Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus incorporating same
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorsYoshikuni Ishikawa, Tetsutaro Yasuda, Manabu Nonaka
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sheet feeder, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes an endless attraction belt that is rotatably disposed facing a top surface of a sheet stack, a belt charger to attract an uppermost sheet of the sheet stack, and a sheet separator to press the attraction belt against the sheet stack, bend a contact region to which the uppermost sheet is attracted and contacted to the attraction belt, and separate the uppermost sheet from a subsequent sheet or other sheet of the sheet stack. In this configuration, a curvature of a contact surface of the sheet separator with respect to the attraction belt is changeable.
Claims15
A sheet feeder comprising:
- an endless attraction belt that is configured to be rotatably provided to face a top surface of a sheet stack;
- a first tension roller configured to tension and support the endless attraction belt;
- a second tension roller, upstream from the first tension roller in a sheet feeding direction, configured to tension the endless attraction belt;
- a belt charger configured to attract an uppermost sheet of the sheet stack;
- and
- a pressing unit between the first tension roller and the second tension roller inside a loop of the endless attraction belt to press a portion of the endless attraction belt between the first tension roller and the second tension roller toward the sheet stack, the pressing unit configured press the portion of the endless attraction belt toward the sheet stack, the pressing unit including a curved portion, the curved portion having a first curved part and a second curved part aligned in a continuous curve, the first curved part being formed at a proximal part of a leading edge and the second curved part being formed at a distal part of the leading edge, the second curved part having a greater curvature than the first curved part such that the first curved part is configured to press against the portion of the endless attraction belt before the second curved part presses against same when the pressing unit presses against the portion of the endless attraction belt to press the portion of the endless attraction belt towards the sheet stack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.