The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 14, 2019
Filed:
Mar. 26, 2018
Konica Minolta, Inc., Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, JP;
KONICA MINOLTA, INC., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A document feeder includes: a first conveyer that picks up sheets from a sheet bundle sheet by sheet, where rear edge of a preceding sheet overlaps front edge of a succeeding sheet; a second conveyer that conveys each sheet picked up by the first conveyer; a front edge sensor that is disposed on a conveyance path from the first conveyer to the second conveyer, and senses whether the sheet falls within a sensing range; and a shift unit that shifts, while the first and second conveyers convey the sheet, positional relation between the sheet and the front edge sensor by increasing distance therebetween in a direction crossing a sheet conveyance direction, such that the sheet falls outside the sensing range. When the preceding sheet falls outside the sensing range, the first conveyer picks up the succeeding sheet such that the front edge of the succeeding sheet enters the sensing range.