Handling: hand and hoist-line implements – Contact lens applicator
Utility Patent
1998-05-19
2001-01-02
Kramer, Dean J. (Department: 3652)
Handling: hand and hoist-line implements
Contact lens applicator
C081S488000
Utility Patent
active
06168218
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to the operation and use of high-speed document processing systems, and particularly to means of alleviating and avoiding problems common to the everyday operation of such systems. Particular attention is given to means which permit the operators of such systems to resolve problems integral to their operation without recourse to costly and time-consuming skilled technical personnel, and while avoiding damage to delicate areas by the intervention of unskilled personnel and/or crude implements.
Background, Features
Workers in the field of high-speed document processing (e.g. the sorting of back checks and like financial instruments), know that the art involves using of machines and systems to move and, en route, process documents at sustained rates of thousands of documents per minute, while performing multiple and inter-related operations upon each document as it travels. Such operations might include (but are not limited to) printing on a document (e.g. by contact, dot-matrix, or ink-jet means), reading data previously encoded thereon, recording an archival image of the document by photographic or electronic imaging processes.
Workers will further understand that documents moving through such machines must be very accurately positioned in order to process them accurately. For example, if a document carries a previously encoded line of magnetic characters (known in the art as MICR characters) and the machine is equipped to read and decode such characters, then the machine must present the document to such reading system in correct alignment and position. Other machine systems have similar requirements for correct and reliable alignment and positioning of documents passing through.
Workers will further understand that document-processing now mandates the use of continuous-feed machines, in which the documents are fed in a continuous stream, and at very high speed; with only negligible gaps between them—otherwise the processing rates presently required by customers could not be achieved. As an example, the Unisys DP1800 is a high-speed document processing machine which, will fee 1800 standard documents per minute at a nominal track speed of 300 inches per second (ips) (7.62 meters per second), with an inter-document gap of as little as 3 inches (75 millimeters) which corresponds, given nominal track speed, to an inter-document interval of a mere one-hundredth of a second (10 milliseconds).
Workers will understand that such brief inter-document intervals do not allow a document to be individually aligned and adjusted relative to any process station; rather, it must be kept properly aligned as it passes the stations at all times. Even in “slower” machines (e.g. the Unisys DP500, with a nominal track speed of 100 ips or (2.54 meters per second) the interval between documents is still too brief to permit individual alignment.
Workers will also understand that such document speeds and feed rates requires special transport means: typically high-speed special transport friction-drive rollers and belts, serially arranged to drive the document from point to point. The documents are typically trapped between opposed sets of such rollers and belts, and constrained from distortion by flanking walls. Various process stations are then mounted along said walls, so the walls must be constructed and adapted to permit said process stations to operate upon the passing documents. The need for such transport means and associated track walls is essentially independent of the speed of the document; e.g. they are required in machines of “moderate” speed (e.g. the Unisys DP30, with a nominal track speed of 15 ips (or 0.38 meters per second) as they are in such high-speed machines such as the Unisys DP1800.
Machines here contemplated are designed along these lines, with one convenient construction characterized by a narrow vertical track channel, with walls whose height approaches that of the documents (vertical height); e.g. the order of 4 inches (100 millimeters). Such track walls typically include apertures of various shapes and sizes to permit the driving means (rollers, belts and so on) to drivingly-contact documents in the track. While the track is preferably straight for ease of construction and best document flow, it may also include turns and corners. One finds that good, consistent feeding and driving of documents is obtained if the channel has a very small lateral width relative to its height. Optimal track width will usually vary with document speed. As an example, the nominal track width of the DP1800 product, with a track speed of 300 ips, it 0.10 inches (2.5 millimeters). At lower speeds, narrower track widths may be employed, with consequent improvement in document handling and alignment. As speeds increase, the track width must be increased somewhat, since the increased kinetic energy of the document makes it more likely to jam if the track is too narrow. Workers will readily understand the “trade-off” which must be made between optimal document alignment and consistent document feeding and transport.
Context of the Invention
Such a construction, however, tends to bring problems of operations and service which are different to anticipate. Even though document process rates are increasing, still customers require ever-better machine reliability. Of course, the impact of an unscheduled stoppers, such as a jam in the track, becomes proportionally greater. Jams and other track disruptions are typically very destructive events, because the machine cannot be stopped quickly enough to avoid driving follow-on documents into the jam-site. The result is typically the destruction of documents, which are crushed, folded and torn; also the machine may be rendered unserviceable for extended periods while the track is cleared and the involved documents accounted for.
Thus, workers agree that jams in a document transport must be prevented; so extensive engineering effort is expanded to minimize their occurrence. However, as document feed-rates rise, and as the nature and quality of the documents to be processed becomes more and more varied, jams continue to happen—so one's attention is turned to ensuring that recovery from the occasional jam is as swift and non-disruptive as possible and that it poses minimal risk of damage to the machinery.
Jams are generally caused by a “discrepant document” (e.g. torn, folded or otherwise mutilated), or by associated foreign objects attached to, or entrained with, a document (such as staples and paper clips). No matter how vigilant a machine-operator may be in inspecting documents before they are fed, the sheer volumes handled ensure that occasionally a jam will occur; and, once it does, workers want the operator to be able to clear the jam, retrieve the documents, remove any debris from the track and restart the machine as quickly as possible. This is a general object hereof.
In the past, workers have conventionally met this need by constructing and adapting the document track as to make one or other of the track walls hinged or otherwise quickly demountable, and so allow an operator to open-up the track and access jam-documents, etc. This technique offers varying degrees of success—in some cases, the operator has extensive, adequate access to a track and its contents, but in many other cases, access is limited (e.g. blocked by machine parts such as a read element). And, this technique may require that not only the track walls but also the driving rollers and belts be made hinged or demountable in like manner. This tends to make the mechanisms unduly complex, costly and more prone to failure. Further, some track elements cannot be so constructed; e.g. when they involve integral functions such as print heads, optical heads, magnetic read heads. Nevertheless, the technique of hinged and/or demountable track sections is a valuable one which artisans use whenever appropriate.
However, there are cases where it cannot be employed—typically in and around a machine process station. These cases are becoming more numerous as cust
Gearns Kimberly A.
Raupp Thomas L.
Spall J. Michael
Adornato Rocco L.
Kramer Dean J.
Samuels Steven B.
Starr Mark T.
Unisys Corporation
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