Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi – Bending – Folding
Reexamination Certificate
2003-05-14
2004-08-10
Kim, Eugene (Department: 3721)
Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi
Bending
Folding
C493S419000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06773386
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus for automatically folding paper-like sheets of material, and more particularly, to an apparatus for folding one or more paper sheets into three sections in preparation for mailing in an envelope.
There are many instances in which sheets of paper are to be folded for insertion into envelopes for subsequent mailing. Specifically, it is often desirable to fold one or several letter size sheets into three equal sections for insertion into a standard mailing envelope. It is often important from the viewpoint of efficiency, time saving and minimizing of costs to effect such folding as rapidly and easily as possible.
A variety of machines are known which can accomplish such folding automatically when fed sequentially with individual sheets or sets of sheets of paper. However, such machines tend to be rather complex and expensive, and hence are not best suited for ordinary light office use.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,275 to the same inventor herein, and the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference discloses an automatic paper feeder that overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages. In this patent, the paper is guided into a loop so that the leading edge of the sheet strikes the trailing portion of the paper to create a fold thereat. Then, the leading edge and the folded trailing portion enter a nip between two rollers upon continued feeding of the paper, in order to fold the paper into three sections. However, the force of the leading edge of the sheet against the trailing portion in order to create the fold thereat is the result merely by the feeding of the paper into the device, which may not be entirely satisfactory. In other words, there is no positive forcing of the leading edge into the trailing portion of the sheet, but rather, merely the indirect force due to the initial feed of the paper into the device.
In addition, the device of this patent relies on a paper guide that is spring loaded and which expands against spring pressure, due to the force of the loop of paper, in order to permit additional paper to enter the device, after the leading edge of the sheet strikes its own trailing portion, and then when the leading edge and folded portion enter the nip, the spring pressure exerts a force on the guide to further aid in forcing the sheet further into the nip between the rollers. Again, this is an inexact manner of forcing the paper into the nip. The use of a spring loaded guide also increases the complexity of the device.
Still further, the last part of the paper to enter the nip is the loop of paper that had been guided by the paper guide. As this last loop of paper enters the nip, a second fold is formed. However, as the loop reduces in size and disengages from the paper guide, there is nothing to guide the paper. As a result, problems in the folding of this last loop can occur.
Still further, with the device of this patent, there are often problems with feeding of the paper at the entry port. Specifically, when loading a stack of papers, a plurality of papers will often be carried into the device at the same time, rather than separating the papers to supply them one at a time.
Lastly, there is no structure at the output for guiding and/or holding the folded sheets of paper.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials that overcomes the aforementioned disadvantages.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials in which there is an arrangement for providing a positive force of the leading edge into the trailing portion of the sheet.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials in which the positive force is created by additional driving rollers associated with the leading edge and which are driven by the input drive rollers.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials in which the paper guide is fixed in place in order to simplify the construction.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials in which the same driving rollers associated with the leading edge also function to guide the reduced loop to form the second fold.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials which effectively separates the papers at the entry port to supply them one at a time.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials which includes a paper stocker at the output for guiding and holding the folded papers.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a new and useful apparatus for folding sheets of paper-like materials which is relatively simple, inexpensive and easy to use.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a paper folder for folding a paper-like sheet, includes a housing having an inlet opening for receiving a paper-like sheet and an outlet opening for permitting egress of a fully folded paper-like sheet; an input drive arrangement in the housing which advances a paper-like sheet from said inlet opening into said housing; a fixed guide in the housing which guides said advancing sheet into a loop that turns back upon itself such that a leading edge of said sheet impinges upon a transverse line in a trailing portion of said sheet; an output roller arrangement in the housing which forms a folding nip extending along and adjacent to said transverse line; and a second drive arrangement in the housing in front of said transverse line for positively driving the leading edge of said sheet to impinge upon said transverse line, such that the second drive arrangement continually advances said leading edge against said transverse line in said trailing portion of said sheet to force both said leading edge of said sheet and said transverse line in said sheet into said folding nip in order to form a first creased fold in said sheet extending along said transverse line and containing said sheet leading edge, said second drive arrangement being separate and apart from said fixed guide; whereby, upon further operation, said leading edge of said sheet remains within and travels with said fold as said fold passes through said folding nip, and a remaining portion of said sheet extending in a loop thereafter passes through said folding nip to form a second creased fold, thereby folding said sheet into a fully folded paper-like sheet having three sections and supplying said fully folded paper-like sheet to said outlet opening in said housing.
The second drive arrangement includes a pair of rollers having a nip therebetween for engaging the leading edge and driving the leading edge to impinge upon the transverse line. The pair of rollers includes an idler roller and at least one pinch roller, with each pinch roller being mounted on a shaft which is pivotally movable between a first position in which the pinch roller is in pressure contact with the idler roller to advance the leading edge, and to a second position in which the pinch roller is moved out of the path of the loop in order to permit the loop to enter the output roller arrangement. Preferably, there are two the pinch rollers at opposite sides of the housing for engaging opposite sides of the leading edge. The second drive arrangement further includes a spring associated with each pinch roller for biasing each pinch roller toward the first position, and wherein each pinch roller is moved to the second position by a force exerted by the loop as the loop moves toward the output roller arrangement, against the force of the respective spring. In addition, the second drive arrangement is driven by the input drive arrangement.
Goldberg Richard M.
Kim Eugene
Shap Inc.
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