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:
Aug. 24, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 18, 1997
Applicant:
Inventors:
Assignee:
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Primary Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
B65H / ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
271122 ; 271124 ; 271110 ;
Abstract
In an automatic document feeder (ADF), a document separating mechanism includes a separator belt. Documents stacked on a tray are caused to abut against the separator belt at their leading edges and then introduced into a nip between the belt and a feed roller to be separated one by one. The angle at which the documents abut against the separator belt is variable. The separator belt is movably mounted on a guide pivotable about the shaft of a separator roller. The above angle refers to an angle between the surface of the documents stacked on the tray and the surface of the portion of the separator belt against which the documents abut.