Apparatus for classifying photographic prints or the like

Apparatus for classifying successively delivered sheets of predetermined length, particularly for classifying sections which are severed from the leader of a web of exposed and developed photosensitive material having indicia denoting different classes of sections, comprising guide means defining an elongated channel having an inlet and a plurality of outlets remote from said inlet and including two elongated side walls flanking said channel;

• sheet diverting means including at least two switching members each consisting at least in part of a permanently magnetically attractable material and installed in said channel intermediate said inlet and said outlets, said switching members normally assuming respective rest positions in which they are spaced from each other and from the neighboring side walls and being movable from said rest positions to different active positions in each of which they establish a path for movement of oncoming sheets from said inlet to a different outlet;
• and magnet means located externally of said channel and including two electromagnets each outwardly adjacent to one of said side walls and being selectively energizable to magnetically attract said switching members from said rest positions to said active positions in which each of said two switching members is situated at the respective neighboring side wall or both switching members are situated at one or the other side wall.

Apparatus for classifying successively delivered sheets of predetermined length, particularly for classifying sections which are severed from the leader of a web of exposed and developed photosensitive material having indicia denoting different classes of sections, comprising guide means defining an elongated channel having an inlet and a plurality of outlets remote from said inlet and including first and second elongated side walls flanking said channel;

• sheet diverting means including three switching members each consisting at least in part of magnetizable material and installed in said channel intermediate said inlet and said outlets such that first and second ones of said switching members are respectively adjacent to one of said side walls and the third switching member is situated intermediate said first and second switching members, each of said switching members being movable between a plurality of different positions in each of which said switching members establish a path for movement of oncoming sheets from said inlet to a different outlet;
• and magnet means located externally of said channel and including first and second electromagnets outwardly adjacent to said first and second side walls and being energizable to respectively attract said first and second switching members, and third and fourth electromagnets respectively adjacent to said first and second side walls and being energizable to respectively attract said third switching member, to the corresponding side wall.