There are known in the prior art various forms of sheet handling devices which are adapted, for example, to count sheets of currency or the like at a high rate of speed. One such device is shown in DiBlasio U.S. Pat. No. 4,474,365 issued Oct. 2, 1984. In the arrangement shown in this patent, sheets of currency or the like are removed from the bottom of the stack and fed one by one by means of feed rollers and cooperating stripper shoes along a curved path formed by a curved guide mounted adjacent to the feed rollers. An idling accelerating roller which is coaxial with the feed rollers and a driven accelerator roller form a nip adjacent to the lower end of the curved guide for receiving advancing sheets and feeding them to a stacker or the like.
In operation of the apparatus described above, under the action of the feed rollers and strippers sheets being advanced are pushed against the curved guide as they advance toward the accelerating roller nip. When the sheets are picked up by the accelerating rollers, they are snapped against the feed rollers, producing a popping noise which at high speeds of operation is both annoying and distracting.
In the arrangement shown in the DiBlasio patent, the stripper shoes associated with the respective feed rollers are mounted on arms pivoted around a common shaft. One end of a latch spring is secured to a shaft on the frame and the other end engages a rod connecting the two stripper support arms to urge the stripper shoes toward the feed rolls. The frame-carried shaft has eccentric cam surfaces which are engaged by set screws on the stripper arms. Rotation of the shaft provides concomitant adjustment of both of the stripper shoes relative to their respective feed rolls. The set screws provide individual adjustment of the stripper shoes. While the stripper shoe adjustment just described is generally satisfactory, it is not as precise as is desirable. It is essentially a trial and error adjustment rather than a predetermined adjustment. It suffers from the additional disadvantage that it requires the cover of the machine to be removed for adjustment.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds