US 3,957,366 AGranted

Sheet feeding apparatus

AssigneeXerox Corporation

InventorsThomas N. Taylor, Wayne F. Schoppe

Life of this patent

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Abstract

A sheet feeding apparatus for use in feeding sheets in an electrostatographic reproducing machine includes a sheet stack support drawer movable between an extended position and an operative position. A pivotally mounted belt separator and retard member move with the drawer and in the extended position are elevated relative to the bottom of the drawer. A pivotally mounted loading baffle moves to a raised position when the drawer is extended to locate the front edge of the stack and retracts when the drawer is moved to the operative position. A sensing arrangement is provided to sense both the presence of sheets on the drawer and engagement of the drive within the machine with the sheet separator when the drawer is moved to operative position. A guide arrangement is provided for flattening curled edges of sheets as they are fed along a path from the sheet feed apparatus.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A sheet feeding apparatus for feeding sheets from a stack comprising:

means for supporting said stack of said sheets;
means for feeding said sheets from said stack;
means for registering the lead edge of said stack on said support means, said registration means having a registration surface for engagement by said stack;
means for positioning said registration surface in an extended position for loading said stack against said surface;
means for moving said registration surface to a retracted position;
said stack support means comprising a stack support drawer which is movable between an extended position to provide across to said stack, and an operative position for feeding sheets from said stack;
said means for positioning said surface in said extended position being responsive to the movement of said drawer to said extended position;
said registration means comprising a pivotally mounted loading baffle;
said feeding means being mounted for pivotal movement against said stack for feeding said sheets and said registration means being arranged to pivot conjointly with said feeding means;
means for disengaging said feeding means from said stack in response to said drawer being moved to said extended position, said disengaging means being operative to pivot said feeding means out of contact with said stack;
and
means for supporting said feeding means for movement with said drawer to said extended position.

9 more elements

A reproducing apparatus comprising:

means for forming an image on a copy sheet;
means for supporting a stack of said sheets;
means for feeding said sheets from said stack to said image forming means;
means for registering the lead edge of said stack on said support means, said registration means having a registration surface for engagement by said stack;
means for positioning said registration surface in an extended position for loading said stack against said surface;
means for moving said registration surface to a retracted position;
said stack support means comprising a stack support drawer which is movable between an extended position to provide access to said stack, and an operative position for feeding sheets from said stack;
said means for positioning said surface in said extended position being responsive to the movement of said drawer to said extended position;
said registration means comprising a pivotally mounted loading baffle;
said feeding means being mounted for pivotal movement against said stack for feeding said sheets and said registration means being arranged to pivot conjointly with said feeding means;
means for disengaging said feeding means from said stack in response to said drawer being moved to said extended position, said disengaging means being operative to pivot said feeding means out of contact with said stack;
and
means for supporting said feeding means for movement with said drawer to said extended position.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 05/503,583Filed 5 Sep 1974
Granted: 18 May 1976
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification14 codes

B65H 3/047
Endless-belt separators: separating from the top of a pile
B65H 1/04
Supports or magazines for piles from which articles are to be separated: adapted to support articles substantially horizontally, e.g. for…
B65H 1/266
With auxiliary supports to facilitate introduction or renewal of the pile: support fully or partially removable from the handling machine, e.g.…
B65H 3/46
Separating articles from piles: supplementary devices or measures to assist separation or prevent double feed