Roller gear over engagement protection for document feeder
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsGlenn Gaarder, Mark Randolph Marrs
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Over engagement protection of roller drive gears on a single sheet feeder roller assembly, which may comprise a replaceable roller bogie, is provided by a clutch gear which drives a pre-feed roller, the clutch gear being mounted in a roller support frame which includes spaced elongate, preferably arcuate, slots which limit gear travel toward the pre-feed roller when the roller is driven in a forward direction and which disengages the gears when the input power is reversed. The clutch gear is provided with elastomeric teeth for noise reduction and the roller assembly also includes a separation roller which is over driven relative to the surface speed of the pre-feed roller.
Claims9
A single sheet feeder roller assembly comprising:
- a) a frame;
- b) a pre-feed roller rotatably supported on said frame;
- c) a plurality of gears rotatably supported on said frame, said gears including:
- 1) a pre-feed roller drive gear;
- and
- 2) a pre-feed roller clutch gear,
- said pre-feed roller clutch gear being mounted on said frame for movement of teeth on said clutch gear into and out of driving engagement with teeth on said pre-feed roller drive gear wherein rotary power delivered in a forward direction to said gears causes said clutch gear to engage with said pre-feed roller drive gear to rotate said pre-feed roller in a sheet delivery direction and wherein rotary power delivered in a reverse direction to said gears causes said clutch gear to disengage from said pre-feed roller drive gear.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.