Apparatus for intermittently transporting stacks of paper sheets or the

Abstract

An apparatus for transporting several files of spaced-apart stacks of paper sheets has several transporting units, one for each file of stacks, and each such transporting unit has three endless toothed belts which are installed in a frame in parallel vertical planes and carry outwardly extending lobes. The lobes on the two outer belts of a unit engage the rear edge faces and the lobes on the median belt of each unit engage the front edge faces of stacks in the respective files. Each belt is trained over two toothed pulleys and one pulley of each outer belt is driven by a first shaft whereas one pulley of each centrally located belt is driven by a second shaft. The second shaft is driven directly by a stepping motor, and the first shaft is driven by the stepping motor through the medium of a transmission which alternately increases and reduces the speed of the first shaft relative to the second shaft so that the lobes on the outer belts of each unit move away from the lobes of the centrally located belts, while the respective transporting units are in the process of receiving fresh stacks or discharging stacks, to thus ensure that the lobes cannot deface or otherwise damage the sheets of the stacks and that the stacks can be properly transferred onto the respective transporting units even if they are not delivered thereto at regular intervals.