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AssigneeLexmark International, Inc.
InventorsDarin Michael Gettelfinger, Edward Alan Rush, Kevin Dean Schoedinger, Scott Stephen Williams
Estimating the term…
A dam has a plurality of substantially parallel ribs with recesses therebetween. At least one of the recesses has a pad therein with its sheet engaging surface being interior of the sheet engaging surfaces of the ribs. The rib surfaces, which are engaged first by the sheets being fed, have a lower coefficient of friction with the sheets than the sheet engaging surface of the pad. If more than one sheet is fed from a stack to the dam, the sheets will strike the rib surfaces first and then the pad surface if not separated from each other by the rib surfaces. Since the pad surface has a coefficient of friction substantially equal to the sheet to sheet friction, this step function in friction helps to separate the top sheet from the next adjacent sheet.
A sheet separator containing a stack of individual sheets for separating adjacent sheets of media being fed from said stack of sheets comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.