Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.

Hidetoshi Kojima

Takashi Fukumoto

Shuuya Nagasako

Tatsuya Sugawara

Yasuo Niikura

Kazunori Konno

Takashi Saito

Hitoshi Hattori

Yuusuke Shibasaki

Naohiro Kikkawa

Naoyuki Ishikawa

Naoki Oikawa

Hideaki Takahashi

Munehisa Fuda

Junya Suzuki

Ryo Takahashi

Kei Sasaki

Akihiro Musha

Kiichiro Goto

Masahiro Tamura

Takahiro Watanabe

Tomohiro Furuhashi

Kazuya Yamamoto

Akira Kunieda

Takamasa Matsumoto

Keisuke Sugiyama

Tomomichi Hoshino

Kyosuke Nakada

Yoshihiro Takahashi

Takashi Nakano

Yukio Itami

Shinji Asami

Kohjiroh Haga

Go Aiba

Toshihiro Okutsu

Kiyotake Nakamura

Hisayoshi Sugawara

Yuuta Mori

Youhei Niitsuma

Satoru Takano

Masato Hashimoto

Masaki Ishizaki

Shintaro Matsumoto

Yasushi Tsuruoka

Sachika Tamaki

Kazuhiko Kitano

Yohsuke Takamiya

Hikaru Fukasawa

Noriyuki Kadowaki

Tomotaka Takamura

Atsunori Yoshida

Yousuke Edo

Yusuke Hirono

Yasunori Hino

Masanobu Yoshida

Takao Abe

Makoto Endo

Takeshi Kikuchi

Tomoyuki Okada

Yohsuke Edo

Masao Hatayama

Tomoki Tamate

Chikara Akata

Kim Foon Lee

Takaaki Sanpei

A sheet feeding device includes an air blower and circuitry. The air blower includes a first suction fan, and a second suction fan serially coupled to the first suction fan. The circuitry is to stop the first suction fan at a first timing, and stop the second suction fan at a second timing different from the first timing. An image forming apparatus includes the sheet feeding device.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeding device

A sheet feeding device includes a housing, a sheet stacker, a stacker elevator, an extension sheet stacker, and a support. The sheet stacker is included in the housing and is configured to stack a sheet. The stacker elevator is configured to elevate the sheet stacker. The extension sheet stacker is attached to the sheet stacker and is configured to extend outward from the housing. The support is configured to support the extension sheet stacker and has an inclined portion configured to diagonally extend in a sheet conveyance direction, to the housing from a position upstream from a center of the extension sheet stacker in the sheet conveyance direction, when viewed from a width direction of the sheet.

Sheet feeding device and image forming system incorporating the sheet feeding device

A sheet feeder includes a sheet loading tray, an air blower, a side air blower, and processing circuitry. The sheet loading tray loads sheets. The air blower blows air to the sheets to float and separate the sheets. The side air blower blows air to the sheets to separate the sheets. The processing circuitry controls a tray elevator to rise the sheet loading tray to move the sheets to an upper limit position, after a predetermined time has elapsed from a time when the sheets are loaded on the sheet loading tray. The processing circuitry causes the air blower and the side air blower to blow air to the sheets to perform sheet separation and controls the tray elevator to lower the sheet loading tray to a position at which an intermediate remaining-sheet sensor is disposed, after the sheet separation ends.

Sheet feeder, image forming apparatus, sheet feeding method, and storage medium

A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet stacker, an air blower, a suction feeder, a lifting mechanism, an elevation detection sensor, an elevation detection sensor, a feed detection sensor, and processing circuitry. The air blower blows air to float an uppermost sheet of sheets stacked on the sheet stacker. The processing circuitry drives the lifting mechanism such that the sheet stacker is lifted by an elevation amount determined based on a sheet thickness of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacker, each time a sheet is detected when a number of sheets detected is smaller than a threshold number of sheets, and stops lifting of the sheet stacker until a sheet is not detected when the number of sheets reaches the threshold number of sheets, while repeatedly feeding the uppermost sheet and counting the number of sheets.

Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus

A feeding device includes a loading portion, a lifting mechanism, a conveying unit, a sheet detector, a near-end detector, and process circuitry. The loading portion stacks a plurality of sheets. The lifting mechanism lifts the loading portion. The conveying unit conveys the sheets on the loading portion. The sheet detector detects presence or absence of the sheets on the loading portion at a specified height position. The sheet count detector detects a number of sheets conveyed by the conveying unit. The near-end detector detects a near-end state in which a stack height of the sheets on the loading portion is a specified value or less. The process circuitry controls the lifting mechanism based on a detection result of the sheet detector before the near-end state is detected, and controls the lifting mechanism based on a detection result of the sheet count detector after the near-end state is detected.

Feeding device and image forming apparatus

A sheet conveying device includes a sheet loader, a loader elevating device, a sheet presence detector to detect a sheet on the sheet loader, and circuitry configured to determine whether the bundle of sheets is loaded on the sheet loader based on a detection result of the sheet presence detector and to control movement of the loader elevating device. The circuitry is configured to cause the loader elevating device to lift the sheet loader to a second position in response to a detection result of the sheet presence detector indicating absence of the sheet on the sheet loader at a first position and not to determine absence of the sheet when the circuitry causes the loader elevating device to lower the sheet loader from the second position to the first position after the circuitry causes the loader elevating device to lift the sheet loader to the second position.

