Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
Patent
1990-03-30
1992-03-10
Skaggs, H. Grant
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
271207, 414770, 211 50, B65H 2900
Patent
active
050944410
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention concerns a device to turn over sheets of paper one by one as they issue from an automatic page-output slot, in particular, the output slot of a page-at-a-time printer connected to a computer, for example, a laser printer.
Most present-day word-processing software packages with which micro-computers are equipped do not permit printing a document starting with the last page. Furthermore, at the printer's output slot, the printed sheet of paper comes out with the printed side on top. Therefore, after printing a text of several pages, one must sort the pile of pages when the printing has finished in order to put the pages in the right order.
Therefore, manufacturers have sought ways to turn over pages as they issue from the printer before being piled, so that they will be piled with the unprinted side upward. Then all that is necessary to obtain a text in the right order is to turn over the whole pile of pages.
One solution, adopted in particular by a manufacturer of laser printers using the trade name AGFA, consists of making a paper-reception bin at the output slot. The bin has three panels facing the slot. The first is vertical, the second forms an obtuse angle with the vertical panel, and the third forms an obtuse angle with said second panel. The bin is placed under the printer's output slot so that the edge of each sheet of paper coming out of the printer is stopped by the second (inclined) panel. Then the sheet pivots until its printed side leans against the vertical panel. Then the sheet slides onto the third (inclined) panel which serves as a platform for the pile of paper.
Such a system has the inconveniences of being not very reliable, not being adaptable to various types of paper and printers, and of restricting the paper-reception capacity of the printer-output bin.
Thus the present invention is a device to turn over pages below a printer's output slot, a device that is independent of the reception bin or the printer's page-output slot, that is adaptable to various types of paper and/or printers, and that is less costly.
The main characteristic of the present invention is that the device swings back and forth. It is attached under the automatic page-output slot to assure that the pages are turned over one at a time. This device is characterized by consisting essentially of wire, preferably of metal, bent to have two "arms" swinging in the same plane under said output slot, of two side sections in the approximate shape of an "S", and a mid-section with the approximate shape of a "U". The ends of the "U"-shaped section are linked to the respective ends of the lower bend of each "S"-shaped section.
Using metal wire shaped to guide and turn over each page reduces the cost of such a device greatly, and takes advantage of the device's lightness to help the page to turn over with a swinging movement. It also enables limiting friction between the page and the device because of the very slight contact surface.
One particularly advantageous variety of the device included in this invention is a counterweight to adjust how much the device is inclined from the vertical, and a means to adjust the distance (spread) between the ends of each "S"-shaped section; said means consists of a "V"-shaped section between the two bends of each "S"-shaped section. One side of the "V"-shaped section has catches to hold a spread-adjustment ring in a determined position.
Thus a device for turning over sheets of paper is obtained that is particularly simple to manufacture and that can be adapted to various types of papers and/or printer.
We shall now describe in greater detail a particular variety of the invention that will better explain the essential characteristics and the advantages. It should be understood, however, that this variety has been selected as an example and that the invention is by no means limited to this. Its description is illustrated by the appended drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 shows a side view of the part of a printer including the output slot for printed sheets, equipped with a device
REFERENCES:
patent: 2363490 (1944-11-01), Avery
patent: 3904192 (1975-09-01), Pfeifer et al.
patent: 4220323 (1980-09-01), Smith
patent: 4671503 (1987-06-01), Uemori
Jenkins, Sheet Flip Enhancer, 12-80, pp. 2635-2636, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin vol. 23 No. 7A.
Druzbick Carol Lynn
Skaggs H. Grant
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