Appeal No. 2004-2315
Application No. 09/348,155
A sheet diverter system in which a stream of
sheets [115-118] is fed by a pair of tapes [13, 15] to
a gripping zone between a pair of separating cylinders
[27, 29]. The tapes on opposite sides of the sheet
diverge downstream of the gripping zone and wrap around
a part of the outer periphery of the adjacent
separating cylinder [27, 29] so that they travel at the
same velocity as the outer periphery of the cylinder.
The sheets advance toward the gripping zone at a
velocity controlled by the separating cylinder and
successive sheets are presented to the grippers [87-90]
carried by the cylinders so that alternate sheets are
carried along different paths to different delivery
stations [e.g., belts 49, 69].
Rahe’s system also includes rotary fan wheels 47, 67 for
discharging the steams onto creeping belts 49, 69, which rotary
fan wheels function to slow down or decelerate the sheets of each
stream as they flow downstream from the cylinders 27, 29 (column
5, lines 24-31). In addition, Rahe provides a brush guide 81
just below the cylinders 27, 29 to minimize the whipping around
of the trailing ends of the sheets when they are released from
between the tapes 13 and 15 (column 3, lines 64-68).
In rejecting the appealed claims as being unpatentable over
the applied references, the examiner considers that Rahe’s
separating cylinder 29 corresponds to the claimed gripper
cylinder. The examiner concedes that cylinder 29 does not
contain a gripper for gripping a trailing edge of a sheet. To
account for this deficiency the examiner turns to Carricato.
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007