Sheet feeding device, image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeding device, and image forming system incorporating the sheet feeding device

A sheet feeding device, which is included in an image forming apparatus and an image forming system, includes a sheet loader, an air drawing body, an attracting and conveying device, an air duct and a blocking device. The sheet loader is a device on which a bundle of sheets is loaded. The air drawing body is configured to generate suction air. The attracting and conveying device is configured to attract a sheet on top of the bundle of sheets by the suction air and convey the sheet. The air duct is configured to intake the suction air drawn by the air drawing body, to the attracting and conveying device. The blocking device is configured to block the suction air in the air duct.

A paper sheet conveyance device includes a plurality of conveyance members and conveys a paper sheet while performing temporary stop of conveying and then restart of conveying. Two paper sheets sequential in a conveyance direction stop together in a state of the temporary stop, driving a first transfer member to which a preceding first paper sheet that is one of the two paper sheets is opposed and a second conveyance member to which a following second paper sheet that is the other paper sheet is opposed is stopped and restarted synchronously for the temporary stop and the restart. A stop position information acquisition unit acquires information on a position on the conveyance path at which the second paper sheet stops in the state of the temporary stop, and a timing for stopping the conveying after the conveying is restarted is controlled according to the acquired information.

Paper sheet conveyance device and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeder, which is included in an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet loader, an air blowing device, a regulator, a sheet attracting device, and a sheet conveying body. The sheet loader loads a sheet bundle including a sheet and a subsequent sheet placed below the sheet. The air blowing device blows air and lifts the sheet over the sheet bundle. The regulator regulates movement of the subsequent sheet, and includes an opposing portion located upper end and separated from the sheet loader toward the downstream side of the sheet conveying direction and an inclined portion upwardly inclined relative to a vertical axis from a same position as the sheet loader to the downstream side of the sheet conveying direction. The sheet attracting device attracts the sheet lifted over the sheet bundle. The sheet conveying body conveys the sheet in a sheet conveying direction.

Sheet feeder and image forming apparatus including the sheet feeder

A sheet feeder, which is included in an image forming apparatus and an image forming system, includes a sheet loader on which a sheet bundle is loaded, an air blower to blow air to the sheet bundle loaded on the sheet loader and float upper sheets of the sheet bundle, a loader elevation device to lift and lower the sheet loader, a reflective optical detector including a first reflective optical detector to detect the upper sheets floated by the air blower and a second reflective optical detector to detect multiple floating sheets located below the floating sheets detected by the first reflective optical detector, and a controller configured to control the loader elevation device to perform a lifting operation of the sheet loader based on a combination of an output value of the first reflective optical detector and an output value of the second reflective optical detector.

Sheet feeder, image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeder, and image forming system incorporating the sheet feeder

A sheet separating device includes: a lifting nozzle configured to blow air against an end portion of a sheet bundle placed on a sheet loading portion to lift sheets; a separating nozzle configured to separate the sheets; a lifting-nozzle shutter member configured to open and close the lifting nozzle; a separating-nozzle shutter member configured to open and close the separating nozzle; a lifting-shutter driving mechanism configured to drive the lifting-nozzle shutter member; a separating-shutter driving mechanism configured to drive the separating-nozzle shutter member; and an open/close control unit configured to control the lifting-shutter driving mechanism and the separating-shutter driving mechanism such that the lifting-nozzle shutter member and the separating-nozzle shutter member are opened or closed simultaneously.

Sheet separating device, sheet supplying device, and image forming apparatus

A paper feeding apparatus includes: a sheet loading unit for loading a bundle of sheets; a separation unit that separates a topmost sheet of the bundle of sheets loaded on the sheet loading unit, from the bundle of sheets; a conveyance unit that conveys the separated topmost sheet; an end fence that is movable in a sheet conveyance direction, abuts trailing ends in the sheet conveyance direction, and positions the bundle of sheets in the sheet conveyance direction; and a pressing unit that is provided in such a manner as to protrude from the end fence, and is able to press the trailing ends in the sheet conveyance direction of at least an upper part of the bundle of sheets, wherein the pressing unit has different pressing forces at an upper and a lower portion thereof, and has the lower pressing force stronger than the upper pressing force.

Paper feeding apparatus, image forming apparatus, image forming system

Provided are a floating restricting member restricting the floating position of a bundle of sheets; and a holding mechanism holding the floating restricting member relative to a side fence. The floating restricting member includes a sheet contact section being brought into contact with the sheets from above; and a sheet-floating restricting section restricting the floating position of the floating sheet that is floated while air is blown thereto. The holding mechanism sets the floating restricting member in the initial state where the sheet-floating restricting section restricts the floating position of the sheet, in the sheet-placing time retracted state where the sheets are pushed against the sheet contact section so that the floating restricting member is retracted, and in the sheet-ejecting time retracted state where, when the sheets are to be removed, the sheet is pushed against the sheet contact section from below so that the floating restricting member is retracted.

Sheet feeding device, image forming apparatus, and image forming system

A sheet discharging device includes a shift trayon which a sheet Pis stacked, a discharging rollerthat discharges a sheet Ponto the shift tray, a blowing devicethat sends air to a lower surface of the sheet Pdischarged by the discharging roller, a blocking memberthat blocks air sent to the lower surface of the sheet Pfrom a blowing port-of the blowing device, and a control unit that controls the blocking amount of the blocking member. The blocking amount is determined based upon sheet information including sheet-type information, sheet-size information, and sheet-thickness information, for example.

Sheet discharging device, image forming system, and sheet discharging method

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Kanagawa, Japan

Hidetoshi Kojima