Brandt-pra, Inc.

Brandt, Inc.

Other

Union Camp Corporation

Peter J Loftus

John A DiBlasio

William Sherman, Iii

Stephen J Horvath

John M Mitchard

John M Reed

Apparatus for counting and stacking sheets in which document length and multiple fed sheets are detected by examining sheet transmissivity. The light directed through moving sheets fed one at a time through a sensor location is modulated according to sheet transmissivity. The signal for each sheet is compared against the signal for the prior sheet to determine the feeding of multiple sheets. Sheet length is determined through the use of a pair of sensors which provide for counting of sheets which may be fed in a skewed manner. A skew value is used to modify the value obtained when measuring document length to permit accurate counting of both skewed and unskewed sheets. Both hardware and software techniques are utilized to obtain the desired results.

Document handling and counting apparatus

Sheets moving in a feed direction and arranged at spaced intervals are fed through nips arranged to rollingly engage opposing sides of the sheet, each nip being formed by a roller rotating about a fixed axis and a cooperating swingably mounted roller. Resilient adjustable biasing means urges an assembly upon which the swingably mounted roller is pivotally mounted, as well as an arm forming part of the pivotally mounted roller assembly, in a first direction. A sensor is positioned adjacent the free end of said arm. Sheets moving through said nip cause displacement of said pivotal assembly against the biasing force in accordance with the thickness of the sheet passing through the nip. The biasing means comprises a thick, and accurate resilient element designed to permit the roller assembly to follow even abrupt thickness changes rapidly and accurately without experiencing overshoot or undershoot. The sensor senses the position of a field generating element mounted upon the free end of said arm to provide a signal representative of the size and direction of the displacement. The output signals developed during the passage of a sheet through said nips are compared against a threshold. The sensors are periodically examined to provide an offset signal for automatically compensating for changes in output signal strength due to changes in temperature, the new zero offset being generated during the time that no sheet, is passing between the aforesaid nips. The offset signal is combined with the sensor signal to provide a compensated sensor signal which is then compared with a reference level representing a predetermined thickness.

Method and apparatus for detecting abnormal thickness conditions such as

A limpness detector for examining documents at high speed. A pair of rollers having star-like cross-sectional configurations comprised of substantially V-shaped projections and interspaced V-shaped grooves are cooperatively arranged so that the projections of one of said rollers at least partially enter into the grooves of the other. The rollers are rotated in a synchronous manner. One swingably mounted roller is preferably yieldably urged toward the other. Documents to be examined are fed between the rollers and, depending upon their relative limpness or stiffness, serve to 'lift' the swingable roller such that the amount of displacement between the rollers is a function of document limpness. Sensor means is utilized to detect the amount of displacement. Threshold detection circuitry is provided to facilitate calssification of the documents into limp, moderately stiff and stiff documents, for example. The apparatus may also be utilized to detect the presence of overlapping and/or multiply-fed documents.

Limpness detector for documents and the like

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'.

Endorser assembly and drum therefor

Apparatus and method for laminating a liner to a box blank in which a shuttle arrangement is provided to alternately pick up and place liners and blanks in proper registration for lamination. Such apparatus and method includes a shuttle arrangement with a unique vacuum cup suspension system for picking up such liners and blanks and a glue spray station which applies the glue to the liner.

Growing community of inventors

Levittown, PA, United States of America

Peter J Loftus