Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Tomoki Tamate

Hidetoshi Kojima

Hideaki Takahashi

Yasuo Niikura

Kazunori Konno

Takashi Fukumoto

Munehisa Fuda

Tatsuya Sugawara

Toshihiro Okutsu

Kohjiroh Haga

Hisayoshi Sugawara

Masato Hashimoto

Kiyotake Nakamura

Masaki Ishizaki

Yasunori Hino

Chikara Akata

A sheet feeding device includes: a sheet stacking member; an air blowing unit configured to blow air onto the sheet bundle placed on the sheet stacking member to suspend multiple sheets of the sheet bundle; a lifting/lowering unit configured to lift/lower the sheet stacking member; an optical reflection sensor configured to detect a suspended sheet suspended by the air blowing unit; and a control unit configured to control the lifting/lowering unit based on an output value of the optical reflection sensor. The optical reflection sensor is configured to be capable of detecting an area corresponding to multiple sheets in a sheet suspension zone extending between a non-suspended sheet bundle and a conveying member configured to convey an uppermost sheet of the multiple suspended sheets. The non-suspended sheet bundle is made up of sheets not suspended during a period when air is blown by the air blowing unit.

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

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Tomoki Tamate