Simulation of a sheet-handling machine

The many types of public sheet-handling machines must handle sheets (e.g. tickets, sheet of paper) under various conditions at high speed. It is therefore necessary to understand the sheet's behavior in order to avoid problems associated with handling it. This paper develops a nonlinear simulation that determines the behavior of a sheet handled in a machine. The simulation is based on a discretized model of the sheet using lumped masses and springs. The simulation results are validated with experimental data from a sheet-handling machine fed with various types of sheets. The experimental results agree well with simulation, showing that this method is useful and practical to predict the behavior of flexible sheets handling in a feeding machine.