Apparatus for collating pages of multi-up printed documents

摘要

An apparatus for collating pages of a document, which are sequentially printed on a continuous sheet in multipage rows, that is in multi-up fashion, comprises a plurality of decks at least equal in number to the number of pages in each row. Each deck has a surface for receiving one document page and is positionable at a level above one deck surface adjacent thereto to define a step-like structure. A page slitter separates adjacent pages in a multipage row and a row cutter separates adjacent multipage rows. From the slitter and cutter, alongitudial delivery mechanism simultaneously delivers each of the individual pages to a single deck. A lateral transfer mechanism then transfers each page of the document from the deck to which it was delivered to the top of the page delivered to the adjacent lower deck in order to complete the collating operation.