Sheet Feeding Apparatus For Copying Machines

Abstract

A pair of feed-in rollers for feeding, in superposed relation, a sensitized copy sheet and an original document to be copied into a copy machine. One of the rollers is covered with either urethane foam or tufted nylon bristles to allow the machine operator to manipulate the copy sheet and original for purposes of aligning the two sheets as they enter the rollers. This covered roller serves to provide a wiping, uncurling action to the original. The one roller is mounted for vertical separation from the other and switch means detects any movement due to foreign objects attempting to pass between the rollers. The switch means causes reduction of the roller speed and reversal in direction in order that any such foreign object be repelled.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates generally to sheet feeding apparatus and more particularly to apparatus for feeding in superposed relation an original and a copy sheet into photocopying machines of the contact printing type.

Conventionally in the use of diazo type, contact printing photocopying machines, a diazo sensitized copy sheet and original tracing are superposed and fed into the machine for processing. Often times the originals, especially large size tracings, because they have been stored rolled up create a problem of coiling to the operator in attempting to maintain alignment of the tracing with the underlying copy sheet, while being careful to avoid a turned-over corner or wrinkling of the tracing, during insertion of the sheets into the nip of the feed rollers.

Heretofore, once the lead edges of the sheets were gripped by the feed-in rollers and fed into the machine, no further realignment of the sheets could be effected during the feeding operation if the sheets were misaligned unless, of course, by reversing the machine drive, if the machine were so equipped, withdrawing the sheets and starting fresh.

Also, because the machine operator's hands are close to the feed rollers when feeding curled sheets, there is a danger of getting fingers caught in the feed rollers. Other foreign objects such as shears, rulers and the like might also accidentally be passed between the rollers causing downtime and possible damage to the machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a simple and yet effective sheet feed apparatus for feed-in of superposed sheets. The apparatus includes an upper roller of a pair of feed-in rollers having a soft and quite resilient covering, e.g., nylon bristles, to permit manual alignment and manipulation of the sheets after the sheets have been gripped by the rollers and during advancement of the sheets into the copying machine. The bristles act as fingers and have an uncurling effect on the top sheet of the superposed sheets being fed. Further, the apparatus provides for raising the soft feed-in roller in response to any foreign object attempting to pass between the rollers and at the same time reducing the speed and reversing the direction of machine drive in response to the soft upper feed-in roller being moved to its raised position. The machine continues in such a slow mode condition and reverse direction drive until a forward direction, normal speed button is manually depressed.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a new and improved sheet feed-in apparatus for feeding curled, crimped and uneven tracings into a copying machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide a sheet feed-in apparatus for use in contact type photocopying machines, wherein the feed-in roller in contact engagement with the original is provided with a soft covering of urethane foam or nylon bristles to provide a wiping, uncurling action to rolled originals while allowing proper alignment of the original and copy sheets.

Another object is to provide a circuit control so that the operator may select a slow mode of operation during a copy-making cycle, in which the machine speed was set for a particular exposure in order to carry out a feeding operation and restore the machine speed to its preset copying speed and continue the cycle.

Another object of the invention is to provide a pair of feed rollers in which the soft feed roller of the pair is mounted for floating action to permit movement of the soft roller to a raised position out of engagement with the other roller of the pair in response to the machine operator's fingers entering the roller nip beyond a safe distance, or by contact of the soft roller by a foreign object attempting to be passed between the roller pair.

A further object of the invention is to provide a switch means, actuable by the soft roller when moved to its raised position, for reversing the direction of rotation of the feed-in rollers and reducing the speed thereof to prevent the grasping of a foreign object by the feed-in rollers and possible passing of the object through the machine.

A still further object of the invention is to provide plural switch means conveniently adjacent to the feed area of a photocopy machine for allowing operator intervention for reducing the normal feeding speed to a preset slow mode operation.

Other objects, features and advantages will appear hereinafter as the description proceeds.

