Paper feed apparatus and paper feed unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10384891-B2
Application number	US-201715803114-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 3, 2017
Priority date	Nov 30, 2016
Publication date	Aug 20, 2019
Grant date	Aug 20, 2019

Abstract

A paper feed apparatus includes: a sheet tray on which sheets are stacked; a sheet attractor which is located above the sheet tray and attracts sheets one by one from the above; a leading edge fan which is located in a leading edge side of the sheets and blows separation air against leading edges of the sheets to separate an uppermost sheet of the sheets closest to the sheet attractor from lower sheets located below the uppermost sheet; a sheet conveyor which is located in a downstream side of the sheet attractor along a conveying direction of the sheets to convey the uppermost sheet which is attracted by the sheet attractor and separated from the lower sheets by the leading edge fan; and a lifting member which is detachably provided on the sheet tray to support a tail side of a back of the sheets.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A paper feed apparatus comprising:
a sheet tray having a surface on which sheets are stacked, wherein at least a front of a bottommost one of the sheets contacts the surface of the sheet tray when the sheets are stacked on the sheet tray;
a sheet attractor which is located above the sheet tray and attracts sheets one by one from the above;
a leading edge fan which is located in a leading edge side of the sheets and blows separation air against leading edges of the sheets to separate an uppermost sheet of the sheets closest to the sheet attractor from lower sheets located below the uppermost sheet;
a sheet conveyor which is located in a downstream side of the sheet attractor along a conveying direction of the sheets to convey the uppermost sheet which is attracted by the sheet attractor and separated from the lower sheets by the leading edge fan; and
a lifting member which is detachably provided on the surface of the sheet tray to support a tail side of a back of the sheets, the lifting member having a fixation member and a support member, the fixation member detachably formed on an attachable area on the surface of the sheet tray and the support member being connected at a back side of the fixation member and formed to rise from the fixation member to support the tail side of the back of the sheets above the surface of the sheet tray.

2. The paper feed apparatus of claim 1 further comprising
an attraction fan which provides a negative pressure in the sheet attractor, wherein
an attraction force of the attraction fan is set to be stronger than a separation force of the leading edge fan for separating lower sheets from the uppermost sheet at least until the uppermost sheet is attracted by the sheet attractor.

3. The paper feed apparatus of claim 2 wherein
a blowing direction of the separation air is continuously supplied in the same direction from the start of conveying the uppermost sheet to the sheet conveyor until an end.

4. The paper feed apparatus of claim 3 further comprising:
a control unit configured to determine a blowing quantity of the separation air based on a type and a size of the sheets.

5. The paper feed apparatus of claim 4 further comprising:
a side guide which is located in the lateral side of the sheets to guide a side of the sheets;
a side air opening which is formed in the side guide to blow side air against the side of the sheets, wherein
the sheet attractor is provided with a conveyor belt through which a plurality of through holes are formed to attract the sheets by the attraction fan through the plurality of through holes, wherein
the conveyor belt has an attraction surface onto which the sheets are attracted through the plurality of through holes, wherein
the side air opening is formed below the attraction surface in a position corresponding to the tail side of the sheets.

6. The paper feed apparatus of claim 5 wherein
while a sheet is conveyed from the sheet tray to the sheet conveyor, the leading edge fan continuously blows the separation air.

7. The paper feed apparatus of claim 6 further comprising:
a tail edge guide which guides tail edges of sheets; and
a regulation member which is detachably provided on an upper end portion of the tail edge guide to regulate an upper limit of an allowable range of the height of sheets.

8. The paper feed apparatus of claim 7 wherein
the sheet tray can be freely elevated and lowered along the side guide and the tail edge guide, wherein
profiles of the support member are determined based on the type and size of sheets.

9. The paper feed apparatus of claim 7 wherein
the sheet tray can be freely elevated and lowered along the side guide, and the inclination angle of the sheet tray can be freely adjusted around a fulcrum located below the leading edges of sheets, and wherein
the inclination angle is determined based on the type and size of the sheets P.

10. A paper feed unit comprising a plurality of paper feed apparatuses as recited in claim 8 .

11. The paper feed apparatus of claim 1 wherein
the sheet tray can be freely elevated and lowered along the side guide, and
profiles of the support member are determined based on the type and size of sheets.

12. The paper feed apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the fixation member of the lifting member includes holes and hooks, each of the hooks being associated with a respective one of the holes, wherein the hooks determine a positional relationship between the lifting member and the attachable area in the sheet tray.

13. The paper feed apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the support member of the lifting member is disposed on a tail end side of the attachment member.

Assignees

• Konica Minolta Inc

Inventors

• Furuichi Wataru
• Kimura Kazuyoshi

Classifications

• B65H2405/332

  Superposed compartments · CPC title

• B65H2405/15

  Large capacity supports arrangements · CPC title

• B65H3/128

  separating from the top of pile · CPC title

• B65H1/14

  comprising positively-acting mechanical devices {(B65H1/025 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B65H1/04

  adapted to support articles substantially horizontally, e.g. for separation from top of pile · CPC title