A SHEET FLIPPING DEVICE

A sheet flipping device comprising:- a flipping element (10) rotatably disposed adjacent to a sheet receiving plane (14) and having, in its outer periphery, at least two insertion slots (20, 22) for insertion of a respective leading edge of a sheet (48) to be flipped;- a sheet transport device (44) configured for feeding sheets with their respective leading edges into the insertion slots (20, 22); and- a controller configured to control the sheet transport device (44) and a rotary drive (54) for the flipping element (10) such that each sheet the leading edge of which has been inserted into one of the insertion slots (20, 22) is temporarily restrained while the transport mechanism (44) continues to feed the sheet, so that the sheet flips over, and the sheet is then dropped onto the receiving plane (14),characterized in that each insertion slot (20, 22) has a mouth (26) defined between a peripheral surface of the flipping element (10) and a flexible finger (28) that extends tangentially from said peripheral surface, the controller is configured to move one of the insertion slots (20, 22) into a sheet receiving position regardless of whether or not a trailing edge of a preceding sheet has left the sheet transport device, and the flexible finger (28) has sufficient flexibility to be deflected by a sheet which has its trailing edge still held in the sheet transport device (44).