Xerox Corporation

Bruce A Winship

Richard C Benton

Donald E Johnston

Gregory P Miller

Wayne F Schoppe

Donato D Evangelista

Eugene F Horak

A high capacity portable sheet cassette tray assembly for supporting and positioning a stack of sheets for feeding reliably, one at a time, in a sheet using machine. The high capacity cassette tray assembly includes a cassette frame for removing and reinstalling into a sheet supply station of the sheet using machine. The cassette frame has a front end over which sheets are fed into the machine, and forward feed corner snubbers that are mounted to the front end of the cassette frame. The high capacity cassette tray assembly also includes a liftable base plate mounted within the cassette frame for supporting a high capacity stack of sheets having a topmost sheet. Further, the high capacity cassette tray includes a constant angle parallelogram lifting assembly that has a rear end connected to the cassette frame, and a front end connected to the liftable base plate for lifting and supporting the base plate and a topmost sheet of a stack of sheets on the base plate. The base plate and a topmost sheet of a stack of sheets, as lifted and supported regardless of a number of sheets in the stack of sheets, have a continuously constant sheet feeding angle relative to a horizontal plane through the forward feed corner snubbers of the cassette frame.

Reproduction machine having a high capacity cassette tray assembly

A retard assembly for use in a friction retard separator feeder has a retard member, a support member for supporting the retard member, the retard assembly being mountingly engageable with a pivoting support frame for supporting the retard assembly at a first end of the pivot support frame and having a pivot point at its opposite end and substantially remote from the first end, the retard member support member having at least one mounting hub for mounting a locating pivot pin, which is engageable with the first end of the pivoting support frame, the retard member support member including at least one energy absorbing damping pad on the at least one mounting hub to absorb vibration of the retard pad between the retard member support member and the pivoting support frame when they are engaged, the energy absorbing damping pad being of a hardness sufficient to maintain an interference fit between the at least one mounting hub and the pivoting support frame to resist a permanent set.

Friction retard sheet separator and feeder having reduced noise

A retard assembly for use in a friction retard separator and feeder comprising a support member for supporting a retard member and a sheet entrance guide at the incoming end of the retard assembly having a substantially vertical portion and a substantially horizontal portion overlying the incoming guide entrance portion of the retard member in advance of the retard portion of the retard member, said sheet guide being vertically compliant and movable in said support member to enable a reduction in the spring rate in the entrance guide portion of the retard member to a level substantially below the level in the retard portion.

Retard pad assembly with movable compliant entrance guide

A sheet transport apparatus has opposed sheet transport guide baffles defining a sheet transport path having an upstream and downstream direction and, a switch adjacent the path to detect the presence of a sheet in the path, the switch having a main switch body fixedly mounted adjacent the path, a switch actuator movable between a rest position and a switch actuated position including an actuator arm having a free end and being pivotally mounted on an actuator pivot at the other end to the main switch body and movable between a position associated with the said rest position and switch actuated position, a switch actuator tip pivotally mounted to the free end of the actuator arm and movable between a first position extending the length of the arm into said path detecting the presence of a sheet in the path and a second position pivoted toward the sheet transport upstream direction out of the sheet transport path, the actuator tip being spring biased to the first position enabling positive switch actuation by the passage of a sheet in the downstream direction of the path and passively movable to the second position against the bias by the removal of a sheet from the path in the upstream direction.

Toggled switch for use in a sheet feed apparatus

Feed roll cleaner for cleaning and renewing the frictional surfaces of the paper feed rolls of a reproducing or printing machine having a relatively rigid lightweight rectangular board fittable within the machine paper tray in place of the copy sheets, the board having discrete patches of abrasive material on the surface thereof opposite the feed rolls such that on actuation of the machine, the feed rolls rub against the patch opposite thereto until the machine misfeed detector responds to the failure to feed a sheet and shuts down the machine.

Feed roll cleaner for cleaning and renewing the frictional feeding

A registration apparatus for a reproducing machine includes a resilient means which cooperates with a stop member to control the path of a sheet as it is intercepted by the stop member. Preferably the resilient member also operates to strip the sheet from the stop member as the stop member moves out of the sheet path.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, NY, United States of America

Bruce A Winship