Electrical pulse counters – pulse dividers – or shift registers: c – Applications – Counting animate or inanimate entities
Patent
1995-12-18
1997-12-09
Wambach, Margaret Rose
Electrical pulse counters, pulse dividers, or shift registers: c
Applications
Counting animate or inanimate entities
G06M 700
Patent
active
056968027
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention concerns the counting of sheets, for example of paper, assembled into a stack. In particular, this invention relates to control means for a counting head to advance the head as counting progresses.
A known form of counting apparatus employs a rotor arranged to count the number of sheets in a stack by engaging an edge region of the stack and then, on rotation of the rotor, separating an edge portion of each sheet in turn from the stack and transferring the separated edge portion through a transfer groove to the other side of the rotor. At least one suction port may be provided in the rotor adjacent the transfer groove and through which port air is drawn in a timed relationship to rotor rotation, to assist the separation from the stack of the next sheet edge portion to be counted.
The sheets to be counted are assembled into a stack which is then located on a counting table, and clamped in position, ready to be counted. The edge regions--and usually a corner region--of the stack where counting takes place have to be able to separate to an extent sufficient to enable the rotor to be located between any two adjacent sheets in the stack. Thus, the stack must be clamped sufficiently far back from the region where counting takes place to permit this flexing.
As counting commences and sheet edge portions are transferred from one side of the rotor to the other, the rotor has to move along the height of the stack. In a known form of such counter, the rotor is mounted on a carriage arranged for vertical sliding movement along the height of the stack and which carriage is counter-balanced so that the rotor exerts, under gravity, a relatively small force on the stack. Then, the rotor may be allowed to move along the length of the stack merely by being pushed by the sheets of the stack, on these sheets being transferred from one side of the rotor to the other.
It is also known to mount the rotor for vertical movement on a carriage, there being two limit switches at the permitted extremes of rotor movement with respect to the carriage and a motor drive arrangement to move the carriage when the rotor triggers one limit switch, motor operation being suspended when the rotor triggers the other limit switch. Such motor control gives a varying engagement force between the rotor and the sheets being counted, and in turn this may lead to a lack of reliability in the counting operation.
According to the present invention, there is provided control means for a linearly-movable carriage supporting a counting head arranged to count each sheet in a stack of sheets, which counting head engages an edge region of the stack at one end thereof and then is advanced through the stack on transferring sheets, one at a time, to the other side of the head and generating a count on each said transfer, the counting head being movable with respect to the carriage generally in the direction of movement of the carriage, which control means comprises a motor to effect carriage movement, a linear sensor for the relative position of the counting head with respect to the carriage, and a control circuit for the motor and arranged to cause the motor to run at an appropriate speed having regard to the output of the sensor, whereby the carriage is advanced substantially constantly and at substantially the same rate as the counting head advances along the stack.
The control means of this aspect of the invention provides a linear control for the carriage supporting the counting head. In this way, the carriage may be advanced smoothly and more or less continuously as the counting head advances along the stack and in turn this assures that the force exerted by the counting head on each sheet of the stack, as each sheet is picked up for transfer across the head, is substantially constant.
The sensor employed in the control means of this invention may take any one of a variety of different forms. For example, a linear potentiometer may be employed, or a LVDT. Though a digital sensor, such as an optical encoder, could be employed, the sensor would h
Pelcombe Limited
Wambach Margaret Rose
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