Pitney Bowes Inc.

Other

Wayne W Pritchett

Alton B Eckert, Jr

Walter J Kulpa

Paul R Sette

Richard A Sloan, Jr

Henry Bleggi

A method and device for reducing the maximum torque to rollers mounted on a drive shaft of a drive roller assembly. By using a plurality of slip clutches, each for engaging an individual roller to the drive shaft and setting a maximum torque for the individual rollers, each roller is coupled to the drive shaft when the tangential force exerted on the roller does not exceed the maximum torque, and each roller is mechanically decoupled from the drive shaft when the tangential force exerted on the roller exceeds the maximum torque. Because each roller has a separate slip clutch, each roller can be mechanically decoupled from the drive shaft without affecting the other rollers coupled to the drive shaft.

Method and apparatus for limiting torque in a feeder

A portable camp stove is disclosed. It consists of a frusto-conical main body, a preheating chamber, and spiral flue chambers. The stove may be placed over a fire in a pit in the earth, or the stove may completely contain a fire within it when its bottom plate and legs are attached. Other accessories of the stove include a stovepipe and oven combination, a water heating system, and a grill and a rotisserie.

Portable camp stove

A ventilating system for a tepee includes an uppermost portion of a wall of a tepee, a substantially horizontally disposed opening defined by a top of the uppermost portion, a support disposed above a center of the opening, and a cone-shaped cap having a vertex, a base and a pivot point located on a top side of the wall, wherein the pivot point is rotatably supported by the support and wherein a bottommost portion of the base, opposite from the pivot point, rests on an outer annular surface of the uppermost portion, such that the cap is rotatable about the support.

Center pole lodge

A power control method and apparatus maintains a constant average power at an electrical load, such as a fuser in an electrophotocopy machine. A power monitor measures the average power delivered to the load and compares the measured power to a predetermined power. A digital network receives an input signal from the power monitor and controls the coupling of power from an ac source to the load. When load power is less than a predetermined level, the digital network couples every half cycle of the ac power source to the load. When the load power is equal to or greater than the predetermined power, the digital network couples every third ac half cycle to the load. As a result, only half cycles of sequentially opposite polarity are coupled to the load.

Average power control apparatus and method

A system for continuously transporting individual articles or a succession of uniformly-spaced articles on a moving conveyor surface through one or more work stations and for providing a warning signal when the normal location of any one of said articles changes relative to said conveyor surface by more than a predetermined permissible distance at a predetermined work station where such changes in spacing are most objectionable or dangerous. The system comprises a pulse-supplying means or machine clock for supplying pulses having a variable frequency proportional to the rate of movement of the conveyor surface, a delay means for providing a conveyor displacement signal when said conveyor surface has moved a predetermined distance and sensing means activated by each of said articles as they travel said predetermined distance to provide an article travel time signal. The system comprises means for comparing the timing difference, if any, between the conveyor travel time signal and the article travel time signal and for providing a warning signal when said signal times vary by more than a variable predetermined amount. According to another embodiment, the present system provides gap detecting means for comparing the web travel signals with the article travel signals for each of the succession of articles to detect the presence of spacing between articles in a particular work station and provide an alternative warning signal which, like the first warning signal, can be used as desired, such as to deactivate the particular work station, or stop the conveyor, or sound an alarm.

Jam-sensing system and apparatus

A solenoid drive circuit to enhance the operation of an alternating current solenoid. The circuit supplies alternating current to the solenoid when its plunger is in an extended position and then switches to a direct current when the plunger is in its home position, thereby eliminating any buzzing due to plunger misalignment or other inherent characteristics of the solenoid or associated mechanism and drawing less power than if it was being held in its home position with alternating current voltage. The invention has wide applicability but is disclosed herein in association with the operation of a fail-safe device, particularly a device to prevent fires from starting in a radiant energy fixer of an electrostatic copying machine in the event of a sudden loss of power.

A.C./D.C. Solenoid drive circuit

A circuit for detecting documents jammed at the entry to an image fixing station in a copier includes a latch-controlled timer. Energization of a paper feed clutch sets the latch to initiate a timing cycle. A photoelectric circuit indicates whether the trailing edge of a document being fed to the image fixing station has cleared the entry. The proper output from this circuit clears the latch and interrupts the timing cycle. If the timer times out before the entry is cleared, the timer output is driven to a jam-indicating state.

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Newtown, CT, United States of America

Wayne W Pritchett