US 4,054,283 AGranted

Fan fold form stacker

AssigneeData Products Corporation

InventorHarry F. Rayfield

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Abstract

Apparatus for stacking fan-folded paper including an oscillating chute through which paper received by the stacker from a printer passes toward a pedestal on which the paper is to be stacked. The stacker receives line strobe signals from the printer indicative of the rate at which paper is fed by the printer to the stacker. The line strobe signals control the rate of oscillation of the chute between two extreme positions. The distance between the two positions defines the oscillation stroke which is determined by means of a manually-operable selector to be a function of the form length of the paper to be stacked. The paper is stacked on a pedestal which is incrementally movable between top and bottom positions. A stack sensor is provided which senses the top of the stack and causes the pedestal to move toward the bottom position so as to maintain the distance between the chute and the top of the stack relatively constant.

Claims24

Dependent claims

For use with a device from which paper, fan-folded along equally spaced folds in the paper is supplied, the distance between successive folds defining a form length, the device providing a sequence of discrete electrical signals, each signal representing a certain length of paper supplied by said device, the rate of such signals representing the speed at which paper is supplied by said device, an apparatus for stacking the fan-folded paper supplied thereto from said device, the apparatus comprising:

a paper reception station including a movable base member on which fan-folded paper is to be stacked;
a chute having an outlet and disposed above said base member;
input means for receiving fan-folded paper supplied thereto from said device and for directing the received paper through said chute toward said base member, the paper exiting said chute through the outlet end thereof;
and
control means including means connected to said device and responsive to the electrical signals provided by said device for controlling said chute outlet end to oscillate between first and second positions at a rate related to the rate at which said electrical signals are provided by said device, the distance between said first and second positions defining an oscillation stroke.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.