Sorting machine having an uppermost tray which is only used in the non-sorting mode

Claim 1

A sorting machine comprising: a sorting portion; a feed portion which is openable with respect to said sorting portion; a plurality of tray bins which are arranged on a frame in said sorting portion in a fixed vertical array with a predetermined space therebetween, each of said tray bins having an entrance through which sheets can be ejected thereonto; transport means, having an endless transport belt which is disposed in said feed portion, for vertically transporting a recorded sheet introduced through a feed opening; discharge means, disposed in said sorting portion and moveable along said entrances of said tray bins for ejecting a sheet onto said tray bins, said discharge means comprising a discharge roller mounted on a discharge roller shaft, a pulley mounted on a drive shaft and driven by said transport belt, said pulley being in contact with the exterior surface of said transport belt, and gears engaged with each other and mounted on said discharge roller shaft and said drive shaft respectively, so that said discharge roller is driven by said transport belt; guide means for transferring the recorded sheet to said discharge means after transporting by said transport means; shifting means, disposed in said sorting portion, for intermittently shifting said discharge means and said guide means upwardly and downwardly to a tray into which the recorded sheet is to be discharged; hold means, being retractable in opposite directions along a transport direction of said recorded sheet in response to a shifting of said discharge means, for holding said recorded sheet between said transport means and said hold means; means for detecting a predetermined mode of operation including a non-sorting mode; means responsive to the detection of a non-sorting mode by said detecting means for moving said discharge means to an uppermost tray of said tray bins and locating said discharge means at a distance above said uppermost tray which is greater than said predetermined space, wherein said hold means comprises a spiral spring of elastic strip metal material which has one end wound around a rotatable member rotatably mounted on a shaft disposed in said sorting portion and the other end fastened to said discharge means, said spiral spring functioning so as to rewind with constant force around said rotatable member under its own spring force upon shifting of said discharge means upwardly; and means responsive to the detection of a sorting mode by said detecting means for moving said discharge means to a second uppermost tray of said tray bins and, wherein said uppermost tray is not used in said sorting mode.