Electrostatic copier

In an electrostatic copier, a combination comprising a transparent support member having a support surface and an opposite surface;

• light source means for directing light against said opposite surface;
• pattern sheet holding means for holding on said support surface first pattern sheet means which defines an elongated gap and for also holding second pattern sheet means overlying said first pattern sheet means and provided with lines of indicia parallel to said gap;
• transporting means for transporting said second pattern sheet means stepwise relative to said first pattern sheet means in direction normal to said gap so as to expose succeeding ones of said lines in said gap;
• and masking means intermediate said first pattern sheet means and said light source means and being provided with masking portions, including a transparent web provided with said masking portions, moving means for moving different ones of said masking portions into predetermined positions relative to said pattern sheet means, including take-up and pay-out rollers about which said web is convoluted and which are rotatable about respective parallel axes, and a drive for rotating said rollers about said axes, and control means for said drive, including a stationary first contact adjacent the path of movement of said web and a second contact movable synchronously with said web and relative to said first contact.

In an electrostatic copier, a combination comprising a transparent support member having a support surface and an opposite surface and an edge portion extending in a direction;

• light source means for directing light against said opposite surface;
• pattern sheet holding means for holding on said support surface first pattern sheet means which defines an elongated gap normal to said direction and for also holding second pattern sheet means overlying said first pattern sheet means and provided with lines of indicia parallel to said gap, including a stationary first holding device for said first pattern sheet means, and a movable second holding device for said second pattern sheet means, both of said holding devices extending laterally of and parallel to said edge portions, and transparent envelopes of synthetic plastic material for said pattern sheet means;
• transporting means for transporting said second pattern sheet means stepwise relative to aaid first pattern sheet means in said direction so as to expose succeeding ones of said lines in said gap;
• and masking means intermediate said first pattern sheet means and said light source means and being provided with masking portions, including moving means for moving different ones of said masking portions parallel to said direction into predetermined positions relative to said pattern sheet means.

In an electrostatic copier, a combination comprising a transparent support member having a support surface and an opposite surface and an edge portion extending in a direction;

• light source means for directing light against said opposite surface;
• pattern sheet holding means for holding on said support surface first pattern sheet means which defines an elongated gap normal to said direction and for also holding second pattern sheet means overlying said first pattern sheet means and provided with lines of indicia parallel to said gap, including a stationary first holding device for said first pattern sheet means, and a movable second holding device for said second pattern sheet means, both of said holding devices extending laterally of and parallel to said edge portion;
• transporting means for transporting said second pattern sheet means stepwise relative to said first pattern sheet means in said direction so as to expose succeeding ones of said lines in said gap;
• and masking means intermediate said first pattern sheet means and said light source means, including a transparent web provided with masking portions and being located intermediate said first pattern sheet means and said support surface and moving means for moving different ones of said masking portions parallel to said direction into predetermined positions relative to said pattern sheet means.

In an electrostatic copier, a combination comprising a transparent support member having a support surface and an opposite surface and an edge portion extending in a direction;

• light source means for directing light against said opposite surface;
• pattern sheet holding means for holding on said support surface first pattern sheet means which defines an elongated gap normal to said direction and for also holding second pattern sheet means overlying said first pattern sheet means and provided with lines of indicia parallel to said gap, including a stationary first holding device for said first pattern sheet means, and a movable second holding device for said second pattern sheet means, both of said holding devices extending laterally of and parallel to said edge portion;
• transporting means for transporting said second pattern sheet means stepwise relative to said first pattern sheet means in said direction so as to expose succeeding ones of said lines in said gap, including a rack, a plurality of pawls alternately cooperating with said rack, and means for effecting engagement and disengagement of said pawls with said rack;
• and masking means intermediate said first pattern sheet means and said light source means and being provided with masking portions, including moving means for moving different ones of said masking portions parallel to said direction into predetermined positions relative to said pattern sheet means.

In an electrostatic copier, an arrangement for forming a composite image to be copied by the copier, comprising first holding means for interchangeably holding first pattern web means having a major surface with first indicia thereon;

• second holding means for holding second pattern web means, having at least one transparent portion, in parallelism with said major surface of said first pattern web means;
• third pattern web means, having at least one additional transparent portion, and movable in a path parallel to said major surface of said first pattern web means, one of said second and third pattern web means being interposed between the other of said third and second pattern web means and said major surface of said first pattern web means, and at least said one pattern web means having second indicia thereon which are to be selectively correlated with said first indicia;
• transporting means for transporting one of said holding means relative to the other holding means parallel to said major surface of said first pattern web means for bringing said transparent portion of said second pattern web means into registry with selected first indicia on said major surface;
• and moving means for moving said third pattern web means in said path into registry of said additional transparent portion with other selected first indicia on said major surface, whereby only such first indicia will be copied by the copier which are in registry with the region of overlap of said transparent portions of said second and third web means, and only such second indicia on said one pattern web means will be copied by the copier in correlation with such first indicia, which are in registry with the respective transparent portion of said other pattern web means.