Xerox Corporation

Joseph Andre Michel Loiselle

Raymond Ruthenberg

Robert H Brown

A finisher for an image forming apparatus includes a pair of rotatable downstream rollers and a pair of rotatable upstream roller between which a path on which an imaged medium travels. The finisher determines when a trailing edge of the medium is about to leave a nip of the upstream rollers and then stops a leading edge of the medium. By stopping the leading edge of the medium, the medium buckles and the trailing edge registers against the upstream nip line. A finishing device performs a hole punch, staple, or other finishing operation to the medium when the trailing edge registers against the upstream nip line. The finishing operation is performed at a speed equal to or greater than a speed at which the image forming apparatus forms the image on the medium and outputs the medium to the finisher.

Finisher for image forming apparatus

A semi-active retard feeder employs a hysteresis clutch to provide the resisting torque to a retard roll. A low cost Hall Effect sensor is added to the clutch assembly to provide a feedback signal during the feeding cycle in order to detect the onset of degraded feeding performance. This signal can be used to instruct a user to order and replace the retard roll.

Retard feeder

Sheet registration with improved sheet deskewing of print media sheets may be provided with an intermediately transversely pivotal baffle member overlying and engaging at least part of a buckled sheet being edge registered so that the effective buckle chamber size and sheet path length on one side of the sheet is automatically different from the other side of the sheet with said pivoting of said pivotal baffle member, to assist in the deskewing of the sheet as it is being partially buckled by the sheet registration system. The direction and amount of baffle pivoting may be self-pivoted by the extent of transverse buckle difference, or positively driven in response to a detected sheet skew.

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Brampton, Canada

Joseph Andre Michel Loiselle