Pivotal feed head for printing apparatus

Claim 1

Sheet item feeding apparatus for feeding individual sheet items one at a time from a sheet item support member provided with spaced apart item support lands, at high speed, without collision, overlap or multiple item jams comprising: a single cantilever mounted, relatively narrow, but large diameter item feed member centrally disposed relative to a sheet item feeding pathway, said pathway comprising oppositely disposed, relatively flat, parallel, spaced apart members in and through which said sheet items are fed; said item feed member having a reasonably high coefficient of friction relative to the sheet items to be fed, a relatively wide sheet item retard member small in diameter relative to said feed member operably associated with said item feed member and in surface contact therewith, the large diameter feed member providing a relatively flat, shallow entering angle of feed for said items between said item feed member and said retard member, oppositely disposed means operably interengaging said oppositely disposed parallel spaced apart members for applying a normal force through said retard member to said feed member relative to said items, means disposed on one of said parallel members movable relative thereto and directly coupled to said retard member for applying a frictional torque force to said rotated member, signal actuated means operably connected to said item feed member for incrementally rotatably moving said member so as to cause a single item to be fed in response to an applied electrical signal, and means mounting said feeding apparatus including said item feed member, said retard member and spaced apart parallel members for pivotal, rockable movement into and out of the item feeding path permitting depleted items to be replenished from a new supply of sheet items.