Drum driven document back-up roller

Claim 2

In a document read station in document reading apparatus wherein magnetized encoded indicia on the documents is read by a read head as the documents are individually transported at high speed by and along the peripheral surface of a transport drum, a rotatably mounted predeterminedly-configured roller disposed on cooperable driven relationship relative to said drum and in backup supporting relationship relative to said read head, said roller comprising: a. a unitary hub member rotatably supported on a fixed shaft in contiguous vertical and horizontal alignment with said read head, b. a first resilient ring fixed to said hub member in cooperAting relationship with said peripheral surface of said drum, and c. a second resilient ring fixed to said hub member in spaced apart relationship with said first ring and disposed in predetermined clearing relationship with said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and in frictional back-up and driving contact with a said document during the transport thereof through said read station, whereby said roller is rotated directly by said transport drum by means of said first ring and in clearing wear-preventing relationship with said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and rotated at a continuing uniform speed by said first ring through a said transported document upon entry thereof into said read station to thereby provide intimate contact of said document with said read head by means of said second ring and to prevent misreading of documents caused either by documents skewing or by the inertial resistance to the leading edges of the documents upon entry thereof into the read station.

Claim 3

The predeterminedly-configured roller as defined in claim 1 wherein said first and said second rings are made of an elastic material having a high coefficient of friction with said peripheral surface of said transport drum and with the broadside of said documents transported individually through said read station.

Claim 4

The predeterminedly-configured roller as defined in claim 1 wherein the radial thickness of said first ring fixed to said hub member is greater than the radial thickness of said second ring by an amount less than the thickness of said encoded documents transported through said read station of said apparatus.

Claim 5

The predeterminedly-configured roller as defined in claim 3 wherein, as determined by said radial thicknesses of said first and said second rings and by the mounting of said roller in said driven cooperable relationship with said transported drum and in said back-up supporting relationship with said read head, said first ring compressibly cooperates with a portion of said peripheral surface of said drum when a document is not present in said read station, and said second ring spans the vertical linear dimension of an operative end of said read head and is displaced therefrom by a distance less than the thickness of said encoded documents transported through said read station.

Claim 6

The predeterminedly-configured roller as defined in claim 4 wherein, as determined by said radial thicknesses of said first and said second rings and by the mounting of said roller in said driven cooperable relationship with said transport drum and in said back-up supporting relationship with said read head, said first ring compressibly cooperates with and is driven by the backside of a document when a document is transportably positioned in said read station, and said second ring compressibly cooperates with the backside of said transported document to thereby hold said document in frictional back-up and driving contact with said operative end of said read head.

Claim 7

In machine reading apparatus for reading ferromagnetic indicia encoded on documents, said apparatus having a document input hopper and a document output stacker, guideway means communicating with said hopper and said stacker, transport means associated with said guideway means and effective for transporting documents at high speed along said guideway means from said hopper to said stacker, an improved document processing station including a write station and a read station disposed intermediate said hopper and said stacker and additionally comprising: a. a driven transport drum forming a part of said transport means, b. a magnetizing head located in said write station and effective for magnetizing said ferromagnetic indicia encoded on said documents as said documents are transported thereby by said transport drum, c. at least one read head located in said read station and disposed downstream of said write station, operative ends of said magnetizing heaD and said read head being vertically and coplanarly aligned with the periphery of said transport drum and spaced apart a minimal predetermined distance therefrom, d. an endless belt rotatable about a plurality of triangularly arranged rollers such that a portion of the belt is disposed in frictional contact with a corresponding portion of the periphery of said transport drum to be rotated thereby in the direction of document transport, and e. a rotatably mounted predeterminedly-configured roller disposed in cooperable driven relationship relative to said drum and in back-up supporting relationship to said operative end of said read head, said roller being comprised of a unitary hub member and a first and a second resilient ring fixed to said hub member in spaced-apart relationship, whereby said predeterminedly configured roller is rotated directly by said drum by means of said first ring and in clearing wear-preventing relationship with said operative end of said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and rotated at a continuing uniform speed by said first ring through a said transported document upon entry thereof into said read station to thereby provide intimate contact of said document with said operative end of said read head by means of said second ring and to prevent misreading of documents caused either by document skewing or by the inertial resistance to the leading edges of the documents upon entry thereof into the read station.

Claim 8

In machine reading apparatus for reading ferromagnetic indicia encoded on documents, said apparatus having a document input hopper and a document output stacker, guideway means communicating with said hopper and said stacker, transport means associated with said guideway means and effective for transporting documents at high speed along said guideway means from said hopper to said stacker, an improved document processing station including a write station and a read station disposed intermediate said hopper and said stacker and additionally comprising: a. a driven transport drum forming a part of said transport means, b. a magnetizing head located in said write station and effective for magnetizing said ferromagnetic indicia encoded on said documents as said documents are transported thereby by said transport drum, c. at least one read head located in said read station and disposed downstream of said write station, operative ends of said magnetizing heaD and said read head being vertically and coplanarly aligned with the periphery of said transport drum and spaced apart a minimal predetermined distance therefrom, d. an endless belt rotatable about a plurality of triangularly arranged rollers such that a portion of the belt is disposed in frictional contact with a corresponding portion of the periphery of said transport drum to be rotated thereby in the direction of document transport, and e. a rotatably mounted predeterminedly-configured roller disposed in cooperable driven relationship relative to said drum and in back-up supporting relationship to said operative end of said read head, said roller being comprised of a unitary hub member and a first and a second resilient ring fixed to said hub member in spaced-apart relationship, whereby said predeterminedly configured roller is rotated directly by said drum by means of said first ring and in clearing wear-preventing relationship with said operative end of said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and rotated at a continuing uniform speed by said first ring through a said transported document upon entry thereof into said read station to thereby provide intimate contact of said document with said operative end of said read head by means of said second ring and to prevent misreading of documents caused either by document skewing or by the inertial resistance to the leading edges of the documents upon entry thereof into the read station.

