The sliding deflector assembly may be driven with a double-clutch drive in increments in either direction. An improved plenum of the vacuum sheet-conveying system of the collator has a novel hole-spacing series to reduce noise and power demands for the vacuum system.

Collator

A microfiche feeder 10 conveys isolated sheets of microfiche from a stack 30 to a collator 12, sorter, or other processing apparatus. The stack of microfiche is placed in a receiver. A drive wheel 34 contacts the lowest sheet of the stack 30 to increment the sheet forward by suction as the wheel revolves. Spaced separator rolls 44 and 46 adjacent the drive wheel 34 ensure that a single sheet of microfiche is incremented forward to drive rolls 52 and 54, which convey the sheet to other processing apparatus.

Microfiche feeder

An improved sheet jogging apparatus allows for easier access and quicker maintenance by placing the primary components of the apparatus above the top panel of the bin unit of a collator/sorter. Quicker adjustment of the sheet jogging apparatus to accommodate different sizes and widths of paper is easily accomplished with a sliding shaft-slot-and-set screw means. Placing the components of the jogger on top of the panel alleviates problems of assembly where the limited space between the shelves of the bin unit and the top panel make work difficult and alleviates the problem of maintenance where the shelves must be removed for access to the components of the standard sheet jogging apparatus. A source of reciprocal motion mounted on top of the panel is connected to jogging bars which extend downwardly from the panel beside the shelves and which are capable of movement responsive to the source of reciprocal motion to jog the side edges of stacks of sheets on the shelves into alignment. A microswitch operatively associated with the jogging mechanism counts the number of jogging cycles through which the jogging bars move. A microprocessor responsive to the microswitch stops the source of reciprocal motion after a predetermined number of cycles.

Sheet jogging apparatus

An improved drive system for a tandem collator obviates the need for multiple motors to drive the various components of the several modules. In a simple manner, the drive train of this invention achieves greater electrical efficiency with reduced maintenance by using a direct current motor to drive a shaft which extends into the primary bin of the primary module and which has coupling means to extend through the primary module into secondary modules attached in tandem. Power takeoff means associated with the line drive shaft power the various elements of each bin, particularly the deflector assembly. A preferred power takeoff includes a plurality of idler and drive sprockets associated with the drive shaft, a driven shaft which is transverse to the drive shaft, and a three-dimensional endless belt which runs between and around the various sprockets.

Drive system for a collator

This invention relates to apparatus for binding collated or sorted sheets. More particularly, this invention relates to such apparatus for simultaneously binding multiple sets of collated or sorted sheets that have been assembled in a multiple-compartment sheet receiver.

Sheet binding system

A collator mechanism for transporting and feeding sheets of material such as paper, microfiche film or the like to individual bins. The sheets are carried by an apertured conveyor tape which slides along an apertured vacuum manifold so that the sheet is maintained in contact with the tape by the vacuum. The conveyor tape delivers the sheet to a deflector assembly which is progressively stepped through a plurality of indexed positions adjacent the bins. The deflector assembly includes upper and lower deflector rollers which bend the tape and sheet sufficiently to feed it toward the adjacent bin, release the sheet from the tape and then bend the tape away from the sheet being conveyed and the adjacent bin. The momentum and rigidity of the sheet carries the sheet, after its release from the tape, into the adjacent bin. An idler roller receives the tape from the lower deflector roller and presses the tape against the manifold to maintain the length of the conveyor tape path constant as the deflector assembly is stepped adjacent the bins.

Sheet collating deflector

Paper collator for use with office copying machines

A rear entry collator which includes one or more sheet receiver bins in which sheets may be assembled in a non-inverted surface orientation with respect to the surface orientation thereof when accepted at infeed. Return sheet feed to a copier may be provided to effect duplex copying separately or in combination with sheet assembly in the receiver bins.

The cable includes continuous glass filaments which are helically plied in rovings at a constant helical angle from cable center to outer surface and bonded together in elastomeric material. When heated, thermal elongation of the filaments is opposed by simultaneous radially directed thermal volumetric expansion of the elastomeric material. Thus, with respect to overall cable length, thermal elongation of the cable is opposed by a simultaneous increase in cable cross sectional area such that thermal elongation effects are controllable, dependent upon the thermal expansion properties of the filament and elastomeric materials used, by controlling the helical angle at which the filaments are plied to obtain either expanding, contracting or constant length cables, as desired. Thermal contraction effects produced by cooling the cable also are controllable by controlling the helical angle. In some high tensile load cable applications, the helical angle additionally may be related to tensile load, depending upon the modulus of elasticity of the filaments used. The invention is particularly adapted to helically plied glass fiber cables which are thermally stable over a wide range of temperatures.

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Donald L Snellman