A. Field of the Invention
In the processing of documents wherein an operation is imposed thereon, it is advantageous to provide feeding means for rapidly supplying such a document to the operating apparatus, having conveying means associated with the apparatus that conveys the document during its operation, and means for quickly removing the document from the apparatus upon completion of the operation. Examples of such operations would be printing a sheet of paper or envelope, embossing a plastic card, or encoding a magnetic tape attached to a card or sheet. This invention will be described with referene to a combination of conveying means and printer wherein individual sheets may be rapidly fed to the printer and quickly discharged therefrom upon completion of the printing.
B. Prior Art
This invention will be described in conjunction with printing apparatus of the type described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,918,865 and 3,742,8484. Therein are shown chain printers wherein a single sheet of paper of considerable length is printed. It is known that these chain printers are high speed devices wherein a high degree of information may be printed in a short period of time. Heretofor, no satisfactory means has been provided wherein these printers may be utilized with individual sheets as opposed to one continuous web, or roll of paper, upon which the printer continually operates. Obviously, it would be advantageous to provide means for utilizing this type of printer along with means for rapidly supplying sheets to the printer and quickly removing them therefrom subsequent to the printing operation. This is opposed to having a roll of paper in which the portion to be printed passes through the printer and then must subsequently be severed.