International Business Machines Corporation

Richard A Lamos

Michael D Avritt

Alfonso A Rosati

Steven R Harding

Robert M Hofland

Roger D Shepherd

Harvey R Markham

Donald C Roller

Paul S Bach

Sherwood Anderson Clay

John Charles Alderson

An improved offset collator comprising a sheet gripper/injector transport station and an oscillating sheet receiving station. Copy sheets are transported to the sheet gripper/injector transport station in a specified sequence whereupon they are gripped by the transport station, and in a reciprocating motion, transported to the oscillating sheet receiving station where they are injected into a stack of sheets and released. The oscillating sheet receiving station is synchronized with transport station such that the copy sheets are inserted in the oscillating sheet receiving station in an alternate offset posture. A cooperating logic control system causes the sheets to be inserted into the oscillating sheet receiving station in the proper order and offset. After offset collation is completed, the offset stapling station then cooperates with the oscillating sheet receiving station to staple sets of sheets still in their offset posture.

Apparatus for collating sheets into sets and finishing thereof

Apparatus shown for feeding documents of selected width singly from a stack in alignment without buckling. Guides are provided at either side of a bin for holding a stack of documents. One guide is fixed and the other adjustable in order that the bin may hold stacks having documents of selected widths. A shingler (combing wheel) shingles the documents forward to a separator/restraint station, which feeds the documents singly. In order to properly align the sheets for separation, the adjustable guide is connected by an adjustment device to the shingler wheel. The adjustment device (e.g., cable and pulley) is arranged to move the shingler wheel half the distance the adjustable guide is moved. This keeps the shingler wheel centered with respect to the documents. The separator/restraint station is positioned so as to always be to the side of the shingler wheel towards the fixed guide to abut each separated sheet against an alignment edge thereof for precise alignment thereof.

Document feed sheet aligner

An apparatus for and a novel method of collating, sorting and stacking sheets, concurrently termed 'offset collation', are disclosed. The first sheets of sets to be collated, numbering up to the desired number of sets in a job, are transported from an entry station to a unitary bin sheet receiving station via a sheet transport station having an arcuate feed path to and through the aforementioned unitary bin sheet receiving station. These first sheets are stacked in the unitary bin sheet receiving station in an alternate offset fashion clearly demarcating the sets to be collated. The second sheets of the aforementioned sets are then sequentially inserted in the same alternate offset fashion contiguous to the first sheets. The method is repeated until all the sheets comprising a set have been inserted into all the sets. The final result is collated, sorted and stacked sets readied for convenient removal from the unitary bin sheet receiving station.

Apparatus for and method of collating sorting and stacking sheets

A document feed mechanism for feeding original documents to a copier imaging station. A bottom feed shingler wheel generates a shingled stack of original documents in a tray having a crowned shape, the tray crest being located forward of the shingler wheel. The shingled stack is supplied to a nip formed by an intermittently operated feed roll and a restraint roll which is rearwardly biased via a magnetic hysteresis slip clutch. The normal force on a sheet in the nip and the rearward bias force of the restraint roll are specifically controlled. The feed and restraint rolls intermittently supply single sheets to an imaging station feed mechanism.

Document feeder

A normal force applicator and removal apparatus which applies, varies and removes force applied to the top of a document stack where documents are being fed, i.e., by a shingler wheel type document feeder, (also termed combing wheel or wave generator) in order to generate a shingled stack of documents for subsequent processing. The shingler wheel is adjustable so that it can be centered for document stacks of multiple lengths. In order to shingle documents at a practical and predictable rate, i.e., maintain a shingled stack of documents, and to avoid skewing of the documents as they are shingled, the normal force is varied as a function of the thickness of the document stack decreasing as the document stack is depleted, and the normal force is applied symmetrically from the center of the shingler wheel to either side thereof. This symmetrical force distribution is maintained throughout the range of adjustment of the shingler wheel.

Apparatus for applying, varying and removing a normal force in a

A document feeder system, interfaced with a copier system having, inter alia, a semi-automatic document feeder (SADF), an automatic document feeder (ADF) a document queue, and an associated logic control system that allows the suspending of a prior task being run on either of the foregoing document feeders and the commencing of a subsequent or urgent task on any one of the other foregoing document feeders immediately thereafter. Thus, when an urgent task operator selects a feeder suspending/commencing mode button, a single control panel is instantly made available so that the urgent task copy quantity and feature selections can be made. After the foregoing is accomplished, the single copying of the prior task original document on the document viewing glass is completed and the document stored in the document queue or ejected into a prior task exit pocket. Then the chosen urgent task feeder is enabled for feeding. In addition, the prior task status is retained for recall without having to reformat the single control panel. Accordingly, when the urgent task is completed, the urgent task operator de-selects the feeder suspending/commencing mode button thereby causing the copy quantity and feature selections of the prior task to be re-entered into the single control panel and the prior task to be immediately re-commenced without further operator intervention.

Document feeder system having a suspending/commencing mode

Sheets are delivered to receptacles by a traveling distributor which includes an incrementally movable carriage. A continuous loop belt or belts such as in a vacuum plenum transport convey the sheets to the carriage where a roller arrangement on the carriage diverts the belts and thus the sheets into a direction in alignment with the receptacles. The rollers then divert the belt away from the receptacles so that the sheets continue into the receptacles. The rollers are mounted so as to place the belt or belts in tension during normal operation but are movable to relieve the belt tension to facilitate paper removal from the belt in jam clearance procedures.

Jam clearance mechanism for a traveling distributor in a collating system

Collator for use with an electrophotographic apparatus or the like

A paper hold-down device for a sheet collecting and stacking apparatus comprising a sheet hold-down arm disposed at the entrance to the apparatus for holding down the trailing edge of the stack at the entrance while the next sheet is fed onto the stack. A cam is fixed to a moving sheet feeding mechanism and acuates the hold-down arm as the feeding mechanism moves into alignment with the entrance to the apparatus. A spring is connected to the arm for returning it to its original position as the sheet feeding mechanism moves away from the entrance thus allowing the sheet that was just fed to join the others in the stack.

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Boulder, CO, United States of America

Richard A Lamos