Producing piles of serially-indexed papers from a plurality of unindexed imprints

Apparatus for producing piles of serially-indexed security notes from a plurality of unindexed security note imprints on a printing paper, the apparatus including an indexing station at which a unique identifying index is applied to each succeeding imprint of a single file only of the imprints as the file is advanced through the indexing station;

• the apparatus including:
• (a) means for stacking the indexed imprints as a succession of piles of unrejected strips of the printing paper, wherein each strip of the pile contains a single file only of imprints, each of the piles containing a predetermined number of the strips and all of the strips of each pile carrying the same number of indexed imprints;
• (b) means for dividing the stacks of strips into discrete piles of individual indexed imprints constituting the security notes;
• and
• (c) means for so controlling the application of the unique index to each imprint at the indexing station that the indexes of the imprints of each of the discrete piles form a predetermined unbroken sequence from one end of the pile to the other.

A method of producing piles of serially-indexed security notes from a plurality of unindexed security note imprints on a printing paper, including the step of advancing the imprints through an indexing station at which a unique identifying index is applied to each succeeding imprint of a single file only of the imprints;

• the method further comprising the steps of:
• (a) stacking the indexed imprints as a succession of piles of unrejected single file strips of the printing paper, each of the piles containing a predetermined number of strips and all of the strips of each pile carrying the same number of indexed imprints;
• (b) dividing the stacks of strips into discrete piles of individual indexed imprints constituting the security notes by:
• (i) defining spaced lanes for advancement of the stacks past a dividing means;
• (ii) dividing the flow of the successive stacks of strips between the spaced lanes;
• (iii) advancing the stacks in the spaced lanes past the dividing means;
• and
• (iv) downstream of the dividing means, combining the flow of piles of security prints in each of the spaced lanes into a single lane for further processing of the piles;
• and wherein:
• (c) the step of applying the index to each imprint is so controlled that the indexes of the imprints of each of the discrete piles form a predetermined unbroken sequence from one end of the pile to the other.

Apparatus for producing piles of serially-indexed security notes from a plurality of unindexed security note imprints on a printing paper,

• the apparatus including at least two indexing stations in parallel at each of which a unique identifying index is applied to each succeeding imprint of a single file only of the imprints as the file is advanced through the indexing station;
• the apparatus further including:
• (a) means for stacking the indexed imprints as a succession of piles of unrejected strips of the printing paper, each of the piles containing a predetermined number of steps and all of the strips of each pile carrying the same number of indexed imprints;
• (b) means for dividing the stacks of steps into discrete piles of individual indexed imprints constituting the security notes, said dividing means comprising a single dividing means to receive the combined outputs of the indexing stations;
• and
• (c) means for so controlling the application of the unique index to each imprint at each indexing station that the indexes of the imprints of each of the discrete piles form a predetermined unbroken sequence from one end of the pile to the other.