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:
Sep. 17, 2024
Filed:
Oct. 27, 2022
Yohsuke Takamiya, Kanagawa, JP;
Hidetoshi Kojima, Kanagawa, JP;
Tatsuya Sugawara, Kanagawa, JP;
Toshihiro Okutsu, Kanagawa, JP;
Sachika Tamaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Yohsuke Takamiya, Kanagawa, JP;
Hidetoshi Kojima, Kanagawa, JP;
Tatsuya Sugawara, Kanagawa, JP;
Toshihiro Okutsu, Kanagawa, JP;
Sachika Tamaki, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet stacker, an air blower, a suction feeder, a lifting mechanism, an elevation detection sensor, an elevation detection sensor, a feed detection sensor, and processing circuitry. The air blower blows air to float an uppermost sheet of sheets stacked on the sheet stacker. The processing circuitry drives the lifting mechanism such that the sheet stacker is lifted by an elevation amount determined based on a sheet thickness of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacker, each time a sheet is detected when a number of sheets detected is smaller than a threshold number of sheets, and stops lifting of the sheet stacker until a sheet is not detected when the number of sheets reaches the threshold number of sheets, while repeatedly feeding the uppermost sheet and counting the number of sheets.