Passive "pinwheel" copy sheet rotator

A compact, lightweight and inexpensive copy sheet rotator includes a freely rotatable carousel (10) comprising a flat disc (12) and several, e.g. four quadrant, vanes (14, 16, 18, 20) extending from the disc (12). The carousel (10) is used in combination with and positioned in-line with a sheet transport such as a ball-on-belt registration mechanism (30) and an edge guide (25) for registering the sheets once they have been rotated. A copy sheet entering the carousel engages one of the vanes on the disc and its momentum causes the carousel to rotate thereby changing the orientation of the sheet within its plane of transport. A deflector (27) may be positioned over a portion of the carousel in order to enhance the guiding of copy sheets into the carousel by reducing the inertia of the disc after each copy is rotated and indexes each quadrant through the application of drag on the fins. A slider (42) may be provided which can be moved over the carousel to flatten the vanes against the disk so that copy sheets may pass straight through the rotator without being rotated