Document feeder employing a belt
First Claim
1. An apparatus for feeding documents comprising:
- a hopper for storing a stack of documents to be fed in a substantially vertical plane, said hopper having an alignment side and a stop;
feed means for moving the documents in the hopper along said alignment side towards the stop;
a drive roller and an idler roller having an endless belt mounted thereon to provide a linear portion of the endless belt parallel to the first document to be picked from the stack, with said linear portion engaging the first document to be picked;
a retard mechanism positioned adjacent said alignment side and in opposed relationship with said linear portion of said endless belt;
said retard mechanism having a retard member including a first portion to engage the documents in the stack and also having a second portion substantially parallel to said linear portion to permit only one document to be moved towards a document track by aid linear portion of said endless belt; and
a resilient member to bias said second portion towards said lien ar portion of said endless belt;
said stop being aligned with said linear portion of said endless belt, and said idler roller being positioned between said stop and said retard mechanism.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for feeding documents from a stack of documents, in single file, into a document track, with the apparatus employing an endless belt. The endless belt is mounted on a drive roller and an idler roller to provide a linear portion of the belt which is parallel to the first document to be fed from the stack. The apparatus also includes a retard mechanism which includes a first portion to engage the documents in the stack and also includes a second portion which is parallel to the linear portion of the endless belt and is biased towards the linear portion by a tension spring. The endless belt is made of a material which is designed to wear instead of "glazing" which provides for a positive feed. The endless belt and the retard member are designed to be replaced by an operator of the terminal in which the apparatus is located so as to avoid a service call by a maintenance person.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. An apparatus for feeding documents comprising:
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a hopper for storing a stack of documents to be fed in a substantially vertical plane, said hopper having an alignment side and a stop; feed means for moving the documents in the hopper along said alignment side towards the stop; a drive roller and an idler roller having an endless belt mounted thereon to provide a linear portion of the endless belt parallel to the first document to be picked from the stack, with said linear portion engaging the first document to be picked; a retard mechanism positioned adjacent said alignment side and in opposed relationship with said linear portion of said endless belt; said retard mechanism having a retard member including a first portion to engage the documents in the stack and also having a second portion substantially parallel to said linear portion to permit only one document to be moved towards a document track by aid linear portion of said endless belt; and a resilient member to bias said second portion towards said lien ar portion of said endless belt; said stop being aligned with said linear portion of said endless belt, and said idler roller being positioned between said stop and said retard mechanism. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. The apparatus for feeding documents comprising:
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a hopper for storing a stack of documents to be fed, said hopper having an alignment side and a stop; feed means for moving the documents in the hopper along said alignment side towards the stop; a drive roller and an idler roller having an endless belt mounted thereon to provide a linear portion of the endless belt parallel to the first document to be picked from the stack, with said linear portion engaging the first document to be picked; a retard mechanism positioned adjacent said alignment side and in opposed relationship with said linear portion of said endless belt; said retard mechanism having a retard member including a first portion to engage the documents in the stack and also having a second portion substantially parallel to said linear portion to permit only one document to be moved towards a document track by said linear portion to said endless belt; and a resilient member to bias said second portion towards said linear portion of said endless belt; said endless belt being made of an elastomeric material which wears without glazing in use; said first and second portions forming a wiper and in which said retard mechanism comprises; a support post; an arm having one end pivotally mounted on said support post and also having a free end; said free end having a cylindrical portion which is "C-shaped" in cross section; said first portion of said retard mechanism having a complementary member thereon to fit into said cylindrical portion to mount said wiper on said free end of said arm.
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Specification