Sheet material supplying apparatus

Abstract

A sheet material supplying apparatus having a low-cost sucker adsorbing unit of a simple structure is provided for the carrying of sheet materials that are used under a high-humidity environment or that include humidity, to ensure a proper separation of each sheet material. Sheet materials accommodated in a tray are being sandwiched between a push-up panel and an engagement claw. At the time of taking out the sheet materials from the tray, the push-up panel is pressed down by a cam to cancel the state of sandwiching between the engagement claw and the push-up panel. Accordingly, only the top layer sheet material is taken out from the tray, with the rest of the lower layer sheet materials being dropped by their self-weight. Further, the sheet materials are carried by the sucker adsorbing unit. When a sucker adsorbing a sheet material by a negative pressure has moved to a carrying roller, a sucker supporting section is elastically deformed by a sucker pressing unit, so that the negative pressure within the sucker can be cancelled. Accordingly, a complex control system is not required for cancelling the negative pressure.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.