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:
Mar. 31, 2015
Filed:
Jan. 28, 2013
Yohei Osanai, Kanagawa, JP;
Yasunobu Youda, Kanagawa, JP;
Taku Kudoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Takayuki Andoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Koji Hatayama, Kanagawa, JP;
Yohei Osanai, Kanagawa, JP;
Yasunobu Youda, Kanagawa, JP;
Taku Kudoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Takayuki Andoh, Kanagawa, JP;
Koji Hatayama, Kanagawa, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A sheet conveyance unit including a sheet tray on which a stack of sheets is placed, a sheet feed member to feed sheets from the stack of sheets, a separation/feed unit to separate a topmost sheet from the rest of sheets fed by the sheet feed member and feed the topmost sheet to a predetermined position, and a pre-separation unit disposed between the sheet tray and the separation/feed unit. The pre-separation unit includes a downward sloped portion to guide a leading edge of each sheet diagonally downward, and an upward sloped portion provided downstream from the downward sloped portion in a conveyance direction of the sheets to guide the leading edge of each sheet diagonally upward. Both ends of the upward sloped portion in a lateral direction are sloped upward more gently than the center of the upward sloped portion.