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US 5,259,606 AGranted
Sheet feeding device for image forming equipment
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorYasuhiro Takahashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sheet feeding device for image forming equipment and having a sheet position changing mechanism for changing the orientation of a sheet being fed from a sheet storing section toward an image forming station defined in the equipment by 90 degrees in the horizontal direction. The sheet position changing mechanism is combined with a tandem arrangement of two or more sheet storing sections to enhance the functions available with each sheet storing section.
Claims3
A sheet feeding device for image forming equipment, comprising:
- a plurality of sheet storing means for storing sheets having lengths greater than widths, said sheet storing means being arranged horizontally adjacent to one another and at substantially the same vertical level such that said sheet storing means do not overlap one another;
- sheet position changing means for changing the position of a sheet being fed from any one of said sheet storing means toward an image forming station defined in said image forming equipment by substantially 90 degrees about an axis substantially normal to the surface of the sheet;
- sheet pick-up means and sheet separating means located at the same side of said sheet storing means as each other;
- first transport path means for transporting a sheet in a first transport path from said sheet storing means to said image forming station;
- and
- second transport path means extending in a second transport path from at least one of said sheet storing means to said sheet position changing means, wherein said sheet storing means comprise means for storing sheets with the lengths of the sheets extending transverse to the second transport path.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.