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:
Nov. 30, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 08, 2001
Toshifumi Togashi, Kanagawa-ken, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A sheet feeder separates a stack of sheet materials one by one for securely feeding individual sheet materials without multiple sheet feeding or failure in feeding a sheet material. The leading edge of a sheet material stacked on a bottom board of a cassette is brought into contact with a sheet feed roller. Near the location at which the leading edge of the sheet material comes in contact with the sheet feed roller, a tilt member is pressed onto the sheet feed roller by the action of a compression spring. A contact area of the tilt member with the sheet feed roller is reduced to prevent the sheet feed roller from rotating together with the sheet material. The topmost sheet material is fed by the rotation of the sheet feed roller in the counter-clockwise direction and supplied beyond the tilt member by friction with the sheet feed roller, whereas the next sheet material is blocked by the tilt member due to less friction between the sheet materials, thereby preventing multiple sheet feeding.