Claims
- 1. An apparatus for delivering signatures to a finishing line comprising:
a frame; a pair of hoppers supported by the frame, each hopper adapted to hold a stack of signatures; a first feeder adapted to extract one signature from the stack of signatures in the first hopper; a second feeder adapted to extract one signature from the stack of signatures in the second hopper; a printer adapted to print on the extracted signature from either the first or second hopper; and a conveyor adapted to transport the printed extracted signatures to the finishing line.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein each hopper holds the stack of signatures in a horizontal orientation.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the first and second feeders include a pickup drum.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the printer includes an ink jet printer.
- 5. A printer feeder for use with a finishing line comprising:
a frame; a plurality of hopper feeders supported by the frame, each of the hopper feeders including a hopper to hold a stack of signatures and a feeder adapted to extract one signature from the respective stack of signatures; a printer supported by the frame, the printer adapted to print on the extracted signatures; and a conveyor supported by the frame and adapted to transport the extracted printed signatures from the printer to the finishing line.
- 6. The printer feeder of claim 5 wherein the printer includes an ink jet printer.
- 7. The printer feeder of claim 5 wherein the plurality of hopper feeders is two hopper feeders.
- 8. The printer feeder of claim 5 and further including a controller programmed to selectively operate the hopper feeders.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/265,887, filed Oct. 7, 2002, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/880,560, filed Jun. 13, 2001, which is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/426,345, filed Oct. 25, 1999.
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09426345 |
Oct 1999 |
US |
Child |
09880560 |
Jun 2001 |
US |
Continuations (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10265887 |
Oct 2002 |
US |
Child |
10764824 |
Jan 2004 |
US |
Parent |
09880560 |
Jun 2001 |
US |
Child |
10265887 |
Oct 2002 |
US |