US 4,734,736 AGranted

Recirculating document feeder

AssigneeEastman Kodak Company

InventorKent A. Randall

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Abstract

A document feeder for recirculating simplex or duplex document sheets in a sheet stack to and from a scanning station of a reproduction apparatus of the type including a donor/transfer member for producing simplex or duplex copies of simplex or duplex document sheets. The recirculating feeder includes a hopper for holding the document sheets and a first cylinder located in spaced relation to the hopper and in juxtaposition with the scanning station. The first cylinder is capable of having a document sheet tacked to its peripheral surface. Second and third cylinders, capable of having a document sheet tacked to their respective peripheral surfaces, are located between the hopper and the first cylinder in nip relation with the first cylinder and one another. The cylinders are bidirectionally rotatable about their respective longitudinal axes. A document sheet is transportable from the hopper into the nip relation between the second and third cylinders. Rotation of the cylinders, transport of a document sheet and tacking of a sheet to a particular cylinder are controlled for effecting transport of simplex or duplex document sheets seriatem from the hopper past the scanning station and back to the hopper in proper orientation and direction of transport to enable the desired production of simplex or duplex copies.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A document feeder for recirculating simplex or duplex document sheets in a sheet stack to and from a scanning station of a reproduction apparatus of the type including a donor member for producing simplex copies of simplex document sheets, duplex copies of simplex document sheets, duplex copies of simplex document sheets, or duplex copies of duplex document sheets, said document feeder comprising:

means for holding a stack of document sheets;
a first rotatably mounted cylinder located in spaced relation to said stack holding means and in juxtaposition with said scanning station, said cylinder including means for selectively tacking a document sheet to the peripheral surface thereof;
second and third rotatably mounted cylinders, located between said stack holding means and said first cylinder in substantial nip relation with said first cylinder and with one another, said second and third cylinders respectively including means for selectively tacking a document sheet to the peripheral surface thereof;
means for bidirectionally rotating said first, second and third cylinders;
means for transporting a document sheet from said stack holding means into the nip between said second and third cylinder;
and
control means, operatively associated with said bidirectional rotating means, said transporting means, and said tacking means for effecting transport of simplex of duplex document sheets seriatem from said stack holding means past said scanning station and back to said stack holding means in proper orientation and direction of transport to enable the desired production of simplex or duplex copies.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.