Apparatus for separating and monitoring of bl feeder} {leaves of a stack along a crowned} ned web to form a dispensing location

摘要

A stack of sheets arranged in an input stacker pass through a nip formed by cooperating feed rollers and stripper assemblies, which serve to separate sheets and feed them one at a time toward an acceleration assembly comprised of acceleration roller and cooperating idler means to form a gap between adjacent sheets for counting the sheets. The accelerated sheets are then fed into an output stacker. Belts couple drive from the accelerating drive rollers to accelerating driven rollers rotatable about an axis coaxial with the feed rollers and also cooperate with stationary guides to cause the sheets to experience some acceleration prior to reaching the acceleration nips. Resilient members cooperate with the feed roller to halt a sheet, in the event of an abrupt halt during normal operation to prevent the sheet from advancing to the acceleration nip. The use of closed loop belts as part of the acceleration apparatus enables the handling and counting sheets in a broader range of sheet length, while avoiding the need for increasing the size of the feed rollers.