Method to accommodate a large capacity of sheets in a feeder mechanism

Abstract

The sheet capacity of a pivoting feed head is combined with a complimentary pivoting design for the paper tray lift, such that a large total capacity of sheets is attained within a compact space, while allowing the lifting mechanisms to be located outside of the perimeter of the paper tray.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and together with the general description given above and the detailed description of the preferred embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention. As shown throughout the drawings, like reference numerals designate like or corresponding parts.

FIG. 1 is a drawing of a two feeder high capacity tray system showing tray and feed head arrangements;

FIG. 2 is a drawing of the tray lift mechanism showing the tray fully retracted, and loaded to a full capacity with sheets; and

FIG. 3 is a drawing of the feed system 9 in the configuration of a empty tray.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

In describing the present invention, reference is made to the drawings, wherein similar reference numerals in FIG. 1 designate similar elements in the various views.

In FIG. 1 the pivoting feed head is shown in a two feeder tower arrangement. Each feeder has a pivoting tray mechanism and a tray lift mechanism. The lift mechanism as shown in the upper feeder is fully lowered and the feed head nudger rests on the stack of sheets. Sheets may be paper sheets, envelopes, inserts made of paper or other materials, booklets, etc. The feed head is free to pivot counter clockwise and feed sheets from the stack as demanded by the control system. The lower feeder is shown in a configuration in which the tray lift mechanism has communicated through a linkage to lift the feed head off the stack of sheets. The configuration shown enables easy user loading of the tray and is made possible by the co-location of the tray lift mechanism and the feed head in the feeder tower.

Referring now to the drawings in detail and more particularly to FIG. 1, feed system 10 is shown in a ready to feed paper state while feed system 9 is shown in a ready to load paper state. The reference characters 11 and 12 respectively represent a lower feed tray assembly and an upper feed tray assembly of feed systems 9 and 10. Feed tray assembly 11 has the same components as feed tray assembly 12. Feed tray assembly 11 includes a base 20 which is attached to feed tower 13. Tray assembly 11 also contains a pivoting paper support 21 which pivots about an axis 22. Axis 22 is perpendicular to the orientation of FIG. 1. Assembly 11 also contains paper guides 23, i.e., adjustable side walls, which locator paper 14 along axis 22. Paper guides 23 cover less than one half the length of tray assembly 11, which facilitates the loading of paper 14 into the tray load end 17. The paper 14 is shown resting on paper support 21 and is aligned against a tray loading surface 24 and a feed loading surface 41.

The tray assembly 11 contains a fixed cover 25 which slopes downward from the tray feed end 16 to the tray load end 17.

FIG. 2 is a drawing of the feed system in a configuration equivalent to that of the upper feeder shown in FIG. 1.

The paper support 21 is lifted by a paper lift arm 51 that pivots about an axis 52 that is perpendicular to the orientation of FIG. 1. As the paper lift arm 51 is rotated clockwise about the axis 52, the pivoting paper support 21 is lifted upward by the rolling bearing lift member 53 of arm 51. The articulation of arm 51 occurs via the paper support life cam surface 76 thru the cam lift member 54 of arm 51.

The head life arm 81 pivots about an axis 80 and is displaced by the feed cam lift surface 77 when the cam assembly is rotated. The head life arm 80 contains a roller 83 that rotates against a roller surface 84 of feed head 60. Roller 83 displaces feeder 60 about an axis 61 lifting feed nudger 62 off of the paper sheet 15 permitting simply loading of paper 14 into feed tray assembly 12.

The feed head 60 is connected to feed tower 13 through a pivot 61, which is perpendicular to the orientation of FIG. 1. The head 60 rotates about pivot 61 in a counterclockwise direction until the feed nudger 62 comes in contact with paper 15. The feed head 60 singulates paper sheet 15 from the top of the paper stack 14. As each paper sheet 15 is feed from stack 14, the head 60 pivots by an incremental amount to restore the feed nudger 62 to a state of contact with the paper sheet 15.

