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:
Jan. 12, 1999
Filed:
Dec. 24, 1996
Hiroyuki Kato, Nagoya, JP;
Takatoshi Takemoto, Nagoya, JP;
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha, Nagoya, JP;
Abstract
A sheet feeder capable of providing accurate separation of an uppermost sheet from remaining sheets of a sheet stack stored in a hopper regardless of a size and rigidity of the sheets. The sheet feeder includes a sheet feed roller positioned in confrontation with the hopper for feeding the sheet in a sheet feeding direction. An outlet end portion of the hopper is provided with a wall to which the leading edge of the sheet abuts. The wall is provided with a slanted surface sloping toward the sheet feeding direction, and a stop member protrudable from or retractable into the slanted surface. The stop member is biased in the protruding direction by a coil spring. When the sheets having high rigidity are stored in the hopper, the leading edge of the sheet pushes the stop member into the slanted surface (51) and the uppermost sheet is separated from the remaining sheets by the slanted surface. When the sheets having low rigidity are stored, the leading edge of the sheet abuts against the protruding stop member for imparting large bending of the sheet.