IN THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a diazotype copying machine such as used in the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view, partially broken away, of the copying machine embodying a sheet feeding apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the sheet feeding assembly showing in detail the mounting and drive arrangement of the feed rollers;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged section taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 3 showing a control means for actuating the machine drive for reverse direction and slow mode operation;

FIG. 5 is an end elevation of the control means of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged section taken on the line 6--6 of FIG. 3 showing an end elevation of a pair of feed-in rollers;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged section taken on the line 7--7 of FIG. 3 showing a front elevation of the feed-in rollers of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of portions of the copying machine relevant to the present invention; and

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the feed-in rollers exemplifying the insertion of an operator's hand between them.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The photocopy machine of the disclosed embodiment is shown generally by the reference numeral 100 in FIG. 1. A superposed copy and an original document are positioned on a feed board 12 and are directed into a sheet feeding apparatus 14 where feed-in rollers 24 engage the sheets. At either end of the sheet feeding apparatus 14, a feed board switch 102 and 104 is present to operate the machine in a slow mode. The specific construction of the slow mode is more fully disclosed and claimed in U.S. application Ser. No. 350,239 filed on Apr. 11, 1973 by Robert F. Zawiski et al., and entitled "Improvement in Sheet Feeding Apparatus For Copying Machines".

A control panel 106 is located at the top of the machine 100. This panel includes controls for carrying out such functions as power on, speed control, ammonia on and lamp control. Of particular importance is a switch 108 for changing the direction of the feed drive. This switch 108 causes the machine to run forward or reverse on operator demand.

After the superposed copy and original have been fed through the machine and the copying process is complete, the original will reappear at an original sheet receiving tray 110. When the copy has been produced, the reproduced copy will appear at a print receiving tray 112.

As shown in FIG. 2, the copying machine comprises an enclosure 10 for sensitized copy paper P in roll form, the feed board 12 for supporting the copy paper and the original to be fed into the machine and the sheet feeding apparatus indicated generally by the reference character 14.

The sheet feeding apparatus 14 advances the superposed copy and the original to a belt transport 16 (FIG. 2) which carries the sheets through an exposure station 18. Upon exiting from the exposure station 18, the sheets are separated and the original is discharged from the machine to the tray 110 and the exposed copy sheet is directed through a developer station and then discharged from the machine to the tray 112.

With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the sheet feeding apparatus 14 includes an entryway 20 and an exitway 22 for receiving and directing, respectively, superposed sheets for transport into the machine proper. The feed-in rollers indicated generally by the reference numeral 24 are provided adjacent the entryway 20 and exit-feed rollers indicated generally by the reference numeral 26 are provided adjacent the exitway 22.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 3 and 7, the feed-in rollers 24 comprise a plurality of roller sections 30 axially spaced on a free floating upper shaft 32 and a plurality of plastic tires 34 axially spaced on a lower shaft 36. Each of the feed-in roller sections 30 is provided with a pair of plastic tires 31 and 33, one at each end, keyed at 35 to a tube spacer 37 and locked to the shaft 32 as with set screws 39. Each of the plastic tires 31 and 33 is in alignment and contact engagement with a corresponding one of the plastic tires 34, secured on the shaft 36 and projecting upwardly through a suitable opening provided in a lower guide plate (FIG. 2), so as to provide a plurality of cooperating pairs of feed-in rollers 30 and 34.

The exit-feed rollers 26 include a plurality of rollers 40 axially spaced and secured on a shaft 42 and a plurality of rollers 44 axially spaced and secured on a shaft 46 in alignment and contact engagement with corresponding rollers 40 on the shaft 42, thereby providing a plurality of cooperating pairs of feed rollers 40 and 44.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the shaft 42 carrying the rollers 40 is rotatably supported in end bearings 45 and 47 affixed to side plates 48 and 50 respectively. The lower feed roller shaft 46 is mounted in a similar manner and is rotatably supported in end bearings 52, only one bearing being shown in FIG. 2. The lower feed roller shaft 46 is power driven in the direction of arrow A shown in FIG. 2, by a timing belt (not shown in the drawing) drivingly connecting the shaft 46 with a drive shaft 54. Another timing belt (not shown) transmits drive from the shaft 46 to the shaft 36 carrying the tires 34.

With reference to FIG. 3, the upper feed roller shafts 32 and 42 are driven in timed relation by a pair of timing belts 58 and 60. Thus, although the feed rollers 30 and 40 are frictionally driven by the power driven tires 34 and the rollers 44 respectively, the belts 58 and 60 provide continuous rotation to the roller sections 30 when the rollers 30 and 34 are out of contact engagement as a result of the sheets being fed into the nip of the feed-in roller sections 30 and the tires 34. The continuous rotation of the roller sections 30 provides a wiping, uncurling and guiding means when inserting originals having rolled, frayed or torn leading edges into the nip of the rollers.

The rollers 40 and 44 are provided with a continuous smooth surface of rubber or like material or, as in the case of the tires 31, 33 and 34, they may be plastic molded rollers. However, the feed-in roller sections 30 are differently constructed to provide proper and efficient wiping and uncurling functions.