When a number of successive paper sheet 15 singulations have occurred, the head 60 rotates such that the rib 65 blocks sensor 63 and causes a state change. The state change signals cam assembly 70 to advance which causes paper lift arm 51 to raise paper support 21, which raises the paper stack 14, which lifts the head 60 through the contact between paper stack 14 and feed nudger 62. When the head 60 is raised the sensor 63 changes state and stops the advancement of cam assembly 70.

Cam assembly 70 has an inner segment 71 and an outer segment 72. The segments 71 and 72 pass through two optical sensors 73 and 74. as cam 70 rotates around the cam axis 75, the segments 71 and 72 are located with a specific angular timing relationship to the paper support lift cam surface 76 and the feed cam lift surface 77. The angular timing arrangement produces sensor transitions at specific points of system control activity such as “head fully lifted”, “tray support fully lifted”, feed head fully pivoting” as respectively shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 2. The foregoing allows sensors 73 and 74 to sense the position of cam surfaces 76 and 77.

FIG. 3 shows when the feed system 9 in the configuration of a empty tray. The paper support 21 is lifted by the paper lift arm 51 and the paper support 21 rotates about the axis 22 until all of the sheets in the stack 14 (FIG. 1) have been depleted. When the paper support 21 has advanced to a maximum counter clockwise position and the feed head 60 comes to rest at a maximum counter clockwise position the full capacity of the feed system 9 is utilized.

The total angular movement A of paper support 21 with respect to the base 20 of tray assembly 11 is between 0 degrees and 60 degrees with a typical angular motion of 0 degrees to 25 degrees. The feed head 60 undergoes a similar angular displacement B between 0 degrees and 50 degrees with a typical angular motion between 0 degrees and 20 degrees.

The above specification describes a new and improved method to expand the capacity of a sheet feeder. It is realized that the above description may indicate to those skilled in the art additional ways in which the principles of this invention may be used without departing from the spirit. Therefore, it is intended that this invention be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A device for feeding sheets to a feeder, the device comprising; a tray assembly containing sheets, wherein the sheets rests on a pivoting support;a feed assembly that singulates the sheets, wherein the feed assembly pivots on an axis parallel to the pivoting support; anda linkage mechanism that couples a angle of the pivoting support motion to a pivoting motion of the feed assembly so that sheets may be presented by the pivoting support to the feed assembly.

2. The device claimed in claim 1, wherein the pivoting support pivots about an angle between zero degrees and sixty degrees.

3. The device claimed in claim 1, wherein the tray assembly comprises: a tray having a feed sheet end and a tray load end; a base and a fixed cover that slopes downward from the tray feed end to the tray load end.

4. The device claimed in claim 1, wherein the tray assembly comprises: a tray having a feed sheet end and a load feed sheet end; a base and adjustable side walls connected to the base.

5. The device claimed in claim 4, wherein the adjustable side walls cover less than one half of the tray length so that sheets may be loaded into the tray.

6. The device claimed in claim 4, wherein the adjustable side walls of the tray are sloped downward from the tray feed end to the tray load end.

7. The device claimed in claim 3, wherein the-linkage mechanism comprises: a lift arm that lifts the tray;a first lift arm cam;a first cam follower connecting the lift arm to the first cam; anda motor which drives the first cam.

8. The device claimed in claim 7, wherein the-linkage mechanism further comprises: a second cam which lifts the feed assembly;a second cam follower connecting the assembly to the second cam;

9. The device claimed in claim 8, wherein the-linkage mechanism further comprises: a sensor that senses the angle of the feed assembly.

10. The device claimed in claim 8, wherein the-linkage mechanism further comprises: a sensor that senses the position of the first cam.

11. The device claimed in claim 8, wherein the-linkage mechanism further comprises: a sensor that senses the position of the second cam.

12. The device claimed in claim 1, wherein the pivoting sheet support may be lowered to allow the sheets to be loaded into the tray assembly.

13. The device claimed in claim 1, wherein the feed assembly is raised to allow the sheets to be loaded into the tray assembly.