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. 21, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 07, 1997
Fumio Hatanaka, Osaka, JP;
Mita Industrial Co., Ltd., Osaka-fu, JP;
Abstract
Disclosed is a paper feed mechanism in which copy paper stacked on a paper support member such as a manual insertion tray is fed along the sheet transport direction in a nipped state between an upper roller and a lower roller. The upper roller has, on its outer surface in the described order with respect to the rotational direction, a non-contact area which is not brought into pressing contact with the copy paper and the lower roller, a first contact area which comes into pressing contact with the copy paper and the lower roller and whose frictional coefficient relative to copy paper is set small, and a second contact area which comes into pressing contact with the copy paper and the lower roller and whose frictional coefficient relative to copy paper is set large. The lower roller is mounted on a torque limiter. The lower roller is rotated in a direction opposite to the sheet transport direction via the torque limiter when not coming into pressing contact with the first and second contact areas of the upper roller, while rotated in the sheet transport direction following the rotation of the upper roller when coming into pressing contact with the first and second contact areas of the upper roller.