Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Rikuo Sonoda

Kazuhiko Takagi

Makoto Hattori

Kazuo Umemura

Masatoshi Ito

A platen, supplemental feed rollers and a paper feed roller are driven by a motor, feeding a stack of sheet papers on a hopper one by one to the platen. When a predetermined period of time elapses after the sheet paper has reached a photosensor, the motor rotates in the reverse direction to reversely rotate the platen. The paper feed roller and the supplemental feed rollers however keep rotating to execute an oblique compensation of the paper. Then, an electromagnetic clutch is disengaged to permit the paper feed roller to freely rotate, feeding the paper to a print position by the rotation of the platen. When the power of a printer is turned off and an operational lever is moved to a paper releasing position, a switching lever oscillates, disengaging a planetary gear mechanism from other gears. This sets the supplemental feed roller free. Further, manipulating the operation lever presses down the support plate of the hopper to separate the paper from the paper feed roller, thus permitting removal of this paper.

Print paper feeding apparatus for use in printer

In a printer of the type having a print mechanism comprising a platen rotatable about its own axis for supporting a print sheet, an ink ribbon cassette accommodating an ink ribbon therein, and a print head movable along the platen for performing a print operation on the print sheet with the use of the ink ribbon, a hopper storing a stack of cut sheets is disposed above a first area of a printer frame and a stacker above a second area thereof. A pin tractor is disposed beneath the first area thereof for mounting a continuous sheet. The cut sheet and the continuous sheet are selectively fed to the print mechanism for printing. The stacker is movably disposed between a cut sheet receiving position allowing to receive the cut sheets discharged from the platen and a rest position rejecting to receive the cut sheet. A space above the second area is enlarged when the stacker is brought to the rest position, whereby the ink ribbon cassette disposed beneath the second area can easily be exchanged. When the continuous sheet is used, the stacker is brought to the rest position allowing to receive the continuous sheet from the platen. A sheet feed direction switching unit is detachably coupled to the stacker for selectively discharging the printed cut sheet onto a sub-stacker face up or onto the stacker face down.

Sheet-feed/sheet-receiving unit used in combination with printer

In a sheet feeding apparatus which is employable in a printer and the like, provided is a mechanism for removing sag of the printing sheet caused by backward feeding operation executed when the reverse line feed operation and so on. Further, the mechanism controls the sheet feeding operation so as to be executed without a disadvantage caused by backlash included in a gear mechanism for driving the sheet to be fed. Thus, the printing sheet is accurately set at a printing position.

Sheet feeding apparatus

A sheet feed device for feeding a sheet-like material includes a feed roller disposed upstream with respect to a sheet feeding direction for feeding the sheet-like material and main and auxiliary roller pair disposed downstream with respect thereto for further feeding the sheet-like material fed out by the feed roller. At the start of feeding the sheet-like material, both the feed roller and the main and auxiliary roller pair are rotated, and after the sheet-like material is fed a certain distance and grasped by the main and auxiliary roller pair, only the main and auxiliary roller pair is rotated, whereby a load imposed to a motor for rotating both the feed roller and main and auxiliary roller pair is lessened. According to another aspect of the invention, the sheet-like material is frictionally fed by the main and auxiliary roller pair, but in case where the peripheral speed of the auxiliary roller becomes slower than that of the main roller due to slippage caused by the sheet-like material interposed therebetween, the auxiliary roller is forcibly rotated at the peripheral speed substantially equal to that of the main roller, whereby the sheet-like material is prevented from being curved, jammed or wrinkled during the sheet feeding process.

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Aichi, Japan

Rikuo Sonoda