EP0324245A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Copier with a recirculating document handler
Assignee: Xerox Corp
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Filing: 1988-12-14
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2008-12-14
Abstract
Abstract A copier with a (RDH) (20), has a document stacking tray (21) into which a set of document sheets is loaded for recirculative precollation copying, and a separate (SADH) document inlet (22) provided for semiautomatic non-precollation copying, utilizing a document gate for selectably directing documents to this tray or to be ejected from the RDH. All document jobs to be copied may be preloaded, and left unattended, for automatic sequential loading and copying, in a common stack, face-down, as a batched plurality of intermixed documents and document set jobs interleaved with job slip sheets, in a job loader (F) adjacent the RDH which sequentially top feeds the documents into the SADH document entrance. Documents selected by slip sheet indicia or otherwise to be precollation copied are automatically loaded into the RDH stacking tray one job batch at a time, or up to a preset document tray capacity, and then automatically recirculatively copied, and then automatically unloaded and ejected. RDH jobs with a number of documents exceeding the tray capacity are automatically divided, separately loaded, and separately recirculated, in sub-job sets of documents. Documents to be copied in a non-precollation copying mode are not loaded in the RDH tray and not recirculated, and automatically ejected. This reloading, selective copying, and ejecting is repeated in job batches until all preloaded documents have been copied.
Inventors
- 👤 Thomas Acquaviva
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-09 17:05
CPC Classifications
G; G03; G03G; G03G15/00; G03G15/50; G03G15/60; G03G2215/00; G03G2215/00172; G03G2215/00177; G03G2215/00181; G03G2215/00185
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 14
Claim 1
Independent Claim
306 words
A copier with a recirculating document handler (RDH) (20) for recirculating and repeatedly sequentially presenting documents to the platen (23) of the copier for copying, wherein the RDH has a document-stacking tray (21) adapted to receive for recirculative precollation copying a set of documents loaded therein of up to a preset number, and wherein the RDH also has a separate, alternative, document inlet (22) for receiving documents and feeding them to the platen for non-recirculative, non-precollation, copying, and means for ejecting documents from the RDH which have been fed to the platen from the inlet, and means for selectively feeding documents to the document ejector or to the document stacking tray, and means for controlling the operation of the RDH; copier comprising: document job batch loading means, connecting with the alternative document inlet, comprising means for stacking a plurality of document set jobs, and means for sequentially feeding documents individually from a stack thereof in the stacking means to the alternative inlet; job mode selection means communicating with the control means to provide information for the control means for documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the alternative inlet to determine whether to operate the RDH in a recirculative precollation copying mode or a non-recirculative, non-precollation, copying mode; the control means, when the documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the alternative inlet are so determined to be copied in a recirculative precollation copying mode, operating the RDH and the document gate means thereof to load the documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the inlet automatically and sequentially into the document stacking tray, up to the preset number, and then to recirculate automatically and repeatedly sequentially present the documents to the platen, and then to automatically eject the documents from the RDH with the document ejector.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
306 words
A copier with a recirculating document handler (RDH) (20) for recirculating and repeatedly sequentially presenting documents to the platen (23) of the copier for copying, wherein the RDH has a document-stacking tray (21) adapted to receive for recirculative precollation copying a set of documents loaded therein of up to a preset number, and wherein the RDH also has a separate, alternative, document inlet (22) for receiving documents and feeding them to the platen for non-recirculative, non-precollation, copying, and means for ejecting documents from the RDH which have been fed to the platen from the inlet, and means for selectively feeding documents to the document ejector or to the document stacking tray, and means for controlling the operation of the RDH; copier comprising: document job batch loading means, connecting with the alternative document inlet, comprising means for stacking a plurality of document set jobs, and means for sequentially feeding documents individually from a stack thereof in the stacking means to the alternative inlet; job mode selection means communicating with the control means to provide information for the control means for documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the alternative inlet to determine whether to operate the RDH in a recirculative precollation copying mode or a non-recirculative, non-precollation, copying mode; the control means, when the documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the alternative inlet are so determined to be copied in a recirculative precollation copying mode, operating the RDH and the document gate means thereof to load the documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the inlet automatically and sequentially into the document stacking tray, up to the preset number, and then to recirculate automatically and repeatedly sequentially present the documents to the platen, and then to automatically eject the documents from the RDH with the document ejector.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
34 words
The copier of claim 1, wherein the job mode selection means includes job separation means communicating with the control means to indicate the feeding of separate document jobs by the job batch loading means.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
108 words
The copier of claim 2, wherein if the number of the the documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the inlet for a single precollation copying job exceeds the preset number of the document stacking tray before the job separation means communicates with the control means to indicate the feeding of a separate copying job, the single precollation copying job is automatically divided into separately-recirculated sub-job sets of documents of a number not exceeding the preset number, and the documents being fed by the document job feeding means to the inlet are automatically interrupted during the recirculations of the separately recirculated sub-job sets of documents.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