One approach to providing a suitable covering on the feed-in roller sections 30 is to utilize an urethane foam filler sleeve cemented to the tube spacer 37 positioned between the plastic tires 31 and 33 to afford a soft cylindrical roller component. The foam sleeve is slightly smaller in diameter than the plastic tires 31 and 33 so as not to touch the pencil lines or other imaging material on the originals and cause smearing of the images as the sheets are fed into the machine.

Although urethane foam covered feed-in roller sections have been found to work satisfactorily in actual practice, the preferred form of feed-in roller of the present invention is a roller brush configuration as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

Thus, the core 61 of the feed-in roller 30 shown in FIG. 6 may be of a high impact polystyrene material provided on its periphery with a plurality of projecting tufts 62 of nylon strands or bristles each strand being approximately 0.004 inch diameter, to thereby provide a brush surface. The bristlelike formations are dispersed in a helically formation relative to the axis of rotation of the roller 30. In an adjusted feeding position, the feed-in rollers are set so that the brushes are positioned from a minimum line to line contact to a maximum one-sixteenth inch interference with an original document being fed. The roller brushes provide a wiping, uncurling action to the original with only minimal point contact of the bristles with the image to avoid any smearing of the image on the original. Further, the roller brushes effectively act against the original while permitting the machine operator during a feeding operation to pull-back, hold, and align the original and the copy sheet at will through the slippage afforded by the cooperating pairs of plastic tires such as 31, 34 and 33, 34.

With reference now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown a control means 64 for reversing the direction of rotation and reducing the speed of the feed-in rollers from a preset copying speed, to the slow mode in response to the condition where the feed-in rollers have been raised by finger insertion beyond a safe point by the operator or through the inadvertent feeding into the rollers of a foreign object.

The control means 64 is provided at each end of the upper floating shaft 32. Because the control means are the same in operation and construction, only one will be described hereinafter.

The end of the shaft 32 is rotatably supported in a bushing 66 mounted in a block 68. The block 68 is secured to the side plate 48 and the bushing 66 is retained against endwise movement by a lock ring 70. Additionally, the periphery of the bushing 66 is provided with a pair of opposed flats 72 and 74 for positioning the bushing 66 for vertical movement within a channel 76 of the block 68.

Also mounted on the side plate 48 is a micro-switch 80 having a plunger 82 in line with the bushing 66. Hence, anytime feed-in roller sections 30 are raised either by the operator's fingers passing under the rollers beyond a safe distance during a feeding operation, or by a foreign object, the bushing 66 is also raised and acts against the plunger 82 to actuate the switch 80.

A separate switch 80 and 80' is provided at each end of the shaft 32 so that either end of the shaft 32 carrying the feed-in rollers 30 may be tilted when the feed-in rollers are raised to thereby move either of the bushings 66 to a position to actuate a respective switch 80 or 80'.

From the above description, it will be appreciated that the soft upper roller sections greatly facilitate the feeding of curled and wrinkled originals without imposing any hazards to the machine operator insofar as the operator's fingers being caught in the feed-in rollers.

Thus, the operator's fingers may be inserted under the soft rollers as shown in FIG. 9 to hold down the curled leading edge of the original until the original and the copy sheet are gripped by the rollers and fed into the machine. Thereafter, the nylon bristles act against the original document to provide a smoothing action thereto to avoid curling, wrinkling, creasing or uneven feeding of the superposed original and copy sheet.

Because of the soft bristles on the upper roller, the operator's fingers are not exposed to any danger so long as the fingers are not inserted beyond a safe distance. However, if the finger should be inserted too far under the rollers, the rollers will be raised and cause the machine to drive the rollers in reverse direction in a slow mode feed to avoid injury to the operator.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram of relevant segments of the total electrical circuit of the photocopying machine disclosed in the present invention. All of the relay contacts are shown in their unenergized states.

A motor 130 supplies the driving power for the feed-in rollers 24. A field 132 of the motor is connected directly to power through a full wave rectifier 134. An armature 136 of the motor 130 is likewise connected to power through a full wave rectifier 138. However, the armature connection is made through contact sets 141-1, 141-2 and 141-3, 141-4 of a latching relay 141 which may be utilized to reverse the voltage polarity of the power and cause the motor 130 to reverse direction.

