Fuji Photo Film Company, Limited

Issy Matsuda

Nobuyuki Torisawa

Toshihiro Suya

Norikazu Soga

Sheets such as photographic films are fed one by one by suction cups in an image recording system. A resilient sheet separator is brought into abutment against an uppermost one of stacked sheets, and then the suction cups are moved toward the uppermost sheet. Before the suction cups reach the uppermost sheet, they are activated to attract the uppermost sheet under suction. The sheet separator pushes the uppermost sheet in one direction and the suction cups draw the uppermost sheet in the opposite direction, so that the attracted uppermost sheet is greatly flexed fully out of contact with the next sheet of the sheet stack. Thereafter, the suction cups and the sheet separator are displaced away from the sheet stack, separating the uppermost sheet from the sheet stack. A detecting arrangement detects whether the suction cup attracts a single sheet. The detecting arrangement includes a detecting rod for abutting against the uppermost sheet attracted by the suction cup, and a sensor energizable by the detecting rod.

Device for feeding sheets having a detecting means for detecting misfeeds

Sheets such as photographic films are fed one by one by suction cups in an image recording system. A resilient sheet separator is brought into abutment against an uppermost one of stacked sheets, and then the suction cups are moved toward the uppermost sheet. Before the suction cups reach the uppermost sheet, they are activated to attract the uppermost sheet under suction. The sheet separator pushes the uppermost sheet in one direction and the suction cups draw the uppermost sheet in the opposite direction, so that the attracted uppermost sheet is greatly flexed fully out of contact with the next sheet of the sheet stack. Thereafter, the suction cups and the sheet separator are displaced away from the sheet stack, separating the uppermost sheet from the sheet stack. Air may be forcibly be introduced between the uppermost and next sheets, so that the remaining sheets can reliably be separated from the attracted uppermost sheet.

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Minami-ashigara, Japan

Issy Matsuda