Distributor of sheets in wads

Claim 1

In a machine for distributing individual sheets from a stack comprising a receptacle for the stack, means for feeding the sheets one by one through an orifice in the receptacle, and detecting means for detecting the simultaneous presence of a plurality of sheets in the vicinity of the orifice and upstream therefrom, said detecting means comprising a support having a substantially planar top portion on which pass sheets extracted from the stack, an eccentric wheel, a stationary shaft rotatably supporting said wheel, said shaft extending parallel to the planar top portion and perpendicular to the direction of movement of the sheets, said wheel comprising a first ball bearing installed on said shaft, an eccentric ring mounted on said ball bearing, and a second ball bearing surrounding said eccentric ring, said wheel being arranged in the vicinity of the planar portion of the support but spaced therefrom such that the planar portion is spaced from the wheel by a distance at least equal to the thickness of one sheet and less than the thickness of two sheets, first means acting on the wheel for keeping it in a fixed angular position where there is, at most, one sheet between the support and the wheel, a vertical line passing through the center of said wheel in said fixed angular position passing through the center or slightly downstream of said stationary shaft in relation to the direction of movement of the sheets, and second means for detecting rotation of said wheel for diverting the passage of the sheets to the orifice, said rotation taking place when a plurality of sheets arrive simultaneously between the wheel and the support.