Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
271180100 | Magnetic or electrostatic | 25 |
20090261525 | MAGNETIC PAPER-FEEDING ROLLER ASSEMBLY - A magnetic paper-feeding roller assembly is adapted to feed a piece of paper in a machine that requires paper-feeding and that includes a casing. The magnetic paper-feeding roller assembly includes a first roller and a second roller, both of which are adapted to be pivotably mounted in the casing. The first roller is made of a magnetically attractive material. The second roller produces a magnetic force to magnetically attract the first roller toward the second roller so as to maintain a predetermined gap between the first roller and the second roller. | 10-22-2009 |
20100032891 | Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus - A sheet feeding device including a belt including a dielectric material seamlessly wound about rollers and disposed opposite a top surface of a stack of multiple sheets placed on a sheet storage stand to attract a sheet from the stack of multiple sheets and convey the sheet, and a charger to form a predetermined charge pattern on a surface of the belt. A shaft of one of the rollers provided downstream from the other roller in a direction of sheet feed serves as a pivot of the belt about which the belt swings, and the belt swings around the pivot such that the surface of the belt facing the top surface of the stack of multiple sheets and a surface of the sheet storage stand facing the surface of the belt are substantially parallel to each other. | 02-11-2010 |
20100072690 | SHEET FEEDING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - Sheets fed out of a cassette supporting the sheets by a pickup roller are separated and fed by a sheet separation feeding unit having a feed roller and a separating roller which is rotatable in a direction opposite to a sheet feeding direction. A charge eliminating mechanism for eliminating charges of the separating roller is arranged on the upstream side in the sheet feeding direction in a separation nip portion between the feed roller and the separating roller. | 03-25-2010 |
20110062651 | Image forming apparatus - An image forming apparatus includes an image forming device, a sheet feeding unit, a belt pressing member, and a moving unit. The sheet feeding unit includes an endless, dielectric belt to contact and attract the uppermost sheet to a surface thereof and feed in a sheet feeding direction, and an electric potential pattern forming unit to form an electric potential pattern on a surface of the dielectric belt. The moving unit moves the belt pressing member between a sheet attracting position and a sheet feeding position. The dielectric belt attracts the uppermost sheet at the sheet attracting position, the moving unit moves the belt pressing member to the sheet feeding position, and an entire flat portion of the dielectric belt feeds the uppermost sheet in the sheet feeding direction while carrying the uppermost sheet thereon as the dielectric belt rotates. | 03-17-2011 |
20110121506 | Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus incorporating same - A sheet feeding device includes a sheet carrying unit and an attraction separation and conveyance device. The sheet carrying unit is configured to carry thereon a sheet stack. The attraction separation and conveyance device is configured to electrostatically attract the uppermost sheet of the sheet stack and separate and convey the uppermost sheet from the sheet stack, and is placed between the upstream end and the central position in a sheet conveying direction of the sheet stack located at a sheet carrying position and having a minimum sheet size compatible with the sheet feeding device. | 05-26-2011 |
20110127711 | Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus incorporating same - A sheet feeding device includes a sheet carrying unit, an attraction separation device electrostatically attracting and separating an uppermost sheet from a sheet stack and including multiple rollers, an endless dielectric belt stretched over the multiple rollers, and an elastic member provided inside a loop of the belt to cause the endless dielectric belt to contact the uppermost sheet, a sheet conveying device, and a lifting and lowering device. The lifting and lowering device lifts the sheet stack to a lift position at which the uppermost sheet contacts with the attraction separation device, and the attraction separation device stands by for a predetermined time to attract the uppermost sheet and starts to convey the uppermost sheet after the predetermined time elapses in a state in which the sheet stack remains at the lift position. | 06-02-2011 |
20110187043 | SHEET TRANSPORTATION DEVICE INCLUDING ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPONENT AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF - A sheet transportation device includes a transportation path for transportation of a sheet, a transportation unit for applying force to a sheet on the transportation path, and an electromagnetic component for driving the transportation unit by receiving supply of electric power. At the sheet transportation device, the absence/presence of a sheet is detected at a downstream side of the region where the transportation unit applies force to a sheet in the transportation path, and counter electromotive force induced in response to electric power being supplied to the electromagnetic component is supplied as the electric power for the detector. | 08-04-2011 |
20110204557 | Sheet conveying device and image forming apparatus - A sheet conveying device includes an attractive separation unit and a contacting and separating device. The attractive separation unit includes an attraction belt arranged to face the upper surface of a sheet stack, two rollers that stretch the attraction belt taut, with the upstream-side roller in the sheet conveying direction supported to be movable in substantially upward and downward directions within a predetermined range with respect to the upper surface of the sheet stack, and a charging device which charges a surface of the attraction belt. The contacting and separating device swings the attractive separation unit to make the attraction belt come into contact with and separate from the sheet stack, with a fulcrum of the swing of the attractive separation unit set to a position upstream in the sheet conveying direction of the upstream-side roller in the sheet conveying direction. | 08-25-2011 |
