Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – Multiple supplies
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-08
2001-09-25
Skaggs, H. Grant (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
Multiple supplies
C271S009120, C271S009130
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293536
ABSTRACT:
The present invention is directed to a paper feeder for a single sheet printer. The invention is also directed to an additional paper output as well as the common arrangement thereof together with a paper feeder.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In larger single sheet printers of a type which my be encountered in nearly all offices, a paper feeder includes a paper output having a plurality of compartments, for example four compartments, with acceptance capacities of, for example, 500 through 2000 sheets that can be selected via a controller. Differently colored sheets of paper having different pre-printed and different formats, for example, as forms, can thus be stacked in the individual compartments, and are retrieved as desired. Due to the low number of compartments, however, the different sheets of paper available for selection is limited.
Several or all of the can also be filled with the same flat paper and can be selectively driven respectively after emptying the preceding compartment, so that the capacity of the single sheet printer exceeds that of a single compartment in this way. The total capacity, however, is limited to a few thousand sheets of paper in any case.
What is referred to here as “a sheet of paper” is any printable, cut web; it is usually composed of paper but, for example, could also be composed of printable and adequately heat-resistant plastic.
Since refilling the compartments with paper sheets is time-consuming, one aim is to increase the capacity of the compartments. Further, a present job may possibly be interrupted by the refilling operation which may, potentially cause a fault in the print job.
Single sheet printers having an original document storage are also known that automatically print a preselectable number of copies for every sheet of the original, these copies in turn being sorted at the output. It can occur that a single print job requires a multiple refilling of the compartments.
Due to intensifying market trends toward higher functionalities in printers such as, for example, print of jobs with different papers, personalized printing matter with pre-printed color applications and the like, the number of input compartments is still not adequate given currently available paper output means.
Additionally, manual interventions in the printing operation by the operating personnel are therefore either required to a greater extent or a correspondingly dimensioned, automatic sheet feeder unit, referred to as a feeder, must be provided, but this also has only a limited capacity. Due to ever-increasing advances into what is referred to as the POD segment (printing on demand), the demands with respect to the individual job sizes are also becoming more stringent.
In some fields, moreover, so many different sheets of paper are printed that, preceding many printing procedures, it is necessary to first remove the paper located in one of the compartments and introduce a different paper. A frequent change in the existing paper input compartments is also necessary, this in turn resulting in a high handling outlay.
In addition to this, the paper which has been removed is often no longer properly stored but often simply placed aside in such a way that it can be damaged in that, for example, some sheets are crumpled. When such sheets are subsequently reintroduced into a compartment of the printer, a paper jam can occur or, on the other hand, a printed copy that does not meet the gualdy demands is output.
It would also be possible to equip the single sheet printer with a paper output means that is larger in conformity with the print volume requirements either from the very outset or by way of retrofitting, this paper output means having many having compartments or compartments of a larger paper acceptance capacity. Insofar as new devices are equipped with an enlarged paper output means that many customers do not need, they are too expensive for these customers; the same is true of that case wherein many different single sheet printers are offered with different paper acceptance capacity since the number of units of every individual printer would be too low in this case.
Retrofitting offers possibility that a single sheet printer can grow along with the print volume requirements; however, retrofitting also generally involves considerable work outlay. Additionally, the previous paper output means which has been replaced by retrofitting is usually no longer usable, so that the retrofitting as well being time-consuming overall is also very cost-intensive.
Various paper feeder means to which further paper output devices can be connected are known for increasing the capacity of processing devices such as printers or copiers. Thus, Xerox Disclosure Journal, Volume 18, No. 16, Nov. 16, 1996, page 617, writes [sic] an expandable paper feeder means for a printer that has a paper output means with a plurality of separately drivable sheet deliveries in which the single sheets to be printed are kept on hand. One of the sheet deliveries is directly connected to the printer independently of the other sheet deliveries and can be replaced by an independent conveyor means to which an additional paper output device can be connected.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,552 discloses a paper feeder means for a single sheet copier that has an upper paper output device with two compartments for keeping single sheets on hand as well as a lower paper output device with a further compartment for single sheets. A shunt, to whose two branches the two paper output devices and [sic] are connected is provided in the single sheet copier. The two paper output devices can be optionally driven by the single sheet copier. In order to increase the capacity of the single sheet printer, the lower paper output device additionally has a separate conveying path that is likewise connected to the shunt and to which an additional paper output device can be optionally connected.
Given this known paper feeder means, two separate acceptance points that are merged in the shunt are fashioned at the single sheet copier for the two paper output devices, so that the copier must be designed in a correspondingly involved manner. Further, each paper output device must be individually driven and the conveyor devices provided in the shunt must be designationally activated or, respectively, deactivated, as a result whereof the control outlay of the copier is likewise increased. Further, the separate conveying path for the additional paper output device formed in the lower paper output device is not merged with the actual conveying path of the lower paper output device until inside the copier. At the interface to the lower paper output device, consequently, the shunt is connected both to the conveying path of the lower paper output devices as well as to the separate conveying path of the additional paper output device and must thus be fashioned in a correspondingly involved manner.
An object of the invention is to specify a paper feeder means that is simply constructed and to which additional paper output devices can be connected without great outlay.
This object is achieved by a paper feeder means having the features according to patent claim
1
.
In the invention, the paper output device of the paper feeder that has only a single conveying path with which it is connected to the single sheet printer, so that the interface to the paper output device fashioned at the printer can be correspondingly simply fashioned. For connecting the single sheet printer to an additional paper output device, the conveying path in the first paper output device has a branching portion that leads to a paper sheet acceptance station to which the additional paper output device can be connected. The additional paper output device quasi-represents only a further compartment for the acceptance of single sheets that is connected to the single sheet printer by the conveying path of the first paper output device and the branching portion. Further, the control of the paper output is simplified by this type of paper delivery since only the sequence
Boehmer Georg
Dietl Joseph
Hahn Hans
Heller Bernward
Mugrauer Hubert
Qce Printing Systems GmbH
Schiff & Hardin & Waite
Skaggs H. Grant
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