Document separator mechanism

Abstract

A drive roller and a driven, braked, retard roller are juxtaposedly positioned along the path of documents being transported beyond a document feeding mechanism to provide passage of only one document at a time. The retard roller is carried on an arm which is swingable on a pivot and lightly spring loaded against the drive roller, such arm being placed and positioned at a certain angle rearward of a line extending perpendicular from the document, this angle being larger than the friction angle of document against document, but smaller than the friction angle of document against roller. A single document will pass between the rollers with both rollers rolling at the same speed, whereas when two documents attempt to pass between the rollers at the same time the second document will be retarded by the retard (braked) roller. When both the retard roller and the second document have come approximately to a near stop or standstill, such attitude is sensed at the retard roller, and the retard roller is lifted off or swung away from the documents to give the first document a head start, whereupon the retard roller is re-engaged after a certain short period of time to start the second document on its journey.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.