Document air valve
AssigneeNCR Corporation
InventorGunnar P. Michelson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A header member containing an air chamber is positioned above each pocket of a document sorter, the air chamber having an upwardly directed inlet port and a plurality of downwardly directed outlet ports downstream of the inlet port. An air supply nozzle is positioned below the inlet port to blow air into the air chamber, the air then flowing out of the chamber through the outlet ports. The supply of air into the chamber is interrupted when a document passes between the inlet port and the supply nozzle, and the air flow is resumed when the document passes the inlet port, the air flowing from the outlet ports blowing the document downwardly, out of the path of the succeeding document, and into the pocket of the document sorter.
Claims11
Document control means for stacking documents in a pocket including
- means for driving said documents in the direction of said pocket, a
- passageway for guiding said documents in successive manner, an air chamber adjacent said passageway and pivotable in relation to said pocket and having entrance means and exit means downstream of said extrance means for flow of air through said chamber, means providing a continuous flow of air through said entrance means, the movement of a document past said entrance means interrupting the flow of air through said entrance means when passing thereby and after passing said entrance means permitting air to flow through said air chamber and out said exit means to move one document out of the path of a succeeding document, and sensing means responsive to the presence of documents in said pocket to maintain a level of documents therein.
In document sorting apparatus, hopper means, feed and separating means for initiating flow of documents from said hopper means in singular manner, drive means for transporting documents along a predetermined path, a plurality of pockets, and means for selecting documents from said path for distribution to said pockets, the improvement comprising means for stacking the selected documents in said pockets in successive manner, air supply means providing a continuous flow of air, an air chamber pivotable in relation to each pocket and operably associated with said air supply means and having air entrance means and air exit means downstream of said entrance means for flow of air through said air chamber for controlling the attitude of documents entering said pockets, each document being urged by said air supply means against said entrance means and interrupting the flow of air therethrough upon passing said entrance means, and after passing thereof being subjected to the flow of air through said exit means to urge the document downwardly out of the path of a succeeding document, and sensing means responsive to the presence of documents in said pocket to maintain a level of documents therein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.