Auxiliary feed conveyor

Apparatus for feeding sheets of paper printed by a printer to a sheet processing device;

• said printer having a sheet discharge through which each sheet printed by the printer is discharged one sheet at a time;
• said printer heating said sheets to an elevated temperature as said sheets are printed, said sheets printed by said printer and discharged therefrom carrying a static electricity charge;
• said sheet processing device having a sheet infeed located at a location different from said printer sheet discharge;
• said apparatus having a sheet conveyor having an inlet, an outlet, and a conveyor path between said conveyor inlet and said conveyor outlet for conveying said sheets from said printer sheet discharge to said sheet processing device sheet infeed with said sheets being accumulated in a stack within said sheet processing device;
• said sheet conveyor comprising a plurality of conveying devices each gripping the leading edge of a sheet discharged from said printer with each of said conveying devices being driven at the same surface speed so as to convey the sheet along said conveyor path;
• each of said conveying devices comprising a first belt and a second belt, said belts each having a reach substantially in face-to-face gripping contact with one another with said reaches moving in the same direction and being movable at substantially the same surface speed so that with a sheet gripped therebetween said sheet is conveyed along said conveyor path, said reaches extending substantially from said conveyor inlet to said conveyor outlet;
• a drive for said belts such that said sheets are conveyed from said printer to said sheet processing device at a rate at least as fast as said sheets are discharged from said printer, said reaches of said belts in face-to-face gripping contact with said sheets being disposed generally in a vertical intermediate portion of said conveyor;
• said conveyor path having a generally horizontal discharge portion at the upper end of said vertical intermediate portion;
• each of said second belts being entrained at least partially around a first idler pulley disposed generally below said printer sheet discharge, and then at least partially around a second idler roller of said second belt downstream of said printer sheet discharge such that a leading edge of a sheet discharged from said printer sheet discharge enters a nip between said second idler roller and said inner reach of said second belt so that said sheet is gripped therebetween;
• said apparatus having at least one fan that blows air on each said sheet as said sheet is conveyed along said conveyor path so as to at least partially cool said sheet;
• and
• said apparatus having a static electricity eliminator located along said conveyor path for at least partially eliminating said static electricity from said sheets as they are conveyed from said printer to said sheet processing device such that as said sheets are accumulated in said stack they are sufficiently cooled and have sufficient static electricity removed therefrom so that said sheets may be uniformly stacked one on the other in said stack.