Sheet feeder, image forming apparatus incorporating the sheet feeder, and method of removing discharge products in the image forming apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9701499-B2
Application number	US-201615064724-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 9, 2016
Priority date	Mar 17, 2015
Publication date	Jul 11, 2017
Grant date	Jul 11, 2017

Abstract

A sheet feeder, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes an attraction body disposed facing a bundle of sheets, a charger to charge the attraction body to electrostatically attract an uppermost sheet of the bundle of sheets to the attraction body, a liquid supplier to supply a liquid to dissolve discharge products to the attraction body, and a liquid remover to remove the liquid from the attraction body. Further, a method of removing discharge products includes counting the number of sheets fed from a sheet container, determining that the number of sheets reaches a predetermined threshold value, confirming that a current time falls within a predetermined period of time or receiving a turn off signal to turn off a power supply, removing the discharge products from a surface of an attraction body, and resetting the number of sheets or further turning off the power supply.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sheet feeder comprising:
an attraction body disposed facing an upper surface of a bundle of sheets including an uppermost sheet;
a charger disposed above the attraction body, the charger to charge a surface of the attraction body such that the attraction body electrostatically attracts the uppermost sheet of the bundle of sheets,
a liquid supplier to supply a liquid to the attraction body, the liquid to dissolve discharge products; and
a liquid remover to remove the liquid supplied by the liquid supplier from the attraction body, wherein the liquid supplier is configured to supply the liquid to the attraction body without contacting the attraction body and wherein the liquid remover is configured to remove the liquid from the attraction body by at least one of absorbing, blowing, evaporating and dehumidifying.

2. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid contains water.

3. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid supplier is configured to spray the liquid to the attraction body.

4. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid remover is configured to remove the liquid supplied to the attraction body from the attraction body without contacting the attraction body.

5. The sheet feeder according to claim 4 , wherein the liquid remover is configured to remove the liquid supplied to the attraction body by blowing.

6. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , wherein the liquid remover includes a liquid absorber as at least a surface, the liquid absorber being configured to absorb and remove the liquid from the attraction body.

7. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 ,
wherein the liquid remover is further configured to contact the attraction body when the liquid remover removes the liquid supplied to the attraction body from the attraction body.

8. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , further comprising a moist air remover to remove moist air from an ambient atmosphere.

9. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , further comprising a liquid collector to collect the liquid removed by the liquid remover.

10. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , further comprising a controller to estimate a level of adhesion of the discharge products to the attraction body, the controller being configured to cause the liquid supplier to perform a liquid supplying operation and the liquid remover to perform a liquid removing operation when the level of adhesion of the discharge products to the attraction body is estimated to be a threshold value or higher.

11. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , further comprising a controller to cause the liquid supplier to perform a liquid supplying operation and to cause the liquid remover to perform a liquid removing operation at issuance of a power off instruction.

12. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a sheet container to accommodate the bundle of sheets;
an image forming device to form an image on the uppermost sheet fed from the sheet container; and
the sheet feeder according to claim 1 to separate the uppermost sheet from the bundle of sheets in the sheet container and supply the uppermost sheet to the image forming device.

13. A method of removing discharge products, the method comprising:
counting the number of sheets fed from a sheet container via a processor;
determining, via the processor, when the count of the number of sheets fed from the sheet container reaches a threshold value;
confirming, via the processor, that a current time falls within a period of time upon determining that the count reaches the threshold;
removing the discharge products from a surface of an attraction body by supplying a liquid to the attraction body without contacting the attraction body, via a liquid supplier, to dissolve discharge products, in response to the confirming by the processor, where the attraction body is disposed facing an upper surface of a bundle of sheets; and
resetting, via the processor, the count of the number of sheets fed from the sheet container in response to the discharge products being removed, wherein the liquid is further removed from the surface of the attraction body, via a liquid remover, by at least one of absorbing, blowing, evaporating and dehumidifying.

14. A method of removing discharge products, the method comprising:
counting the number of sheets fed from a sheet container via a processor;
determining, via the processor, when the count of the number of sheets fed from the sheet container reaches a threshold value;
receiving, via the processor, a turn off signal to control turning off a power supply in response to the processor determining that the count reaches the threshold;
removing the discharge products from a surface of an attraction body by supplying a liquid to the attraction body without contacting the attraction body, via a liquid supplier, to dissolve discharge products, in response to the processor receiving the turn off signal; resetting, via the processor, the count of the number of sheets fed from the sheet container in response to the discharge products being removed, where the attraction body is disposed facing an upper surface of a bundle of sheets;
resetting, via the processor, the count of the number of sheets fed from the sheet container in response to the discharge products being removed; and
turning off the power supply after the resetting, based upon the turn off signal, wherein the liquid is further removed from the surface of the attraction body, via a liquid remover, by at least one of absorbing, blowing, evaporating and dehumidifying.

15. The sheet feeder according to claim 1 , wherein the attraction body is sheet attraction belt.

16. The sheet feeder according to claim 15 , wherein the sheet attraction belt includes a multilayer construction including a front surface layer and a back surface layer.

17. The sheet feeder according to claim 16 , wherein the front surface layer is an insulating film and the back surface layer is a conductive layer.

Assignees

• Shoji Kaoru
• Nonaka Manabu
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Shoji Kaoru
• Nonaka Manabu

Classifications

• B65H2301/5322

  Generating electrostatic charge at said surface · CPC title

• G03G15/6529

  Transporting (G03G15/6555 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B65H3/18

  using electrostatic force · CPC title

• B65H5/004 Primary

  using electrostatic force · CPC title

• B65H2406/21

  for spraying liquid · CPC title