| 摘要 |
<p>1,034,600. Statistical apparatus. SPERRY RAND CORPORATION. Aug. 7, 1964 [Aug. 19, 1963], No. 32314/64. Heading G4M. In a sorting machine perforated record cards are sensed pneumatically and a fluid amplifier is used to deflect the cards at a sorting station. Cards 18 are fed, long edge leading, by rollers, an endless band, an air stream or gravity to a sensing station 12 having an orifice 26 which may be aligned with a selected column of the cards. Arrival of the card at the sensing station causes a pressurerelease aperture 32, Fig. 2 (not shown), to be blocked so that pressure builds up in chamber 24 and is available for sensing through orifice 26. The bottom wall of channel 16, Fig. 1, may be porous so as to provide a frictionless air cushion for the card 18 to glide on. If a perforation is present in the selected column, pressure is applied to the control input 31 of fluid amplifier 50 and the power stream is switched from channel 56 to channel 48. The distance between orifices 26, 46 is so chosen that the fluid jet emerging from orifice 46 only deflects the leading edge of the card if the perforation is in a particular index position which corresponds to pocket 36. If a perforation is not present at this particular index position, the card passes to pocket 38 or to a following sensing station. The suction produced in channel 48 when the power stream is flowing through channel 56 may be used to assist in keeping the card 18 horizontal as it passes over pocket 36. By suitable choice of the distances between the orifices 26, 46 of a series of sensing/sorting stations, the cards may be sorted into pockets corresponding to the positions of perforations in the selected column. The amplifier may be made monostable by incorporating a feed back channel or by designing it so that the back pressure produced by the presence of a card beneath orifice 46 makes the power stream flow in channel 48 unstable so that it switches back to channel 56 after a predetermined time.</p> |
