Shunt for reversing the conveyance direction of a document

Details Shunt for reversing the conveyance direction of a document Shunt for reversing the conveyance direction of a document

1999-09-24

2001-06-12

Skaggs, H. Grant (Department: 3651)

Sheet feeding or delivering

Feeding

By means to change direction of sheet travel

C271S184000, C271S902000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06244591

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The field of the present invention is transporting sheets in an office machine. More specifically, the invention relates to a shunt for reversing the conveyance direction of a document or the like.
2. Background Art
With office machines such as printers, copiers and the like, it is frequently desirable to reverse the conveyance direction of a document. The document is, for example, a paper sheet or the like provided with recordings. Reversing the document needs to be accomplished such that the document is transported first with its front edge leading, and is then further conveyed with its rear edge leading.
Others have addressed reversing the conveyance of a sheet of paper. For example, it is known from DE 32 17 115 A1 to accept the leading edge of an arriving document with a reversible roller pair whose direction of rotation can be reversed. In front of the reversible roller pair is disposed a pivotable guidance roller. When the document has been pulled in by the reversible roller pair such that the document's rear edge has reached the guidance roller, the direction of rotation of the reversible roller pair is reversed and the guidance roller is pivoted such that the document is steered by the guidance roller into the desired direction for further conveyance with the document's rear edge leading. This known shunt has the disadvantage that a succeeding next document can only be supplied to the reversing roller pair when the preceding document has been completely output by the reversing roller pair. Consequently the shunt hinders the conveyance of the documents and limits the continuity of document conveyance.
In another known example, DE 195 06 181 A1 shows a shunt where a sheet is supplied by front-end rollers to a reversible roller pair whose direction of rotation is reversible. The reversible roller pair accepts the sheet supplied by the front-end rollers and conveys it until the rear edge of the sheet is released by the front-end rollers and has been pulled over a wedge-form shunt element. The direction of rotation of the reversing roller pair is subsequently reversed such that the rear edge of the document is now leading and is transported past the shunt element to the output rollers. As soon as the output rollers have taken hold of the sheet and are conveying it in the output direction, the reversing roller pair is opened such that the next succeeding sheet can be guided by the front-end rollers into the open gap of the reversing roller pair. It is thereby possible to guide the particular succeeding next sheet into the reversing roller pair before the preceding sheet is completely pulled out of the reversing roller pair. The front-end roller and the output roller cooperates with a common pressure roller such that the drawing-in speed of the front-end roller and the output speed of the output rollers are, by necessity, equal. The output speed thereby limits the drawing-in speed of the front-end roller.
Thus, there exists a need for a shunt which makes possible a closer continuity sequence of the conveyed documents.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a shunt for reversing the conveyance direction of a document, the document is completely drawn in by a front-end roller pair and are output again in the opposite direction via a separate output roller pair. After the front-end roller pair, the leading edge of the document is accepted by a reversing roller. After the document is released from the front-end roller pair, the direction of rotation of the reversing roller is reversed. The document is then transported to an output roller pair which continues to transport the document. A pressure roller, which can be pivoted toward the document, holds the document in engagement with the reversing roller. When the reversing roller has conveyed the document such that its rear edge, now leading, has been taken hold of by the output roller pair, the pressure roller can be pivoted away from the revering roller so that a succeeding document, which has already been taken hold of by the front-end roller pair, can be guided between the reversing roller. The pressure roller can thereby be pivoted away. While the output roller pair outputs the preceding document in the opposite direction, the front-end roller pair can already be drawing in the succeeding document.
Advantageously, successive documents can thus overlap preceding documents within the shunt. In such a manner a closer sequential continuity of document conveyance is possible. The output roller pair and the front-end roller pair are independent of one another so that, for example, the output roller pair can guide the document away at a higher velocity than that achieved by the front-end rollers. The shunt thereby does not introduce a delay to document conveyance.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3942785 (1976-03-01), Stange
patent: 4486012 (1984-12-01), Bock et al.
patent: 4699367 (1987-10-01), Russel
patent: 5449164 (1995-09-01), Quesnel et al.
patent: 5449166 (1995-09-01), Lohmann et al.
patent: 5629762 (1997-05-01), Mahoney et al.
patent: 5690325 (1997-11-01), Morimoto
patent: 011 85 994 (1965-01-01), None
patent: 32 17 115 A1 (1983-11-01), None
patent: 195 06 181 A1 (1995-02-01), None

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