Hitachi, Ltd.

Hiroshi Kitahata

Motoo Uno

Kenji Taguchi

Masuo Furutono

Akihisa Ueda

Toshio Ogata

Mitsuyoshi Satoo

A paper sheet handling apparatus including a plurality of sheet accumulating portions and a sheet conveyor. A pointed separator is mounted on the conveyor for movement into a stack of paper sheets accumulated in one sheet accumulating portion to divide the stack into two parts with a gap formed therebetween. Gripping fingers mounted on the conveyor are moved into gripping engagement with one of the divided parts of the stack and then retracted to transfer the gripped part of the stack onto the conveyor. Holding members on the conveyor are movable into the gap to hold the paper sheets of the other part of the stack. The conveyor is movable to convey the gripped paper sheets to another sheet accumulating portion. The gripping fingers are again moved to transfer the thus conveyed sheets to the other sheet accumulating portion. Sensors are mounted on the conveyor to determine whether or not the paper sheets to be transferred are directly positioned relative to the sheet transferring members of the sheet accumulating portions and, if not correctly positioned, corrective action is effected in response to the determined incorrect positioning.

Growing community of inventors

Niigata, Japan

Hiroshi Kitahata