311,894. Wright, F. W., Turnbull, D. H., and Mann & Co., Ltd., G. April 3, 1928. Sheet-separators.-In sheet-feeding devices of the kind in which the top sheet of a pile is lifted and forwarded to conveying rollers by suction devices, double feed is prevented by providing a sheet-separator at the rear edge of the pile comprising a buckling arm 23, Figs. 2 and 3, which is pressed on the pile after the suction device has removed a sheet, a reciprocating buckling or friction pad or stroker 21 which coacts with the arm 23, and a presser or holding device 26 arranged near the pad 21, and serving to engage the sheet below the one buckled by the members 21, 23. The pad 21 is carried by a rod 19 one end of which moves in a closed path such as a circle, and the other end is reciprocated by an eccentric 18. These devices are mounted and actuated in such a manner that they are adjustable for sheets of different sizes. One set of devices may be mounted at each rear corner of the pile, and these are carried by a bracket 3 tranversely adjustable on rods 4 which may themselves be mounted so as to be adjustable longitudinally of the pile. The buckling members are actuated by cams 24, 25, and an eccentric 18, Fig. 2, on a shaft 18, which is driven from a driving-shaft 7 by gears 8, 9, 10, of which the idler gear 9 is mounted on links pivoted to the axes of the gears 8, 10 to permit of vertical adjustment of the bracket 12 which supports the buckling members 23, 21 and the presser 26. The separation of the sheets may be assisted by air blasts directed from nozzles arranged near the buckling members, or near the front of the pile. For thick card the pad 21 may act directly on the sheets without the aid of the buckling member, and separate the sheets by friction.
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