Sheet-material associating – Associating or disassociating – Sheet associating
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-18
2001-12-25
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet-material associating
Associating or disassociating
Sheet associating
C270S058060, C270S052160, C053S284300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332605
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a document handling device comprising a first endless conveyor, which is arranged to be intermittently driven in a first direction of feed and has drivers to fetch documents at document discharging stations and put them together into sheaves, which documents, downstream of the document discharging stations seen in the direction oL feed, are to be manipulated in sheaves at a first sheaf discharging station, such as a document manipulating unit, in which the sheaves of documents from the first conveyor are inserted into envelopes placed on a second endless conveyor, which is parallel to the first conveyor and driven synchronously therewith.
Such document handling devices are well known and are marketed by several manufacturers. They are used by, for example, insurance companies and banks in order to send documents packed in envelopes, such as insurance statements or statements of account with enclosures, to a large number of customers. However, they are also used more and more frequently by authorities and advertising agencies for dispatches being personally or generally addressed and packed in envelopes.
Especially authorities and advertising agencies sometimes wish to choose some other type of cover, for instance, a plastic sheeting or a folder, instead of an envelope. Then the normal solution has been either a completely manual handling of documents or the operation of a document handling device at a reduced speed, thereby permitting sheaves of documents to be fed without envelopes through the document manipulating unit for the purpose of conveniently taking care of the sheaves of documents after this unit, which have been put together by the document handling device. It is necessary to apply a reduced speed, especially because of requisite lateral movement from the first conveyor to the parallel second conveyor, but when the handled documents, which have been put together into sheaves, are of different sizes, there is a great probability of functional troubles after all. Nor is a satisfactory result achieved when handling documents of the same size since the discharge from the document manipulating unit generally is effected by a gripper, which may leave undesirable marks on the handled sheaves of documents.
In view of that stated above, the object of the invention is to provide a document handling device, which, apart from ordinary document manipulating at a relatively high speed and in a reliable way, can be used at the same high speed and with the same reliability for handling of sheaves of documents in other ways, for instance, for coating with plastics or stapling of such sheaves.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by a document handling device of the type mentioned by way of introduction by the first conveyor being intermittently drivable also in a second direction opposite to said first direction of feed and by a sheaf discharging station, such as a stapling or plastics coating unit, being arranged upstream of the document discharging stations seen in said first direction of feed.
The one skilled in the art realises that the relatively simple step of changing the direction of feed of the first conveyor permits the first sheaf discharging station to be circumvented, which may be, for instance, a document manipulating unit which may cause problems in some other type of document handling other than putting documents into envelopes. Besides, the one skilled in the art realises that the possible reversal of the direction of feed after all makes it possible to use the document discharging stations, and thus to feed sheaves of documents, which have been put together in a desired way, to a second sheaf discharging station, such as a stapling or plastics coating unit.
The two conveyors are preferably driven by one and the same motor, which is arranged to rotate in only one direction of rotation, and the direction of feed of the first conveyor is reversed by means of a gear unit. The use of one and the same motor means great advantages in respect of the synchronisation of the units included and, moreover, it does not constitute any problem at all for the one skilled in the art to carry out the desired reversal of the direction of feed by a conveniently selected gear unit.
The gear unit suitably comprises a drive shaft, which is driven by the motor and which drives on the one hand a first angular gear, the output shaft of which is arranged to drive the first conveyor in said first direction of feed and, on the other hand, a second angular gear arranged-to drive the first conveyor in said second direction of feed, the direction of feed being selectable by means of a clutch at each angular gear, the clutches being synchronised with each other so that engagement of one of them automatically brings about disengagement of the other. It will be appreciated that angular gears with conveniently placed gear wheels allow a simple change of direction and that there are several different types of suitable clutches for the desired automatic engagement and disengagement.
The output shaft of the first angular gear is preferably arranged to be driven together with the second conveyor, and the clutch of the first angular gear acts on a sleeve which is rotatably mounted on the output shaft of said angular gear and by which the first conveyor is drivable. This solution enables the driving of the first angular gear together with the second conveyor permanently and independently of the setting of the clutch. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the document discharging stations also are conveniently driven together with the first angular gear.
A very simple solution is achieved if the clutch of the second angular gear is allowed to act on a sleeve which is rotatably mounted on the output shaft of the angular gear, and on which a first chain wheel is non-rotatably mounted in order to drive a second chain wheel by means of a chain, the chain wheel being non-rotatably mounted on the sleeve on the output shaft of the first angular gear. One of the great advantages of this solution is that it enables the use of the same conveyor whether it is mounted in a document handling device according to the invention, or in a traditional document handling device of the document manipulating device type.
Finally, it will be appreciated that the first and the second conveyor suitably are chain conveyors, which in connection with document manipulating devices constitutes the most common solution.
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Browdy and Neimark
Ellis Christopher P.
Kalmarmailpro AB
Mackey Patrick
LandOfFree
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