Workers in the art of transporting documents along a track and reliably diverting them realize that there are certain difficulties that seem to persist. This case proposes a "smart gate" for such diversion and/or for sensing such.
Workers will recognize that high speed handling of documents (e.g., checks) is of increasing concern to banks today. A particular problem lies in how best to divert and decelerate or stop such documents transported along a track at high speed, where document-weight can vary considerably. Thus, a salient object hereof is to decelerate documents reliably, for a wide range of document weights and sizes, especially where inter-document spacing may be small, such as in high speed document transports and sorters.
A more particular object is to provide a "wave-spring" or like flexure that has a "bubble" and is controllably bent to offer increased deceleration to accommodate increasing document-weight, especially as sensed by document-detect means.
For instance, it is problematic to supply the exact document decelerating forces that are necessary for reliable document handling and stacking, e.g., to minimize damage to leading edges of documents as they are stopped and stacked in a sort pocket.
Workers realize that conventional document deceleration devices are tuned for average document size and weight. But many document processors, such as check sorters and postal sorters, for example, must deal with a variety of document sizes and weights. Consequently, lighter-weight documents are decelerated too much, too quickly, and therefore not likely to stack properly, e.g., with all their leading edges aligned. Misalignment of leading edges is often undesirable; e.g., giving problems in further machine processing (of a check-stack).
Heavier documents, on the other hand, are often not decelerated enough, or quickly enough. Consequently their leading edges can impact the back wall of a stacker pocket at high velocity; e.g., such as to damage the document or cause it to bounce back and not line up with other documents.
It is an object here to address such problems, and particularly to provide a document handling system that reliably and efficiently decelerates documents in a fairly constant fashion, despite (and relatively independent of) varying document size and weight--preferably doing so by detecting and computing document conditions prior to document deceleration, then adjusting deceleration parameters accordingly--i.e., using "smart" stop means.
Systems according to this invention are preferably designed to "tailor" document deceleration forces so that they are smaller for lighter documents and larger for heavier documents. This results in more uniform line-up of all documents regardless of size and weight. It also minimizes the impact velocity of larger, heavier, documents, so that damage to their leading edges is minimized.
Thus, a general object hereof is to address the here-mentioned problems, and provide advantages as suggested herein. A related object is to enhance the simple, reliable selective deceleration of checks and other documents in a deceleration-station, such as a sort-pocket.
A more particular object is to quickly, reliably selectively stop documents, despite high transport speed, despite close document spacing and despite varying document weight. A related object is to do so simply and inexpensively, with simple, inexpensive "spring-bubble" means. A particular object is to do this using weight-adjust means for maintaining a similar decelerate mode for both light and heavy documents--especially using a shape-adjustable, "bubbled" wave spring or other flexure with associated adjust means.
In sum, it is an object hereof to address at least some of the foregoing needs and to provide one or several of the foregoing, and other, solutions.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds