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US 5,836,582 AGranted
Sheet feeding device with air injectors for separating sheets
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHiroshi Ogawa, Michiro Koike, Yoshimitsu Nakane
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Air injection nozzles are provided for injecting air to both the leading end and the side ends of the sheets loaded on a sheet tray. Since air is injected from both nozzles, even for large-size sheets, the sheets can securely be separated by injecting air over the whole region between a sheet to be conveyed and other sheets.
Claims14
A sheet feeding device comprising:
- sheet supporting means for supporting sheets;
- sheet feeding means for feeding the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, said sheet feeding means including attraction means for attracting a sheet to said sheet feeding means by air suction;
- and
- air injection means for injecting air toward edges of the sheets for separating, one by one, the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means,
- wherein said air injection means comprises first air injection means for injecting air toward leading ends of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, and second air injection means disposed at a position on a side of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means for injecting air from the side position toward a side edge of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, said second air injection means directing air toward the trailing ends of the sheet supported by said sheet supporting means, and
- wherein said sheet supporting means is configured for supporting sheets of plural sizes;
- and further comprises control means for controlling said first and second air injection means to both inject air when sheets of a size greater than a predetermined size are loaded on said sheet supporting means, and only said first air injection means to inject air when sheets of a size smaller than the predetermined size are loaded.
4 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- sheet supporting means for supporting sheets;
- sheet feeding means for feeding the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, said sheet feeding means including attraction means for attracting a sheet to said sheet feeding means by air suction;
- air injection means for injecting air toward edges of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, for separating the sheets one by one;
- and
- image forming means for forming an image on a sheet fed by said sheet feeding means;
- wherein said air injection means comprises first air injection means for injecting air toward leading ends of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, and second air injection means disposed at a position on a side of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means for injecting air from the side position toward side edges of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, said second air injection means directing air toward the trailing ends of the sheet supported by said sheet supporting means, and
- wherein said sheet supporting means is configured for supporting sheets of plural sizes;
- and further comprises control means for controlling said first and second air injection means to both inject air when sheets of a size greater than a predetermined size are loaded on said sheet supporting means, and only said first air injection means to inject air when sheets of a size smaller than the predetermined size are loaded.
5 more elements
A sheet feeding device comprising:
- sheet supporting means for supporting sheets;
- sheet feeding means for feeding the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, said sheet feeding means including attraction means for attracting a sheet to said sheet feeding means by air suction;
- and
- air injection means for injecting air toward edges of the sheets for separating, one by one, the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means,
- wherein said air injection means comprises first air injection means for injecting air toward leading ends of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, and second air injection means disposed at a position on a side of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means for injecting air from the side position toward a side edge of the sheets,
- wherein said sheet supporting means is configured for supporting sheets of plural sizes, and
- wherein said sheet feeding device further comprises control means for controlling said first and second air injection means to both inject air when sheets of a size greater than a predetermined size are loaded on said sheet supporting means, and only said first air injection means to inject air when sheets of a size smaller than the predetermined size are loaded.
4 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- sheet supporting means for supporting sheets;
- image forming means for forming an image on the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means;
- sheet feeding means for feeding the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means to said image forming means, said sheet feeding means including attraction means for attracting a sheet to said sheet feeding means by air suction;
- and
- air injection means for injecting air toward edges of the sheets for separating, one by one, the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means,
- wherein said air injection means comprises first air injection means for injecting air toward leading ends of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means, and second air injection means disposed at a position on a side of the sheets supported by said sheet supporting means for injecting air from the side position toward a side edge of the sheets,
- wherein said sheet supporting means is configured for supporting sheets of plural sizes, and
- wherein said sheet feeding device further comprises control means for controlling said first and second air injection means to both inject air when sheets of a size greater than a predetermined size are loaded on said sheet supporting means, and only said first air injection means to inject air when sheets of a size smaller than the predetermined size are loaded.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.