Mechanism for feeding, separating and stacking sheets

Claim 1

Apparatus for accepting sheets received from an infeed location and delivering said sheets along a feed path one at a time in spaced sequential fashion to an outfeed location comprising drive means having continuously rotating rollers having peripheries adapted to make sliding engagement with a sheet delivered thereto; stripper means positioned adjacent said drive means for preventing more than one sheet at a time from being advanced by said drive means toward said outfeed location, said stripper means comprising: a machine frame; stripper support means; a first shaft freely wheelingly mounted to said frame for pivotally mounting a first end of said support means; a second shaft free wheelingly mounted to the second end of said support means; a stripper roller for engaging said sheets being mounted on said second shaft; each of said shafts having a pulley; a third shaft free wheelingly mounted to said frame and having a drive pulley; means for rotating said third shaft and said drive means; first coupling means entrained between said drive pulley and said first shaft pulley; second coupling means entrained about said first and second shaft pulleys whereby said first and second coupling means cooperate to couple rotational movement from said drive pulley to said second shaft stripper roller in a direction opposite that of the drive means rollers while permitting said support means to freely pivot about said first shaft completely independent of said rotational driving function.