Duct for film-containing cassettes

Claim 1

A duct for substantially U-shaped film-containing cassettes of the type having a first leg constituting a supply section, a second leg constituting a takeup section and having a width exceeding that of said first leg, and a web constituting an intermediate section, said duct including wall means defining a channel having an inlet and a main portion communicating with said inlet, said inlet being configurated to allow therein the passage of cassettes in a plurality of different orientations and said wall means being provided with restricting means located in the region of said inlet and arranged to permit cassettes to pass through said inlet and into said main portion of said channel only in a single predetermined orientation of cassettes during introduction into said inlet, a U-shaped cassette being in said single predetermined orientation when said second leg is located ahead of said first leg, as considered in the direction of introduction into said channel and said first and second legs extend downwardly from said web, said wall means having surfaces bounding said inlet of said channel and one of said surfaces including a pair of ramps over which said second leg of a cassette slides during introduction into said inlet, said ramps forming part of said restricting means and being spaced apart by a distance exceeding the width of said first leg of a U-shaped cassette so that such first leg can travel between said ramps during introduction of the respective cassette into said channel.