Brandt-pra, Inc.

John A DiBlasio

Peter J Loftus

A self-compensating stripper assembly cooperating with a feed roller for separating sheets from a stack and feeding them one-at-a time to facilitate counting, examining and endorsing operations on each individual sheet. Said assembly has a pivotally mounted stripper member positioned upon the free end of a swingable arm. A resilient element urges the swingable arm toward the feed roller and an adjustable stop limits the movement of the stripper assembly toward the feed roller. An additional independent resilient member urges the stripper member toward the feed roller and is yieldable to accommodate changes in sheet thickness. The shape of the stripper member facilitates the stripping operation by shaping the stack of sheets prior to entry into the stripping operation. Separate stops are provided for limiting the pivotal movement of the stripper member about its pivotal mounting.

Self-compensating stripper assembly for document handling and counting

A stacker for handling and counting documents such as, for example, paper sheets, paper currency and the like in which the documents are fed from an input tray through cooperative feeder and stripper assemblies which separate the documents to feed them in a one at a time fashion in a forward feed direction toward acceleration rollers which accelerate the single-fed documents to create a gap between documents moving along the feed path. A gap detector senses the presence of gaps for document counting purposes. An endorser and/or suspect examination detector for examining the authenticity of paper currency may be provided downstream of the first acceleration rollers. The stacker comprises second acceleration rollers cooperating with a guide plate which reverses the direction of movement of the paper documents passing through the endorser station to further accelerate the documents and urge them along a convex guide path and into the pockets of a document receiving stacker wheel assembly which delivers the documents to a stacker tray positioned substantially beneath the infeed stacker to facilitate removal and handling of stacked documents.

Extended stacker

Apparatus for feeding, separating, counting and stacking documents at high speed.

Document counter

Apparatus for feeding, separating, counting and stacking documents at high speed. Documents are stacked in the infeed conveyor and are bottom fed preferably by closed loop belts and an eccentric wheel which continuously jogs the stack. Drive rollers support the closed loop belts which serve to feed the bottom-most documents beneath cooperative stripper means which assures the feeding of only one document at a time towards acceleration rollers and a cooperating platen roller for accelerating documents fed therebetween to provide a gap between succeeding documents to enable a sensor to accurately count the documents. Counted documents are driven from an outfeed location into a stacker having a floor positioned beneath the outfeed location by a distance selected to prevent incoming documents from being interleaved in their improper order and from interfering with the documents being fed into the stacker. The platen roller also serves as a backing roller for endorsing means. The closed loop belts serve to impart rotary driving force from the platen roller to the drive roller and the jogging wheel and also serve as the document drive means during the feeding and stripping operation. The stripping means comprises O-rings entrained about spaced first and second roller assemblies. The acceleration rollers are driven by the platen roller and drive one of the stripper roller assemblies through flexible drive means interconnected by friction drive speed reducing means.

An endorser assembly comprising inking, ink transfer and endorser rolls resiliently mounted within a modular type supporting frame to enable removal and replacement of the entire endorser assembly from paper handling apparatus. The endorser and ink rolls are adapted to be easily removed from and replaced in the supporting frame. The endorser roll is adapted to print variable and semi-permanent graphic data on sheets processed by the document count handling device and may be selectively moved between an engaged and disengaged position without being removed from the proper handling apparatus. The data-bearing surfaces are resilient and raised relative to the endorser roll surface. A backing platen cooperative with the endorser roll is provided with grooves aligned with the data-bearing surfaces to prevent 'back printing' of the processed sheets being endorsed. The variable and/or semi-permanent data-bearing surfaces are 'crowned' in the axial direction of the endorser drum to enable wider 'stripes' of graphic data to be printed on the documents being processed. 'Long' lines of print may be printed on long documents by using at least one additional roller and an elongated closed loop print strip is entrained about the endorser drum and the roller. The drum may be crowned to print wider print lines while avoiding 'back printing'.

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Pennsauken, NJ, United States of America

John A DiBlasio