High speed printed sheet stacking and registration system

Abstract

A sheet stacking and registration system particularly suited for high speed sequentially stacking of the flimsy printed sheets output of a high speed reproduction apparatus in a sheet stacking area, with a stacking registration position; with a vacuum belt sheet transport system acquiring only a limited lead edge area of the sheets and transporting them over the stacking area with non-slip sheet feeding towards the registration position; and an integral system peeling the lead edges of the sheets off of the vacuum transport and guiding them downwardly and towards the lead edge registration position while reducing but partially maintaining the sheet's vacuum acquisition, and applying a normal force, preferably with a roller pressing down the lead edges of the peeled off sheet against the previously stacked sheets adjacent the registration position, to frictionally slow the sheet as it approaches the registration position, and also holding down the sheet after it reaches the stacking position. The sheet transport may have spaced belt flights with spaced patterns of vacuum apertures spaced between substantially unapertured areas along the belts, and a synchronized belt drive to synchronously engage the lead edge areas of the incoming sheets. An upstream natural arcuate inversion path with a side registration system may be integrated therewith.