Claims
- 1. Apparatus for rolling copy sheets into a tubular roll, the apparatus including:
- means for accepting said copy sheets from an output station and for feeding said sheets into a roll-up station, the roll-up station including;
- a cylindrical housing formed by a plurality of curved baffle members having apertures therethrough;
- a plurality of rollers arranged around the circumference of said housing, a portion of the outer surface of said rollers seated in said apertures and extending a short distance into the interior of said housing;
- said rollers adapted to be driven in the same direction whereby, as a sheet is moved into said housing by said feeding means, the sheet is guided by said baffles and urging rollers and would into a tubular form.
- 2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said plurality of curved baffle members comprises a first fixed group of baffle members and a second, pivotable baffle member and said plurality of rollers comprises a first group of fixed rollers and a second group of rollers adapted for pivotal movement in conjunction with said second baffle whereby when said roll-up operation is completed, said pivotable member is pivoted so as to permit the rolled-up output to be removed.
- 3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interior surface of said curved baffle members has a ribbed configuration.
- 4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said rollers are of foam construction.
- 5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein at least one of said baffle members contacts the leading edge of said copy sheet providing a downward guiding force on the sheet causing the sheet to contact a second curved member in a generally tangential direction.
BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART STATEMENT
This application is a continuation-in-part of copending U.S. Ser. No. 075,509 filed on July 20, 1987 and abandoned Feb. 17, 1988. The present invention relates to a device for automatically rolling up large paper sheets and, more particularly, to an apparatus positioned at the output station of a document reproduction machine which guides the output sheets into tubular form by means of a plurality of rollers and baffles.
There are a number of prior art applications wherein the configuration of a flat article, following a manufacturing or production step, is required to be transformed into a tubular form for convenient removal from a work station. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,002,308 and 4,102,512 disclose a roll-up mechanism comprising four rollers which define a center aperture in which cut carpet sections of various lengths are rolled up. U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,191 discloses an apparatus for winding paper material into rolls. The apparatus includes two input rollers and two roll-up stations where the sheets are rolled within a central aperture formed between rolled sets. Upon completing the roll-up operation, the paper rolls automatically fall into a container. U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,073 shows a cluster of rollers which form a space therebetween in which sheets are wound. As the rolled sheet diameter expands, bottom rollers are moved away to allow rolled sheets to be removed.
Document reproduction machines capable of copying up to 36" long engineering drawings are known in the art; the Xerox 2510 copier being one example. The requirements for obtaining a tightly rolled copy of an engineering drawing are very demanding and require a roll-up mechanism which provides rolled-up drawings of exactly the same diameter. The prior art devices which utilize clusters of rollers to define a central rollup area do not require such precise roll-up requirements. The present invention is, therefore, directed towards an apparatus for guiding a large sheet of material into a roll-up area in which the sheet is rolled into a tubular form of precisely defined diameter. More particularly, the invention is directed towards an apparatus for rolling copy sheets into a tubular roll, the apparatus including:
means for accepting said copy sheets from the output station of a document reproduction machine and for feeding said sheets into a roll-up station, the roll-up station including;
a cylindrical housing formed by a plurality of curved baffle members having apertures therethrough;
a plurality of rollers arranged around the circumference of said housing, a portion of the outer surface of said rollers seated in said apertures and extending a short distance into the interior of said housing;
said rollers adapted to be driven in the same direction whereby, as a sheet is moved into said housing by said feeding means, the sheet is guided by said baffles and urging rollers and wound into a tubular form.
US Referenced Citations (10)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 2758143 |
Jun 1979 |
DEX |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
075509 |
Jul 1987 |
|
Patent Grant
4784345