Depressing either of the feed board switches 102 or 104 (FIG. 1) results in a relay 144 being energized. The switches 102, and 104 are two position switches such that the relay 144 remains energized until one of the switches is again depressed. These switches operate the slow mode portion of the machine which allows the superposed copy and original to be started into the machine at a slower speed than the normal forward speed as claimed in the above noted U.S. application Ser. No. 350,239. Such a mode is desirable to permit proper alignment of the copy and original as they are fed into the feed rollers 24 of the machine.

A variable drive speed transformer 146 is connected across the AC power. This transformer supplies power to the rectifier 138 and to the armature 136 of the motor 130. A wiper 148 on the transformer 146 allows the voltage, and, therefore, the speed of the motor 130, to be adjusted to any value within the range of the transformer. Control of the wiper 148 is accessible at the machine control panel 106. The lead from the wiper 148 contains a fuse 150 to protect the transformer against overload. This wiper lead is then routed through two sets of relay contacts 141-5, 141-6 and 144-1, 144-2. Under normal operating conditions, i.e., forward, normal speed sheet movement, the relay contacts 141-5 and 144-1 are closed and cause the wiper 148 to be connected to the rectifier 138 and to the armature 136. Either the relay contacts 141-6 (through contacts 144-1) or relay contacts 144-2, when closed, may alternatively connect the rectifier 138 to a fixed transformer output 152. This fixed transformer output connection results in slower speed of the motor 130 for slow mode and reverse operation.

In the slow mode operation of the machine, when either feed board switch 102 or 104 (FIG. 1) is depressed, relay 144 is energized and the normally open relay contact 144-2 closes and switches the rectifier 138 connection from the wiper 148 to the fixed output 152. This reduces the voltage across the armature 136 and thus the speed of the motor 130.

The direction in which the copy machine feeds a superposed copy and original is determined by the latching relay 141 having latching coil 142 and release coil 140. Energizing coil 142 moves the relay contacts to forward position and latches them. Energizing coil 140 releases the latch and permits the relay contacts to return to reverse position.

Under normal operating conditions the copy machine 100 is conditioned to feed in a forward direction at a normal speed as set at the control panel 106 with the relay 141 latched in its forward state, in which the relay contacts 141-1 and 141-3 are latched closed. Thus, the voltage from the rectifier 138 will be in a forward direction across the armature 136 of the motor 130. The relay contact 141-5 is closed, connecting the input of the rectifier 138 to the wiper 148 of the transformer 146 for normal, full speed feeding. Relay contacts 141-7 are in a closed state in order to condition the circuit so that the copy machine may be subsequently reversed by depressing the push button direction switch 108.

The direction of the machine may be reversed by either of two methods. As discussed above, the control means 64, including microswitches 80 or 80', FIG. 8, is located above each end of the feed-in rollers 24. Either of these switches 80 or 80' when activated causes the machine to reduce speed and reverse whenever the roller ends are lifted by any article large enough to raise the roller. Depression of the direction switch 108 on the ctonrol panel 106 also causes the machine to reverse. This may be desirable if for any reason the superposed copy and original require removal from the machine once feeding has started.

When either of the microswitches 80 or 80' is activated by upward movement of the feed-in rollers 30, power is connected to the release coil 140. Upon energization of the coil 140 the contact sets 141-1, 141-2 and 141-3, 141-4 change states. This results in the voltage across the motor armature 136 being reversed. Also the contact set 141-5, 141-6 changes states resulting in the power to the rectifier 138 input being connected to the fixed transformer output 152 rather than to the wiper 148. This results in the voltage supplied to the armature 136 being the low speed value for slow mode operation. Thus, the operator is allowed to make adjustments in the alignment, etc., of the superposed copy and the original. Also, the relay contact set 141-8 changes states, i.e., closes, to condition the circuit so that the forward or latching coil 142 may be subsequently energized when the direction switch 108 on the control panel 106 is depressed.

The motor 130 will continue to run at a slow speed and in reverse direction after either microswitch 80 or 80' is activated until the direction switch 108 is depressed. At such a time, the forward coil 142 is energized, unlatching the relay 141 and all contacts return to their initial described positions. That is, relay contacts sets 141-1, 144-2 and 141-3, 141-4 reverse causing the motor to run forward once again. Relay contact set 141-5, 141-6 also changes and thus returns the speed of the motor 130 to the normal preselected speed according to the transformer wiper 148. The relay contacts 141-7 change state, i.e., closes, to again condition the circuit for subsequent energization of coil 140 through activation of the direction switch 108. Likewise, the relay contacts 141-8 are caused to open so that the energization of the forward coil 142 by the switch 108 is prevented.

