Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Sakae Fujimoto

Takaji Sue

Toshihiko Misawa

Masahiro Hatsuno

Keiji Takahashi

A sheet setting device for a printer and the like including pressure rollers adapted to be brought into and out of engagement with a platen, and resist claws adapted to brought into and out of engagement with the platen in a position downstream of the position in which the pressure rollers are brought into and out of engagement with the platen. The device includes an operation lever and a linkage for linking the operation lever with the pressure rollers and the resist claws, the linkage being constructed such that as the operation lever is actuated, the resist claws are first brought into engagement with the platen and then the pressure rollers are moved away from the platen. By the aforesaid actuation of the operation lever, a lever having at its forward end paper ball rollers adapted to be brought into and out of engagement with the platen is moved through a cam in a manner to release the paper bail rollers from engagement with the platen. The aforesaid actuation of the operation lever is sensed by a switch which generates a signal for effecting control such that a carriage carrying a print head and a guide for guiding a sheet to conform to the outer peripheral surface of the platen is moved to a position suitable for guiding the sheet.

Sheet setting device for printer and the like

A thermal-image-transfer recording apparatus which heats a thermally fusible ink sheet in a selected pattern and transfers the image formed to a superimposed recording sheet, has separate units for holding the ink sheet and the recording sheet. The units engage for recording and disengage when not recording. The recording and ink sheets travel along separate passages in their respective units. A platen roller is disposed in one of the units, and the recording head in the other unit. Problems due to deformation by heat and humidity are overcome by the disclosed arrangement.

Thermal-image-transfer recording apparatus

An operating lever is pivotally mounted on a floppy disc drive intermediate its ends, and has its one end exposed externally of the unit to serve as an operating handle while its other end is connected to a link. The link is connected to a motion mechanism which translates an oscillating motion into a rectilinear reciprocating motion. The reciprocating motion mechanism includes a movable element which is integral with a member that carries a floppy disc. In response to an oscillation of the operating lever, the movable element reciprocates together with the handle member of the floppy disc, whereby the floppy disc can be inserted into or removed from a given clamped position. Another link is connected to the other end of the operating lever and is connected to motion translating means which causes a clamp member to reciprocate in a direction perpendicular to the plane in which the operating lever oscillates, thus clamping or unclamping the floppy disc as the operating lever oscillates. The operating lever is associated with a detent or lock/unlock mechanism which locks the floppy disc at angular positions corresponding to insert limit and/or clamp limit assumed in the drive unit or releases or unlocks the disc.

Floppy disc drive unit

A read/write head is fed to the location over a desired track by a usual access operation. Subsequently, the head undergoes an incremental movement from a base point where the head has been initially stopped, and in the course of such movement, a read operation is performed at each of any selected positions. An output level form each reading operation is stored in a memory in a patterned form. The stored pattern is then compared against a given reference which is chosen to serve as the criterion, and the head position throughout the incremental movement where the best output is read is detected. The read/write head is again moved to the detected position, followed by a normal read/write operation. Head feed means is provided on which the read/write head is mounted and which is adapted to permit a usual access operation. The head feed means is itself a substantially integral form and is constructed to be incrementally movable in a direction to traverse the track. An apparatus for correcting a track misalignment of a floppy disc includes a cam which is driven by an intermittent feed mechanism and which has a cam surface disposed in abutment against a member (on which the read/write head is mounted) defining the support for the head feed means. The intermittent feed mechanism is operated each time the plunger associated with a solenoid moves in the vertical direction, thereby rotating the cam to cause an incremental movement of the read/write head in accordance with the displacement of the cam surface.

Method of correcting track misalignment of floppy disc and apparatus

A sheet feeding apparatus of the type capable of feeding sheets individually from the lowermost sheet of a stack of sheets placed on a sheet tray, for use in facsimile apparatus, a copying machine or the like, comprises a sheet feed roller rotated in the sheet feeding direction and a sheet separation roller also rotated in the sheet feeding direction and disposed downstream of a sheet feed roller in terms of the sheet feeding direction. A brake member is in contact with the peripheral surface of the sheet separation roller and a pressure application plate is disposed above the sheet feed roller to bring the sheets into pressure contact with the sheet feed roller. The pressure application plate is movable between its pressure application position and a position substantially away from the sheets whereby the pressure plate may be held away from the sheets when they are being driven by the sheet separation rollers. Stopper members for causing the leading edges of the sheets to collide therewith are disposed in a sheet feed path between the brake member and sheet feed roller and the stopper member allow a limited number of sheets to pass towards the brake member. The stopper member is movable to a position where it is away from the sheet separation roller for removing jammed sheets.

