A feeding device comprises a plurality of cassettes capable of supporting thereon copy mediums, a cassette cradle for holding the cassettes in an operatively associated relationship with one another, feed means for feeding the copy mediums, control means for controlling the feed means to intermittently feed the copy mediums, and means for selectively displacing the cassette cradle to at least two positions to selectively locate at least one of the cassettes at a position where it may be acted on by the feed means, whereby copy mediums may be fed from one of the cassettes.
A paper supply device includes a plurality of feeders for feeding sheets of paper respectively. An actuator actuates one of the feeders which is used for feeding the paper. A detector respectively detects the frequency of the use of the feeders actuated by the actuator. An indicator indicates the result of the detection for the respective feeders according to the frequency of the use of the feeder detected by the detector.
An automatic paper feeding arrangement for use in a copying machine and the like having a plurality of stages of paper feeding sections for feeding the paper at a selected one of the paper feeding sections. The automatic paper feeding arrangement includes a circuitry for detecting the presence of the paper at each of the paper feeding sections, and a control circuit for cancelling the designation of the paper feeding section previously effected, based on the signal from the detecting circuit when the paper becomes absent in each of the paper feeding sections, and also for designating the paper feeding section in which the paper is initially loaded, based on the signal from the detecting circuit when the paper is loaded in any of the paper feeding sections.
The invention relates to an apparatus for automatic feeding of one document at a time to a document processing machine. The apparatus (10) includes a movable horizontal turntable (12) on which bins (C1, C2, . . . , C8) are affixed, each containing a stack of documents. A drive device (15, 16, 28) controls the displacement of the turntable in order to move a preselected bin into an unloading position (90), facing the processing machine (11). The turntable is provided with bin identification (ME1, ME2, . . . , ME8), and the drive device is controlled by a control circuit (91) that excites the drive device in such a way that the displacement of the turntable to move a preselected bin into the position (90) is effected by the smallest possible rotation. The invention is applicable to sheet feeding to a printing machine.
A paper cassette for storing two different lengths of paper sheets. The cassette comprises a rear panel, a pair of side panels extending forward from the rear panel, a front panel operatively connected to the pair of side panels, a bottom panel extending between the bottom of the side panels from the bottom of the rear panel about three quarters of the distance toward the bottom of the front panel, and a top panel extending between the top of the side panels from the top of the rear panel about three quarters of the distance toward the top of the front panel. Additionally, the cassette comprises a first pair of free floating corner separators situated at the top of the corners defined by the front and side panels, a second pair of free floating corner separators situated at the bottom of the corners defined by the front and side panels, a flexible separator panel extending from the rear panel substantially the entire length of the cassette but spaced from said front panel and substantially bifurcating the cassette into a top portion and a bottom portion, the top portion accommodating the shorter length paper and the bottom portion accommodating the longer length paper, and a partition extending between the side panels across the top portion of the cassette, the partition being situated a fixed distance from the rear panel to accommodate the shorter length paper.
A detection system for detecting the size of a print medium. A hollow tube is positioned adjacent the paper or print medium. An ultrasonic transducer apparatus launches pulses of ultrasonic energy into the tube, and is responsive to ultrasonic echoes of the pulses to convert echo pulse energy into electrical detected signals. A flag positioning apparatus selectively positions a blocking flag within the tube at a location spaced from the transducer apparatus which is indicative of a print medium size. A controller responds to the electrical detected signals to determine a print medium size. The flag positioning apparatus can provide a single flag movable along a longitudinal extent of the tube, or a set of flags spaced along the longitudinal extent, one or more of which are selectably deflected by the print medium.
