Sheet convey apparatus

A sheet convey apparatus for conveying a mixture of obverse-and reverse-presented sheets, set at an inlet port, to collecting means, said sheets having a lengthwise direction, said apparatus comprising:

• take-in means for taking in the sheets set at said inlet port, one at a time, and conveying said sheets in a direction perpendicular to said lengthwise direction;
• sorting means for sorting the sheets taken in by said take-in means into a first group of obverse-presented sheets and a second group of reverse-presented sheets;
• first conveying means for conveying the obverse-presented sheets which were sorted into the first group by said sorting means to a trailing end of said first conveying means and for conveying said sheets in said direction perpendicular to said lengthwise direction;
• second conveying means for reversing the reverse-presented sheets which were sorted into the second group by said sorting means and conveying the obverse-presented sheets thus reversed to a trailing end of said second conveying means, said trailing ends of said first and second conveying means being arranged so as to merge, and for conveying said sheets in said direction perpendicular to said lengthwise direction, said second conveying means including:
• a twisted convey path having an inlet port region and an outlet port region, said twisted convey path being arranged so as to clamp the sheets fed from said inlet port region and convey them to said outlet port region, while turning the sheets 180.degree., said twisted convey path being defined by the mutually opposing surfaces of a belt, one end of which is twisted by 720.degree. with respect to the other end thereof and is coupled to the other end to form an endless belt, said endless belt being looped in a substantially 8-shaped manner so that portions of said endless belt are brought into surface contact at an intersection and are twisted in the same direction by 180.degree., about an axis perpendicular to a longitudinal direction of said endless belt, while being driven, said endless belt having a width narrower than a length of the sheet along the longitudinal direction;
• and
• twisted guide means disposed at both sides of said twisted convey path and therealong, for supporting the two ends of the sheet being twisted and conveyed, said twisted guide means including first and second guide members which extend along both edges of said twisted endless belt, the first guide member having inlet and outlet portions, the inlet portion being in contact with one surface of one end portion of the sheet and the outlet portion being in contact with the other surface of one end portion of the sheet, the second guide member having inlet and outlet portions, the inlet portion being in contact with the other surface of the other end portion of the sheet and the outlet portion being in contact with one surface of the other end portion of the sheet, so that the sheet is turned by the twisted convey path and the twisted guide means;
• and
• third conveying means for conveying merged obverse-presented sheets to said collecting means and for conveying said said sheets in a direction perpendicular to said lengthwise direction.