US 5,181,710 AGranted

Top sheet feeding apparatus

AssigneeSharp Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsSouichi Takata, Toyoaki Namba, Kenji Okada, Osamu Wakuda

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Abstract

A sheet feeding apparatus enables the uppermost sheet in sequence in a stack of recording papers be lifted by air flow to separate and to convey the recording paper. The feeding apparatus comprises a laying plate on which plural sheets are stacked, a sheet feeding means disposed above the stacked sheets, which means partially deforms the first sheet in sequence by negative pressure at the leading end part of the sheet, and air forming means which injects air flow between the first sheet and the next sheet near the both ends in the widthwise direction of the recording paper, which flow comprises a straightforward air flow, and an air flow directed outwardly in the widthwise direction. The recording paper is separated from the next sheet by the air flow.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A top sheet feeding apparatus comprising:

(a) a laying plate for receiving a stack of a plurality of individual sheets,
(b) a feeding means for vacuum feeding in a sheet feeding direction a top sheet from the stack to a feeding surface for receiving the top sheet, the feeding surface being above the top sheet and adjacent the position of the top sheet, the feeding means providing negative pressure at plural positions in a widthwise direction of the top sheet and partially deforming a portion of the top sheet in an upward direction and
(c) air stream forming means for injecting and forming a plurality of air flows toward the feed surface adjacent to the partially deformed portion of the top sheet, the air flows comprising air flows directed outwardly from the centerline of the laying plate and air flows directed in a direction partially opposed to the feeding direction.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.