Claim 9

The improved document processing station defined in claim 6 wherein said first and said second rings of said predeterminedly configured roller are made of an elastic material having a high coefficient of friction with said transport drum and with the broadside of said documents transported individually through said read station.

Claim 10

The improved document processing station defined in claim 6 wherein the radial thickness of said first ring of said predeterminedly-configured roller is greater than the radial thickness of said second ring by an amount less than the thickness of said documents transported through said read station.

Claim 11

The improved document processing station defined in claim 8 wherein, as determined by said radial thicknesses of said first and said second rings and by the mounting of said predeterminedly configured roller in said driven cooperating relationship with said transport drum and in said back-up supporting relationship with said read head, said first ring compressibly cooperates with a portion of the peripheral surface of said drum when a document is not present in said read station, and said second ring spans the vertical linear dimension of the operative end of said read head and is displaced therefrom by a distance less than the thickness of said documents transported through said read station.

Claim 12

The improved document processing station defined in claim 8 wherein, as determined by said radial thicknesses of said first and said second rings and by the mounting of said predeterminedly configured roller in said driven cooperating relationship with said transport drum and in said back-up supporting relationship with said read head, said first ring compressibly cooperates with and is driven by the backside of a document when a document is transportably positioned in said read station, and said second ring compressibly cooperates with the backside of said transported document to thereby hold said document in frictional back-up and driving contact with the operative end of said read head.

Claim 13

A rotatably mounted predeterminedly configured roller for use in association with a transport drum and a magnetic read head located in a read station in document reading apparatus, said read head being effective for reading ferromagnetic indicia encoded on documents as said documents are transported past said read head by said transport drum, said roller comprising: a. a unitary hub member rotatably supported on a fixed shaft in contiguous vertical and horizontal alignMent with said read head, b. a first resilient ring fixed to said hub member in cooperating relationship with the peripheral surface of said drum, and c. a second resilient ring fixed to said hub member in spaced-apart relationship with said first ring and disposed in predetermined clearing relationship with said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and in frictional back-up and driving contact with a said document during the transport thereof through said read station, whereby said roller is rotated directly by said transport drum by means of said first ring and in clearing wear-preventing relationship with said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and rotated at a continuing uniform speed by said first ring through a transported document upon entry thereof into said read station to thereby provide intimate contact of said document with said read head by means of said second ring to thereby prevent misreading of the documents caused either by document skewing or by the inertial resistance to the leading edges of the documents upon entry thereof into said read station.

Claim 14

A rotatably mounted predeterminedly configured roller for use in association with a transport drum and a magnetic read head located in a read station in document reading apparatus, said read head being effective for reading ferromagnetic indicia encoded on documents as said documents are transported past said read head by said transport drum, said roller comprising: a. a unitary hub member rotatably supported on a fixed shaft in contiguous vertical and horizontal alignMent with said read head, b. a first resilient ring fixed to said hub member in cooperating relationship with the peripheral surface of said drum, and c. a second resilient ring fixed to said hub member in spaced-apart relationship with said first ring and disposed in predetermined clearing relationship with said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and in frictional back-up and driving contact with a said document during the transport thereof through said read station, whereby said roller is rotated directly by said transport drum by means of said first ring and in clearing wear-preventing relationship with said read head when a document is not present in said read station, and rotated at a continuing uniform speed by said first ring through a transported document upon entry thereof into said read station to thereby provide intimate contact of said document with said read head by means of said second ring to thereby prevent misreading of the documents caused either by document skewing or by the inertial resistance to the leading edges of the documents upon entry thereof into said read station.

Claim 15

The roller defined in claim 11 wherein said first and said second rings are made of an elastic material having a high coefficient of friction with said peripheral surface of said transport drum and with a broadside of said documents transported individually through said read station.

Claim 16

The roller defined in claim 11 wherein the radial thickness of said first ring fixed to said hub member is greater than the radial thickness of said second ring by an amount less than the thickness of said encoded documents transported by said drum through said read station.

Claim 17

The roller defined in claim 13 wherein, as determined by said radial thicknesses of said first and said second rings and by the mounting of said roller relative to said transport drum and to said read head, said first ring compressibly cooperates with a portion of said peripheral surface of said drum when a document is not present in said read station, and said second ring spans the vertical linear dimension of an operative end of said read head and is displaced therefrom by a distance less than the thickness of said encoded documents transported through said read station.

Claim 18

The roller defined in claim 13 wherein, as determined by said radial thicknesses of said first and said second rings and by the mounting of said roller relative to said transport drum and to said read head, said first ring compressibly cooperates with and is driven by the backside of a document when a document is transportably positioned in said read station, and said second ring compressibly cooperates with the backside of said transported document to thereby hold said document in frictional back-up and driving contact with said read head.