Referring now to operation of the reversal and restoring action solely by the manual switch 108, with the motor 130 running in the forward direction, the direction switch 108 may be depressed to cause the copy machine to reverse the feed direction. Energization of the reverse coil 140 is through relay contacts 141-7, which are closed. The reversing of the motor 130 occurs in the same way as described above when either of the microwswitches 80 or 80' is activated by upward movement of the feed-in rollers 30. The motor 130 runs at the fixed slow speed in reverse. This reverse running will continue until the direction switch 108 is again activated. At this time the copy machine will return to the preselected forward speed, and this occurs in the same manner as described in the immediately preceding paragraph.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet feed-in apparatus for feeding a superposed sensitized copy and an original into a copying machine, comprising:

a pair of feed-in rollers including a first roller and a second roller rotatably driven in timed relation at a given speed and direction of rotation;

said first roller including a plurality of roller sections mounted on a common shaft and each provided with a compliant peripheral covering coacting with the surface of the original being fed;

mounting means for supporting the first roller for movement between a first position in which the roller sections are in feeding engagement with the original, and a second position in which at least one end of the first roller is vertically separated from the second roller in response to at least one of the roller sections being spaced from the original by a foreign object attempting to pass into the nip of the feed-in rollers; and

switch means actuable in response to movement of the first roller to the second position for reversing the direction of rotation of the feed-in rollers.

2. A sheet feed-in apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which the peripheral coverings of the roller sections include nylon tufted bristles disposed in a helical formation.

3. A sheet feed-in apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which the peripheral coverings of the roller sections include a covering of urethane foam.

4. A sheet feed in apparatus as set forth in claim 1 in which said switch means is responsive to movement of said first roller to the second position for simultaneously reversing the rotation and reducing the speed of said feed-in rollers.

5. A sheet feed-in apparatus as set forth in claim 1 which further includes means controlled by the switch means for reducing the speed of the feed-in rollers to a predetermined speed.

6. A sheet feed-in apparatus as set forth in claim 5 which further includes a manually operable means for restoring the feed-in rollers to said given speed and direction of rotation.

7. A sheet feed-in apparatus for receiving and directing a superposed sensitized copy and an original document into a copying machine, comprising:

a pair of feed-in rollers including a first roller and a second roller driven in timed relation;

said first roller including a plurality of roller sections mounted on a common shaft and each having a peripheral covering of nylon tufted bristles arranged in a spiral configuration to afford a smoothing action against the surface of the original document being fed into the machine;

mounting means for supporting the first roller for movement between a first position in which the roller sections are in engagement with the original document, and a second position in which at least one end of the first roller is vertically separated from the second roller in response to at least one of the roller sections being spaced from the original document by a foreign object attempting to pass between the first and the second rollers; and

switch means actuable in response to movement of the first roller to the second position for reversing the direction of rotation of the feed-in rollers to thereby prevent passage of a foreign object into the machine.

8. In a copying machine including a sheet feed-in apparatus having an entryway and an exitway for receiving and directing a superposed sensitized copy and an original into the copying machine, said sheet feed-in apparatus comprising:

a pair of feed-in rollers including a first roller and a second roller rotatably mounted adjacent the entryway;

said first roller including a plurality of roller sections mounted on a common shaft;

mounting means for supporting the first roller of said feed-in rollers for movement between a first position in which the roller sections are in contact engagement with the second roller and a second position in which at least one end of the first roller is vertically separated from the second roller in response to at least one of the roller sections being moved out of contact engagement with the second roller;

a pair of feed rollers including an upper roller and a lower roller rotatably mounted adjacent the exitway;

drive means for positively rotating the second roller of said feed-in rollers and the lower roller of said feed rollers in timed relation in a direction to advance the sheets towards the exitway when the first roller of said feed-in rollers is in the first position; and

switch means actuable in response to movement of the first roller of said feed-in rollers to the second position for reversing the direction of rotation of the driven rollers;

whereby the first roller of said feed-in rollers is moved to the second position in response to at least one of the roller sections being held out of contact engagement with the second roller by a foreign object attempting to pass into the nip of the feed-in rollers.

9. A sheet feed-in apparatus as set forth in claim 8 in which the roller sections of the first roller are each provided with a compliant peripheral covering in contact feeding engagement with the original being fed to provide a wiping, uncurling action to the original, and to allow for partial withdrawal of the original and the copy for register realignment of the sheets.