Sheet feeding apparatus

A sheet feeding apparatus comprising a vertically movable vacuum plate having openings for sucking sheets individually and for allowing sheet feeding rollers to extend therethrough for translating the sucked sheets, wherein a sheet pressing portion is formed in the vacuum plate to form a space between the forward end portions of the sheets and the vacuum plate prior to the suction of the sheets. In another embodiment, instead of the sheet pressing portion, a sheet feeding roller mounted on the vacuum plate is utilized as the sheet pressing element, so that the sheets are pressed before being sucked causing the suction force to be applied to the forward end portions of the sheets.

Suction feet are arranged to pick up and feed a sheet from a stack and a blower is arranged to blow air against the edges of the sheets on the stack to separate the top sheet from the rest. A cam assembly driven through a novel one-rotation clutch moves a piston in a cylinder which is connected to both the feet and blower so that the piston is moved in one direction to supply pressurized air to the blower and subsequently in the opposite direction to apply suction to the suction feet. A cylindrical presser member is carried by each suction foot which extends past the suction foot to bend the top sheet during pickup and further aid in separating the top sheet from the lower sheets.

Sheet feed mechanism comprising one-rotation clutch and suction foot

A pneumatic sheet feeder includes a movable bottom plate which is disposed to form a constant angle with the uppermost sheet in a stack placed on a sheet receptacle, irrespective of the height of the stack. Sheets on the receptacle are attracted one by one by a negative pressure to be sequentially fed by a feed roller which is driven for rotation in an automatic manner.

Pneumatic sheet feeder

The sheet clamp apparatus is for clamping a sheet of original paper, recording paper, photosensitive paper, master plate, or the like on a drum usually provided in facsimile apparatus, copying apparatus, or the like. The apparatus comprises a single plate-shaped clamp member positioned along a generating line of the drum and at a part of the peripheral surface of the drum. The single clamp member presses firmly both the front edge and the rear edge of a sheet against the drum. The front edge of the sheet is clamped with the drum being stopped at a predetermined position, and the rear edge of the sheet is clamped after the drum has made about one revolution from the predetermined position of the front edge where the sheet is clamped.

Sheet clamp apparatus

An apparatus is disclosed which feeds sheets from a stack one by one separated from each other, the sheets being of the type which are cut to size and placed in a stack on a sheet receptacle. The apparatus comprises: a feed roller for feeding each sheet from the top of the stack, which roller is raised in a direction away from the sheets as each feeding of a sheet from the stack is terminated; drive means for operating the feed roller and control means for the drive means; means for causing the feed roller to move up and down for each feeding operation; and a pair of corner separators disposed at the opposite corners of the front end of the sheet receptacle for vertical movement in following relationship with the vertical movement of the feed roller. The corner separators operate to bear against the corners of the front end of the sheets only during the sheet feeding operation.

A sheet detector for use in an equipment such as a facsimile system which uses two kinds of sheets for recording of a received signal and for transmission of an original. The presence of absence of an 'original' sheet is detected by a detecting member which is disposed directly above a cassette containing record sheets for reception and which is located in the sheet feed station. The detecting member is disposed so as to traverse across the sheet cassette, and is mounted in the sheet feed station so that it rocks in a downward direction under the gravity of the 'original' sheet when the latter is placed on the detecting member.

Sheet detector in sheet feed station

A paper feeder is disclosed comprising a corner separator located on a paper tray on which a plurality of sheets are disposed in a stack and are fed one by one by means of a feed roller. The paper feeder is also provided with a second paper separator which operates, in the event of failure of paper separation by the corner separator to which results in a plurality of sheets being simultaneously fed from the paper tray, to separate the plurality of sheets into single sheets, thus assuring that the sheets are reliably fed into a sheet processing apparatus one by one. The second separator comprises an endless, sheet conveying belt which is disposed above a sheet passageway which connects the paper tray and the sheet processing apparatus, the belt cooperating with a frictional member which is disposed below the sheet passageway in opposing relationship with the sheet conveying belt.

Paper feeder

A sheet delivery apparatus includes a sheet delivering revolving member in abutting relationship with a sheet separating member, which members cooperate to deliver the lowermost one of sheets in a stack through a nip therebetween while maintaining the forward edge face of the sheets in an inclined position.

Sheet delivery apparatus

A sheet feed apparatus feeds sheets, placed on a sheet receptacle, one by one toward a sheet processor. When the sheets on the receptacle are exhausted, the operation of the apparatus is interrupted by a signal from a signal emitter which operates to detect the termination of sheet delivery. The signal emitter is actuated upon the detection of the occurrence of a plurality of idling operations of the sheet feed apparatus.

Sheet feed termination detector

An apparatus is disclosed for automatically wrapping an original to be transmitted, or a record sheet for receiving a signal, around a drum of a facsimile system or the like and for automatically delivering the sheet from the drum subsequent to the completion of processing of the sheet such as a scanning of the original for transmission or recording a received signal on the sheet.

Growing community of inventors

Chofu, Japan

Sakae Fujimoto