Sheet-material associating – Associating or disassociating – Sheet associating
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-17
2001-12-11
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet-material associating
Associating or disassociating
Sheet associating
C270S058150, C270S058110, C399S410000, C271S294000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328299
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In the office environment, it is often desirable to provide a machine which can function to sort the output from a copier or printer into trays to which the sheets may be serially fed for collation or randomly fed for mailboxing, or in the case of digital copying or printing, for receiving the sets in collated fashion.
Typically, sorting mailbox machines may be provided with fixed receiving trays to which the sheets are supplied either serially or randomly for mailboxing purposes, as for example, shown in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,938,194 granted Aug. 17, 1999 and other prior art patents, which, in a generic sense, function to receive sheets of paper fed from the printer or copier to a moving inlet feed path which is vertically displacable or to a feed path which includes gates for deflecting sheets from the feed mechanism into the trays.
On the other hand, as represented by Lawrence U.S. Pat. No. 4,843,434 granted Jun. 27, 1989, the sheets may be fed to trays which are opened by a moving bin opener which may be vertically positioned to open a selected tray and the infeed moves with the bin opener.
Various other examples of sheet receiving, sorting or mailboxing machines are known for selectively receiving the output from the sheet printing or copying apparatus. Canon U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,340 granted Jan. 31, 1995 and Lawrence U.S. Pat. No. 5,649,695 granted Jul. 22, 1997 disclose examples of paper receiving or stacking devices which assemble and finish a stapled set of sheets by means which in a preliminary stage, assembles the trailing ends of the sheets on a shelf while the leading ends of the sheet are otherwise supported.
In the Canon structure, the set of sheets is supported at its trailing end on a fixed shelf from which the assembled set is pushed to a receiver.
In the Lawrence structure, the assembled set of sheets is gripped and moved to a finishing station after accumulation of the trailing ends of the sets on a movable shelf.
My pending application, Ser. No. 078,202, filed May 14, 1998 is co-owned herewith and discloses a stacker with which are associated a binding station and a stapling station. In that application there is also disclosed a shelf which receives the trailing ends of sheets being accumulated for processing at either of the binding or stapling stations, wherein the shelf is allowed to pivot downwardly to drop the trailing ends of the accumulated set of sheets.
In my pending application, Ser. No. 280,599, filed Mar. 29, 1999, co-owned herewith, there is disclosed a stapling stacker in which the trailing ends of the sheets fed through are supported on an L-shaped shelf, while the leading ends of the sheets are supported on a previously stacked set, wherein the sets are side edge aligned, stapled and offset with respect to previously stapled sets, and the shelf is then pivotally dumped to deposit the set on the stacker or on the previously stacked sets.
None of these prior patents addresses the need for being able to finish or staple the sets in an apparatus of the type in which the receiving trays are vertically movable past a sheet inlet by operating cam structures as illustrated for example, in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,902 granted Oct. 26, 1993. In this patent, a set of trays can be successively moved upwardly or downwardly by means including a pair of spiral cams rotatable by a pair of shafts. As is well known, if the cams are controlled to be rotated in a selected direction at selected times, the trays will function to receive sets of sheets in addressed fashion, i.e., as a mailbox.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention addresses the need for an apparatus which is useful as a sorter but more particularly as a mailbox in which the sheets are supplied from a fixed inlet position to vertically movable trays operated by cam mechanisms which support the trays at opposite sides thereof to vertically move the trays, wherein the trays are configured in such a way as to enable, if desired, finishing of the sets of sheets, as by stapling, and wherein the trays are each provided with a shelf on which the sets of sheets are assembled at their tailing ends, while the leading ends of the sets are supported on the tray, wherein a stapler is movable to a position to insert a staple in the trailing end of the set while the trailing end is on the shelf, and subsequently to stapling, if stapling is desired, the set is pushed from the shelf at its trailing end and moves downwardly to rest at the lower end of the tray with which the shelf is integrated.
With such a construction the sets are finished or stapled and then moved upwardly or downwardly as may be required for sorting or random opening for mailboxing.
The unique configuration of the tray with an integral shelf from which the sets are displaced following stapling particularly enables the present apparatus to function well as a mailbox in that the trays may be randomly vertically shifted upwardly or downwardly depending upon the mailbox address of the respective trays.
Other features and objectives of the invention will become apparent or will be hereinafter described with reference to the drawings forming a part hereof.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5098074 (1992-03-01), Mandel et al.
patent: 5125634 (1992-06-01), Lawrence
patent: 5201517 (1993-04-01), Stemmle
patent: 5236189 (1993-08-01), Ikoma
patent: 5984299 (1999-11-01), Hirota et al.
patent: 10-258957 (1998-09-01), None
patent: 2001-48410 (2001-02-01), None
patent: 2001-106423 (2001-04-01), None
Ellis Christopher P.
Gradco (Japan) Ltd
Mackey Patrick
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