Automatic card selector for random-access card file system

A random-access card file system provided with cartridges each storing at least one deck of cards, each card including an upstanding tab whose longitudinal position corresponds to a particular point on an incremental scale running the full length of the deck, and a card selector for extracting any desired card from the deck regardless of its stored location in the cartridge, said selector comprising:

• (A) a carriage movable along a horizontal path above the cartridge which houses a deck that includes a card to be selected, to a point in the path in line with the tab on said card;
• (B) a crane supported on the carriage and having a card picker thereon;
• (C) operating means which when actuated cause the crane to complete an operating cycle in the course of which it bows down over the cartridge to enable the picker to engage and clamp onto the tab on said card and to then lift the card by its tab to withdrawn it from the cartridge;
• and
• (D) separator means disposed just above the cartridge to assume an operative position relative to said deck as said picker lifts the selected card by its tab to intercept non-selected cards sticking on to the selected card to prevent the picker in the course of lifting the selected card from also withdrawing non-selected cards;
• said separator means being constituted by a pair of card separators just above the cartridge to straddle the upper corners of the card deck, each separator having a row of gaps therein whose width is slightly greater than the thickness of the upper margin of the card so that the gap is capable of passing only a single card therethrough, each gap having an entry defined by converging walls, the entry having a longitudinal axis which is parallel to the plane of the card, whereby when the selected card is lifted above the deck by the picker and adjacent cards sticking to the selected card are also lifted, as the picker rises, it draws the upper corners of the selected card through the entry nearest thereto for passage through the gap associated therewith, the other cards being intercepted by at least one wall of the entry to be dislodged from the selected card;
• said separators including a clamped stack of flat blades each having a nose provided with opposing faces and a base, said faces being formed with a step portion to reduce the thickness of the nose to define said gaps, said base being triangulated to define the converging entry walls.