Sheet feeding or delivering – Delivering – With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
Reexamination Certificate
2002-05-14
2003-10-21
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Delivering
With transfer means between conveyor and receiver
C271S177000, C271S207000, C271S002000, C271S314000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06634639
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This application claims benefit of Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-145544 filed on May 15, 2001, the contents of which are incorporated by the reference.
The present invention relates to a paper sheet stacking apparatus and, more particularly, to a paper sheet stacking apparatus for stacking paper sheets in upright state.
Post offices or the like use paper sheet stacking apparatus for stacking postal matter.
FIG. 7
is a perspective view showing an example of paper sheet stacking apparatus disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 1-132643. As shown, paper sheets
180
are clamped between belts
181
and
182
, and are transported to a space between a support plate
104
and a stacking roller
105
as the belts
181
and
182
undergo excursion. With increase of the paper sheets
190
stacked between the support plate
104
and the stacking roller
105
, the support plate
104
is displaced away from the stacking roller
105
. The paper sheets stacked in the paper sheet stacking apparatus is referred as paper sheet stack.
To the support plate
104
is applied a predetermined force toward the support plate
104
. With the force applied to it toward the stacking roller
105
, it clamps the paper sheet stack
190
between it and the stacking roller
105
, thus supporting the paper sheets
190
to prevent turning-down thereof. The paper sheet stack
190
are stacked such that their stack relays on the support plate
104
. With increase of the stack quantity of the paper sheets
190
a holder slide
107
is displaced along a guide bar
106
.
To apply a predetermined force to the support plate
104
, the holder slide
107
is pulled with a weight or a constant load spring (not shown in FIG.
7
). The constant load spring is one which provides a constant force tending to cause its restoration to the initial length without spring elongation.
With the rotation of the stacking roller
105
, each paper sheet
180
transported to the space between the stacking roller
105
and the support plate
104
is moved until its leading end
180
a
reaches a side plate
103
. The paper sheet stack
190
thus has a neat leading end
190
a
aligned by the side plate
103
.
The apparatus is preferably arranged such that each paper sheet
180
is transported to the space between the stacking roller
105
and the support plate
104
without its leading end
180
a
touching the trailing end
190
b
of the paper sheet stack
190
. To this end, a belt (not shown in
FIG. 7
) is provided on the bottom plate
102
and driven for excursion to have the paper sheet stack
190
pushed against the support plate
104
.
FIG. 8
is a view showing a state that the paper sheet stack
190
is pushed against the support plate
104
by the belt. The belt
191
is provided such as to surround the bottom plate, and undergoes excursion on the top surface of the bottom plate
102
from the side of the stacking roller
105
toward the support plate
104
. The paper sheet stack
190
formed upright on the belt
191
is pushed by the belt
191
against the support plate
104
. Consequently, the leading end
180
a
of each transported paper sheet
180
difficultly touches the trailing end
190
b
of the paper sheet stack
190
and is thus smoothly stacked.
However, in the case of providing the belt
191
on the bottom plate
191
for pushing the paper sheet stack
190
against the support plate
104
, a motor or the like for driving the belt
191
is necessary. To simplify the construction of the paper sheet stacking apparatus, the use of the belt
191
and the motor or the like for driving the belt
191
is undesired.
Besides, the support plate
104
supports the paper sheet stack
190
with a predetermined force applied thereto toward the stacking roller
105
. Since the constant force is applied to the support plate
104
toward the stacking roller
105
, and the support plate
104
supports the paper sheet stack
190
with a constant force irrespective of the increase of the volume of the paper sheet stack
190
. On the other hand, the force, with which the paper sheet stack
190
tends to relay on the support plate
104
, tends to increase with increasing volume of the paper sheet stack
190
. Therefore, when the force of relaying on the support plate
104
by the paper sheet stack
190
exceeds the force, with which the support plate
104
tends to support the paper sheet stack
190
, the support plate
104
can no longer support the stack
190
, thus resulting in turning-down thereof.
When its leading end
180
a
reaches the side plate
103
, the paper sheets
180
are stopped and stacked as the paper sheet stack
190
. On the other hand, the stacking roller
105
is continuously rotated. This means that each stopped paper sheet is in contact with the rotating stacking roller
105
until the next paper sheet is transported. However, less time of contact of the paper sheet with the stacking roller
105
will be preferred.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a paper sheet stacking apparatus capable of stacking paper sheets in the upright state with a simple construction.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a paper sheet stacking device capable of stacking paper sheets in the upright state irrespective of increase of the volume of the stack.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a paper sheet stacking apparatus capable of reducing the time of contact of each paper sheet to be stacked with a rotating member.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a paper sheet stacking apparatus for stacking paper sheets upright comprising: a bottom plate for stacking paper sheets being led upright; a side plate for stopping paper sheets led to the bottom plate; a rotary member rotated to intermittently touch the paper sheets being led and bring the paper sheets to the position of the side plate; a support member facing the rotary member and preventing the paper sheets being led upright from turning down onto the bottom plate; a guide bar, along which the support is moved to change the distance between the support plate and the rotary member; and a spring member pulling the support toward the rotary member; the bottom plate being slanted such that the paper sheets led upright into the apparatus are slanted toward the support.
The spring member provides increasing force tending to restore its initial length with its increasing elongation. With this construction, even with paper sheet stack volume increase, it is possible to prevent the turn-down of the stack which may otherwise occur when the support can no longer support the stack.
In the paper sheet stacking apparatus, a plurality of springs having different spring strengths pull the support toward the rotary member. The apparatus further comprises a stopper for stopping further elongation of the spring having less spring strength from a predetermined elongation, or a stopper disposed such as to determine the position, at which the spring having higher spring strength becomes active when the gravitational force of the stack due to volume increase thereof exceeds the spring strength of the spring having less spring strength. With this construction, when one of the spring members can no longer support the paper sheet stack, that spring member strikes the stopper, and the stack is supported by the other spring member. Thus, it is possible to prevent the turn-down of the stack.
The paper sheet stacking apparatus further comprises a wire having one end tied to the support and the other end secured at a fixed position and a movable pulley with the wire passed thereround, the spring member pulling the support toward the rotary member by pulling the movable pulley.
In the paper sheet stacking apparatus, as a plurality of spring members having different spring strengths are provided, the wire is passed round a plurality of movable pulleys, and each spring member pulls the support toward the rotary member by pulling each movable pulley. The apparatus further
Kikuzato Yasunori
Kuroda Hayato
Kohner Matthew J.
McGinn & Gibb PLLC
NEC Corporation
Walsh Donald P.
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