Sheet feed device and image forming apparatus
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorMasataka Shimoohsako
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet feed device includes a sheet storage portion, a pick-up unit, a sheet-feed separation unit, and an air blower. The sheet storage portion stores a stack of sheets. The pick-up unit picks up the sheets stored in the sheet storage portion. The sheet-feed separation unit separates and feeds one by one the sheets picked up by the pick-up unit. The air blower blows air against a lateral side face of the stack of sheets stored in the sheet storage portion. The pick-up unit picks up the sheets while the air blower blows air and before the sheet-feed separation unit starts to operate.
Claims20
An image forming apparatus comprising a sheet feed device,
- the sheet feed device including:
- a sheet storage portion configured to store a stack of sheets;
- a pick-up unit configured to pick up the sheets stored in the sheet storage portion;
- a sheet-feed separation unit configured to separate and feed one by one the sheets picked up by the pick-up unit;
- and
- an air blower configured to blow air against a lateral side face of the stack of sheets stored in the sheet storage portion,
- the pick-up unit picking up the sheets while the air blower blows air and before the sheet-feed separation unit starts to operate,
- wherein one of a number of times and a length of time that the pick-up unit picks up while the air blower blows air and before the sheet-feed separation unit starts to operate is adjustable based on a density of an output image.
An image forming apparatus comprising a sheet feed device,
- the sheet feed device including:
- a sheet storage portion configured to store a stack of sheets;
- a pick-up unit configured to pick up the sheets stored in the sheet storage portion;
- a sheet-feed separation unit configured to separate and feed one by one the sheets picked up by the pick-up unit;
- and
- an air blower configured to blow air against a lateral side face of the stack of sheets stored in the sheet storage portion,
- the pick-up unit picking up the sheets while the air blower blows air and before the sheet-feed separation unit starts to operate,
- wherein the sheet feed device includes a plurality of sheet-feed stages, and one of a number of times and a length of time that the pick-up unit picks up is adjustable for each of the sheet-feed stages.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.