| 摘要 |
<p>A sheet feeding mechanism for feeding sheets of documentary material such as paper into a chute, from which the sheet material will enter a shredding machine (10). The sheet feeding mechanism comprises a housing (12) within which there is mounted a pair of rollers (14a^_, 14b^_) around which a belt (16) of flexible material, such as rubber, is located, drive mechanism (10) being provided for rotating one of the rollers (14), to cause the belt to rotate within the housing (12). A central portion of the upper reach of the belt (16) passes over a support plate (18), to support the belt against movement in a downward direction. Between termination of the support plate (18) and passage of the belt on to the roller (14b^_), the belt passes beneath a control member in the form of a plate (19), urged by a spring (30) into a position in which it is spaced a short distance (X) from the upper reach of the belt. A presser plate (26) is provided to urge a stack of paper on the upper stretch of the belt towards the belt. Such paper is gripped by movement of the belt and fed towards the gap (X), and between the roller (14b^_) and a second roller (15) along a chute (11) into a shredding machine (40). In the event of the belt picking up a plurality of adjacent sheets, as these are fed towards the gap (X), the belt (16) will be deflected downwardly, passage of the increased thickness of paper beneath the control member (19) against the deflection of the belt (16) increasing the frictional forces acting between the belt and the lowermost sheet of paper.</p> |
