A sheet feeder includes: a wheel for issuing a lowermost sheet out to a sheet processing unit; a grate for spacing the sheet apart from the wheel at a raised position and bringing the sheet into contact with the wheel at a lowered position; and a drive device for driving the grate up and down. The drive device includes: a link mechanism for movably supporting the grate; a spring for urging the grate to the lowered position; a grate raising/lowering cam for periodically driving the grate up/down; and a skip feed cam that is driven by a control device, separately from a drive system of the grate raising/lowering cam, and that, at a timing where reached is a phase at which the grate raising/lowering cam does not put the grate in the raised position, retains the grate at the raised position in order to skip feeding of the sheet.

A sheet feeder includes: a wheel for issuing a lowermost sheet out to a sheet processing unit; a grate for spacing the sheet apart from the wheel at a raised position and bringing the sheet into contact with the wheel at a lowered position; and a drive device for driving the grate up and down. The drive device includes: a link mechanism for movably supporting the grate; a spring for urging the grate to the lowered position; a grate raising/lowering cam for periodically driving the grate up/down; and a skip feed cam that is driven by a control device, separately from a drive system of the grate raising/lowering cam, and that, at a timing where reached is a phase at which the grate raising/lowering cam does not put the grate in the raised position, retains the grate at the raised position in order to skip feeding of the sheet.

A document conveying apparatus includes a first conveying roller for conveying a document stacked on the document tray, a second conveying roller, provided at a downstream side with respect to the first conveying roller, for conveying a document stacked on the document tray, a separation roller, provided at a downstream side with respect to the second conveying roller, for performing separation operation of the document, a driving force transmission mechanism for transmitting the driving force to a driving shaft of the first conveying roller, a driving shaft of the second conveying roller, and a driving shaft of the separation roller, and a first blocking mechanism, provided between the first conveying roller and the driving shaft of the first conveying roller, for blocking a driving force transmitted to the driving shaft of the first conveying roller, for a first certain period of time.

A media processing device includes: a hopper supporting media units (e.g. cards), and a biasing assembly biasing the cards toward a hopper outlet; an input roller for accepting a single card at a hopper slot inlet; a pick roller at the outlet for dispensing a card from the hopper to a media processing path; a motor having an output shaft; a primary drivetrain segment connecting the output shaft with the pick roller; an auxiliary output selector connected to the primary drivetrain segment and switchable between first and second output configurations; first and second auxiliary drivetrain segments connecting the output selector, respectively, with the input roller and a release member for disengaging the biasing assembly; and a selector input movable to switch the output selector between the first output configuration, coupling the primary and first auxiliary drivetrain segments, and the second output configuration, coupling the primary and second auxiliary drivetrain segments.

Embodiments include a carton feeding system for feeding a plurality of cartons to a conveyor track, comprising a plurality of feeding devices, where each feeding device comprises a pick-up head with a plurality of vacuum cups, and an erecting finger pivotally suspended at the pick-up head, where the pick-up head has a pick-up position (P1) in which the holding plane of the pick-up head is positioned parallel to the folded carton blank that is to be picked up, and an insertion position (P2) in which the erecting finger is pivoted with respect to the holding plane of the pick-up head in such a way that the carton is opened, and where at least two cartons are inserted simultaneously into the conveyor track.

A document conveying apparatus includes a first conveying roller for conveying a document stacked on the document tray, a second conveying roller, provided at a downstream side with respect to the first conveying roller, for conveying a document stacked on the document tray, a separation roller, provided at a downstream side with respect to the second conveying roller, for performing separation operation of the document, a driving force transmission mechanism for transmitting the driving force to a driving shaft of the first conveying roller, a driving shaft of the second conveying roller, and a driving shaft of the separation roller, and a first blocking mechanism, provided between the first conveying roller and the driving shaft of the first conveying roller, for blocking a driving force transmitted to the driving shaft of the first conveying roller, for a first certain period of time.

A media processing device includes: a hopper for supporting a stack of media units (e.g. cards), the hopper including (i) a gate wall configured to abut leading edges of the media units and (ii) an outlet defined at an end of the gate wall; a pick roller at the outlet for engaging an outer one of the media units in the stack and dispensing the outer media unit from the hopper to a media processing path; the gate wall including a flexible gate at the outlet, the flexible gate configured to deflect toward the media processing path responsive to the outer media unit being driven into the flexible gate by the pick roller, wherein the outer media unit deflects when passing by the flexible gate, permitting the outer media unit to be dispensed from the hopper.

An apparatus and a corresponding method for singling value documents, in particular banknotes, includes a support means and a conveyor belt for picking a single value document from a stack of value documents lying on the support means. The singling device has a positioning device by which at least a portion of the conveyor belt can be moved back and forth relative to the support means between a first position and a second position. In the first position the conveyor belt cannot touch the stack lying on the support means. In the second position the conveyor belt can touch the lowermost value document of a stack lying on the support means and pick the former from the stack at least partially.

A media processing device includes: a hopper for supporting a stack of media units (e.g. cards), the hopper including (i) a gate wall configured to abut leading edges of the media units and (ii) an outlet defined at an end of the gate wall; a pick roller at the outlet for engaging an outer one of the media units in the stack and dispensing the outer media unit from the hopper to a media processing path; the gate wall including a flexible gate at the outlet, the flexible gate configured to deflect toward the media processing path responsive to the outer media unit being driven into the flexible gate by the pick roller, wherein the outer media unit deflects when passing by the flexible gate, permitting the outer media unit to be dispensed from the hopper.

The present invention relates to a feeder module for discharging sheets into a converting machine. The feeder module comprises a movable discharge conveyor comprising a plurality of belt conveyors which are configured to move between a discharge position (DP) in which the belt conveyors are contacting the lowermost positioned sheet in the stack and discharges said sheet, and a clearing position (CP) in which the conveyor belts are located underneath the loading surface.