Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-03
2001-09-25
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
C271S302000, C271S303000, C271S902000, C399S374000, C399S364000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293542
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS, IF ANY
None.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART
The present invention relates to the transport of individual cut sheets of flat flexible media such as paper, vellum, transparencies or the like through a transport path which may have various branches for the delivery of sheets such as printed sheets of media from an input location to a desired location. For the purposes of illustration but not limitation, the invention will be described in the context of a document scanning apparatus having a sheet transport path which extends from a stack of document sheets to be scanned to and through a scanning location to a scanned document location where the scanned sheets are stacked. More particularly, the invention is concerned with the guiding and movement of sheets in a scanning apparatus or printer capable of duplex scanning or printing wherein one side of a media sheet is first scanned or printed and then, if desired, the individual sheets may then be turned over and routed back to the scanning or printing region for scanning or printing the other side of the sheet. The teachings of the invention are applicable generally to any office or business machine in which flexible media sheets must be moved to selected paths.
As used herein, the term “sheet processing apparatus” is therefore intended to broadly include, but not necessarily be limited to, printers, stand alone document copiers, facsimile machines, document scanning machines and combinations of such units.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a method of processing sheet media in a sheet processing apparatus comprising the steps of:
a) moving individual media sheets from a first location to a processing location in said sheet processing apparatus;
b) processing a first face side of a media sheet at said processing location;
c) moving said sheet from said processing location into a sheet guide channel in a pivotally mounted active gate extending across a media path;
d) rotating a sheet transport roller in a selected direction to cause said roller to frictionally engage and pivotally move said gate to a first position in which said guide channel is aligned with one of two nips extending to spaced sheet delivery paths; and
e) gripping said sheet in a selected one of said nips and rotating said transport roller in a direction to transport said sheet away from said processing location through said guide channel into one of said spaced sheet delivery paths.
In apparatus terms, the present invention comprises a sheet media processing apparatus which includes:
a) a sheet media input support;
b) a sheet media processor;
c) a processed sheet media support;
d) sheet guides defining a media transport path extending from said input support past said processor to said processed sheet media support;
e) sheet transport means for moving individual media sheets along said path; and
f) an active sheet routing gate and drag clutch which includes a sheet routing channel which is moveable in said media transport path in a space between an input and first and second output branches; said sheet transport means including a driven sheet transport roller and a power drive for rotating said transport roller in opposite directions to move said leading edge of said sheet along a selected output branch, said gate and drag clutch being engaged with said transport roller to move said sheet routing channel to extend from said input toward a selected one of said first and second output branches.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4660963 (1987-04-01), Stemmle
patent: 4699367 (1987-10-01), Russel
patent: 4883266 (1989-11-01), Fujii
patent: 5016061 (1991-05-01), Tashiro et al.
patent: 5093690 (1992-03-01), Ohno et al.
patent: 5131649 (1992-07-01), Martin et al.
patent: 5181714 (1993-01-01), Yamagishi et al.
patent: 5201517 (1993-04-01), Stemmle
patent: 5430536 (1995-07-01), Fullerton et al.
patent: 5784680 (1998-07-01), Taruki
patent: 5887868 (1999-03-01), Lambert et al.
Deuble Mark A.
Ellis Christopher P.
Hewlett--Packard Company
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