Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsHiroshi Hiura, Takeshi Suga, Toshifumi Itabashi, Hajime Sekiguchi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Sheets fed out of a cassette supporting the sheets by a pickup roller are separated and fed by a sheet separation feeding unit having a feed roller and a separating roller which is rotatable in a direction opposite to a sheet feeding direction. A charge eliminating mechanism for eliminating charges of the separating roller is arranged on the upstream side in the sheet feeding direction in a separation nip portion between the feed roller and the separating roller.
Claims8
A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a sheet separation feeding unit which separates and feeds sheets supported in a sheet supporting unit, the sheet separation feeding unit comprising:
- a feed roller which feeds out the sheets in a sheet feeding direction;
- a separating roller which is rotatable in a direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction and separates the sheets one by one by a separation nip portion which is formed between the separating roller and the feed roller;
- and
- a guide member which has a conductivity, which is provided upstream of the separation nip portion in the sheet feeding direction, and which guides the sheet fed from the sheet supporting unit toward the separation nip portion,
- wherein the guide member is connected to a ground, thereby eliminating the charges of the separating roller through the guide member to the ground.
An image forming apparatus comprising a sheet separation feeding unit which separates and feeds sheets supported in a sheet supporting unit and an image forming unit which forms an image onto the sheet fed out of the sheet separation feeding unit, the sheet separation feeding unit comprises:
- a feed roller which feeds out the sheets in a sheet feeding direction;
- a separating roller which is rotatable in a direction opposite to the sheet feeding direction and separates the sheets one by one by a separation nip portion which is formed between the separating roller and the feed roller;
- and
- a guide member which has a conductivity, which is provided upstream of the separation nip portion in the sheet feeding direction, and which guides the sheet fed from the sheet supporting unit toward the separation nip portion,
- wherein the guide member is connected to a ground, thereby eliminating the charges of the separating roller through the guide member to the ground.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.