43 words
The copier of claim 2 or 3, wherein the job separation means comprises slip sheets interleaved between separate document jobs and fed with the document sheets from the document job batch loading means, and means for detecting the feeding of the slip sheets.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
46 words
The copier of any of claims 2 - 4, wherein variable indicia on the slip sheets function as copying-mode selectors, and means for reading indicia on the slip sheets control the control means to copy documents in accordance with the mode indicated by the respective indicia.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
101 words
The copier of any preceding claim, wherein the means for stacking a plurality of documents and document set jobs in the document job batch loading means is adapted to stack all the document job sets face-down in a common stack, and the document job feeding means comprises a top feeder for sequentially feeding the topmost document sheet in the common stack directly to the alternative document inlet without inversion; and wherein the copier further includes job output inverting and stacking means for commonly stacking all document set jobs face-up in a common stack after ejection of the documents from the RDH.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
306 words
A method for sequentially recirculatively presenting document sheets to the platen (23) of a copier for precollation copying with a recirculating document handler (RDH), wherein the RDH has a document stacking tray into which a set of document sheets is loaded for recirculative precollation copying, up to a preset sheet number, and wherein the RDH also has a separate, alternative, document inlet (22) for receiving document sheets and feeding them to the platen, and means for ejecting document sheets from the RDH after copying, and means for selectably feeding document sheets to the document ejector or to the document stacking tray, and means for controlling the operation of the RDH; the method comprising the steps of: stacking document sheets to be copied as a batched plurality of document set jobs in a job loader adjacent the RDH; sequentially feeding document sheets individually from the job loader to the alternative inlet; selecting whether to operate the RDH to copy the document sheets in a recirculative precollation copying mode or in a non-recirculative, non-precollation, copying mode; when the document sheets are selected to be copied in a recirculative precollation copying mode, operating the RDH and document feeder to load a document set job automatically and sequentially into the document stacking tray, up to the preset number, and then automatically recirculatively copying those document sheets, and then automatically ejecting those document sheets from the RDH with the document ejector; when the document sheets are selected to be copied in a non-recirculative non-precollation copying mode, operating the RDH and the document feeder to copy and then eject those document sheets from the RDH with the document ejector without recirculation and without loading those document sheets into the document stacking tray; and then automatically feeding further document sheets from the job loader into the inlet for copying in a selected mode.
Claim 9
Independent Claim
306 words
A method for sequentially recirculatively presenting document sheets to the platen (23) of a copier for precollation copying with a recirculating document handler (RDH), wherein the RDH has a document stacking tray into which a set of document sheets is loaded for recirculative precollation copying, up to a preset sheet number, and wherein the RDH also has a separate, alternative, document inlet (22) for receiving document sheets and feeding them to the platen, and means for ejecting document sheets from the RDH after copying, and means for selectably feeding document sheets to the document ejector or to the document stacking tray, and means for controlling the operation of the RDH; the method comprising the steps of: stacking document sheets to be copied as a batched plurality of document set jobs in a job loader adjacent the RDH; sequentially feeding document sheets individually from the job loader to the alternative inlet; selecting whether to operate the RDH to copy the document sheets in a recirculative precollation copying mode or in a non-recirculative, non-precollation, copying mode; when the document sheets are selected to be copied in a recirculative precollation copying mode, operating the RDH and document feeder to load a document set job automatically and sequentially into the document stacking tray, up to the preset number, and then automatically recirculatively copying those document sheets, and then automatically ejecting those document sheets from the RDH with the document ejector; when the document sheets are selected to be copied in a non-recirculative non-precollation copying mode, operating the RDH and the document feeder to copy and then eject those document sheets from the RDH with the document ejector without recirculation and without loading those document sheets into the document stacking tray; and then automatically feeding further document sheets from the job loader into the inlet for copying in a selected mode.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
91 words
The method of claim 7, wherein if the number of the documents being fed from the job loader to the inlet in a single document set job exceeds the preset capacity number of the document stacking tray, the document set job is automatically divided and separately loaded in the document stacking tray, and separately recirculated, sub-job sets of document sheets of a number not exceeding the preset number, the feeding of document sheets from the job loader being interrupted during the recirculations of the separately recirculated sub-job sets of document sheets.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
39 words
The method of claim 7 or 8, including interleaving slip sheets between separate document set jobs in the job loader, and feeding them with the document sheets to indicate separate document set jobs automatically and to maintain job separations.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
18 words
The method of claim 9, including reading the slip sheets to control the subsequent copying of document sheets.
Claim 13
Independent Claim
46 words
The method of any of claims 7 - 10, including stacking the plurality of document set jobs face-down in a common stack in the job loader and feeding the document sheets sequentially from the top of the common stack to inlet of the RDH without inversion.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
17 words
The method of claim 11, wherein after copying, the document sheets are ejected, inverted and restacked face-up.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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