Transportation arrangement for sheetlike recording carriers

In apparatus for transporting separate sheets of paper or the like through equipment by which information can be imparted onto each sheet line by line, the combination of:

• a platen rotatable to and past a given angular position at which said information can be imparted onto a sheet disposed on said platen;
• means for driving said platen stepwise,
• means including at least one feed roll for feeding said separate sheets singularly from a supply into a conveying path toward said platen,
• a cooperating pair of transporting rolls disposed in said path between said feeding means and platen for grasping a fed sheet and feeding it onward toward said platen when at least one of said transporting rolls is driven,
• said transporting rolls being located in said path downstream from said feed roll a distance less than the path length of a said sheet,
• means for maintaining said feed roll in constant and continuous pressure contact with said sheet supply and with each single sheet fed by said feed roll until after the fed sheet is grasped by said transporting rolls for constantly and continuously controlling the movement of each sheet by said feed roll until after it is under the control of said transporting rolls,
• roll drive means including releasable coupling means connected between said platen and said one transporting roll for driving said one transporting roll by said platen,
• sheet sensing means coupled to said releasable coupling means for detecting the advancement of a sheet along said path to a predetermined sensing position located a fraction of said sheet length downstream from said transporting rolls for releasing said coupling means to stop the drive of said transporting rolls and halt the said onward feeding thereby of a sheet which is then under grasp by said transporting rolls,
• means for restarting the onward feeding of a sheet past said sensing means and through said platen of the halted sheet by re-engaging said coupling means to cause driving of said transporting rolls again,
• said platen having at least one nip located downstream from said transporting rolls a distance less then the path length of a fed sheet for keeping a sheet fed by the transporting rolls under control thereof at least until the sheet is grasped by the platen at said nip, and
• means cooperating with said feeding means and coupling means for causing said feed roll to feed a sheet forward upon said re-engaging of said coupling means but at a speed slower than said transporting rolls for spacing successive sheets to allow detection thereof by said sheet sensing means,
• said predetermined sensing position being spaced a given distance from said angular position so that said information can be imparted onto said sheet precisely on each desired predetermined line of said sheet as it is stepped by said platen and its driving means.