Sheet supply device
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTetsuo Asada
Life of this patent
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Abstract
To provide a sheet supply device including a long life sheet supply roller. A large radius portion 10a of a sheet supply roller 10 is gradually abraded in association with passage of operation time. Protrusions 12a of an idle roller 12 initially contact a rotational shaft 14 without forming any play between the protrusions 12a and the rotational shaft 14. However, friction force generated between the tips of the protrusions 12 and the rotational shaft 14 wears down the protrusions 12a. As a result, a difference between the radius of the large radius portion 10a and the radius of the idle roller 12 will be hardly decreased even after a cumulative operation time. Therefore, even after the abrasion progresses, sheet supply operations will be operated properly.
Claims14
A sheet supply device comprising:
- a rotatable shaft;
- a sheet supply roller that is fixed to the rotatable shaft such that the sheet supply roller rotates along with the rotatable shaft, the sheet supply roller supplying a recording medium in a predetermined direction while rotating, the sheet supply roller having a cross-section formed of a large radius segmental portion and a small radius segmental portion;
- and
- at least one idle roller that is freely rotatably mounted around the rotatable shaft, the idle roller having an inner surface to contact the rotatable shaft and an outer surface to contact the recording medium, the idle roller having a distance between the inner surface and the outer surface;
- wherein at least one of the rotatable shaft and the inner surface of the idle roller is formed to facilitate wear on the inner surface of the idle roller in order to decrease the distance between the inner surface and the outer surface of the idle roller from a friction generated between the rotatable shaft and the inner surface of the idle roller.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.