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US 7,819,396 B2Granted
Sheet separating apparatus and method of separating sheets
AssigneeXerox Corporation
InventorsYouti Kuo, Kenneth W. Luff, Ernest L. DiNatale
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet separating mechanism and a method of separating sheets that includes a retard surface carrier that causes a retard surface to apply an alternately higher and lower friction force against the edge of an underlying sheet. The alternation of the higher and lower friction force can be coupled to a vacuum sheet feeder. The retard surface can be translated to present a next portion of the retard surface to the edge of the next underlying sheet with the translation coupled to the vacuum sheet feeder.
Claims11
A sheet separating apparatus for a sheet feeder, comprising:
- a translatable retard surface;
- and
- a retard roller arranged to position a first portion of the retard surface to contact an edge of a non-feeding sheet in a stack of sheets;
- and
- a contacting roller in contact with non-feeding sheets in the stack of sheets, the contacting roller arranged to roll in response to movement in the stack of sheets caused by a sheet feeding motion in the sheet feeder, the contacting roller coupled to the retard roller so as to translate the retard surface to position a next portion of the retard surface to contact an edge of a next non-feeding sheet.
2 more elements
A paper feeding system, comprising:
- a sheet feeding head having a vacuum shuttle configured to move in a feed direction and a direction opposite the feed direction, the vacuum shuttle adapted to feed a top sheet from a stack of sheets in a feed direction during the feed motion;
- a drive shaft coupled to the sheet feeding head and arranged so that when the vacuum shuttle moves a rotation of the drive shaft occurs;
- and
- a sheet retarding device coupled to the drive shaft such that when the drive shaft rotation occurs, the sheet retarding device is arranged to translate.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.