Adaptive document feed pick mechanism

US4730823A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• DANIEL BARELA · Boulder, US
• Mark A. Beran · Niwot, US
• Louis A. Bustamante · Mead, US
• Cecil M. McDonald · Longmont, US
• Ronald E. Reese · Pont d'Écluse de Morey, US
• Roger D. Shepherd · Nederland, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 28, 1986
• Grant date: Mar 15, 1988
• Expiry date: Nov 28, 2006

Classification

• Technology area (CPC B): Performing Operations; Transporting
• CPC primary: B65H3/0891
• WIPO field: Handling
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

Sheet feeder having adaptive mechanism for assuring dependable automatic operation when the stack of sheets to be fed consists of sheets having varying thicknesses and weights. In a sheet feeder having pickers to move a document from the top of a stack of sheets supported by a moveable table to a feed-in position, the latter possibly including a vacuum belt for moving the document, sensors supply signals to indicate a sheet has been picked. After moving the pickers and table to initial positions, the controller moves the picker to a predetermined reference position. If a sheet is picked above or below the predetermined initial position, the position of the table is adjusted accordingly. In a second embodiment in a recirculating automatic sheet feeder, the table is initially positioned then after feeding the sheets from the stack once, it is initialized at a second predetermined position depending on the number of documents in the stack and on the position of the table prior to picking the documents a second time.