20110204558 | Sheet conveying device and image forming apparatus - A sheet conveying device includes an attraction belt, multiple rollers, a charging device, and a contacting and separating device. The attraction belt is arranged to face the upper surface of a stacked sheet stack. The multiple rollers stretch the attraction belt with tension. The charging device charges a surface of the attraction belt. The contacting and separating device causes the attraction belt to come into contact with and separate from the sheet stack, with different tensions set for the attraction belt at a contact position in contact with the uppermost sheet of the sheet stack and the attraction belt at a separation position separate from the sheet stack. | 08-25-2011 |
20110204559 | PAPER FEEDING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - A paper feeding apparatus transports paper one by one through a transportation mechanism to an image forming unit of an image forming apparatus. The paper feeding apparatus includes a paper feed cassette to contain paper, a paper side guide arranged in the paper feed cassette to position the paper in a direction perpendicular or substantially perpendicular to a transport direction of the paper, and a dust removing roller arranged in the paper side guide and in contact with the paper contained in the paper feed cassette. | 08-25-2011 |
20110227275 | STACKED OBJECT FEED-OUT APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING OUT STACKED OBJECTS - An object of the present invention is to achieve increase in feed-out speed while having a freedom of selecting stacked objects from a wide range of objects by securing a stable separating and feed-out function of feeding out stacked objects one by one from a surface thereof. A stacked object feed-out apparatus A | 09-22-2011 |
20110316221 | RECORDING MEDIUM HOLDING APPARATUS, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND IMAGE FORMING METHOD - According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes an endless device, a power supply unit, an electric charge supplementary unit, and an image forming unit. The endless device is rotated. The power supply unit supplies a recording medium on a surface of the endless device with an electric charge. The electric charge supplementary unit supplements the electric charge to the recording medium which is rotated together with the endless device in the state of being attracted to the surface of the endless device by the electric charge provided by the power supply unit. The image forming unit forms an image on the recording medium attracted to the surface of the endless device. | 12-29-2011 |
20120061903 | Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus incorporating same - A sheet feeding device that is incorporatable in an image forming apparatus includes an endless belt disposed facing an upper surface of a sheet stack to convey sheets of the sheet stack forward in a first moving direction of a surface thereof, an attraction unit to attract an uppermost sheet of the sheet stack to the endless belt, a contact and separation unit to contact and separate the endless belt relative to the sheet stack, and a controller to cause the endless belt to contact or substantially contact the upper surface of the sheet stack to attract the uppermost sheet to the endless belt, perform a pre-separation operation in which the endless belt moves in a reverse direction that is opposite the sheet conveyance direction, and then perform a separating operation in which the endless belt separates from the sheet stack. | 03-15-2012 |
20120068401 | HOLDING DEVICE OF RECORDING MEDIUM, IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, AND CONVEYING METHOD OF RECORDING MEDIUM - According to one embodiment, the image forming apparatus includes, an endless device having a plurality of suction holes, and a negative pressure chamber which communicates with the suction holes, a rotation mechanism which rotates the endless device, a suction mechanism which discharges air in the negative pressure chamber, an opening and closing mechanism which has a switching blade which opens and closes the suction holes, a driving mechanism which moves the switching blade to a first position and a second position, a recording head unit, a supply mechanism which supplies the recording medium to the endless device, and a controller. If the switching blade moves to the first position, the suction holes are shut. If the switching blade moves to the second position, the suction holes communicate with the negative pressure chamber. The controller drives the opening and closing mechanism according to the size of the recording medium. | 03-22-2012 |
20120235346 | SHEET FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS USING THE SAME - A sheet feeder includes a loading member, an attraction separation unit, and a control device. The loading member carries sheet materials. The attraction separation unit includes an endless dielectric belt, holding rollers, and an adjustment device. The endless belt attracts and holds the uppermost one of the sheet materials. The holding rollers holding the endless belt include upstream and downstream holding rollers. The upstream holding roller is rotated around a shaft of the downstream holding roller as the rotation axis in accordance with rotation of the downstream holding roller. The adjustment device provided to the upstream holding roller adjusts the movement range of the upstream holding roller in the height direction. The control device controls, in accordance with the type of sheet materials, an operation of lifting and lowering the loading member, to thereby allow the adjustment device to adjust the movement range of the upstream holding roller. | 09-20-2012 |
20130043641 | CONVEYING APPARATUS - A conveying apparatus has first and second conveying roller pairs pair; a first conveying path through which a sheet is conveyed in such a manner that the first conveying roller pair is placed downstream of the second conveying roller pair; and a second conveying path through which the sheet is conveyed in such a manner that the first conveying roller pair is placed upstream of the second conveying roller path. |V | 02-21-2013 |
20130161894 | SHEET FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME - A sheet feeder includes: an attracting and separating device disposed above a leading end portion in a sheet-feeding direction of a sheet stack, attracting and holding an uppermost sheet of the sheet stack with electrostatic force and separating the uppermost sheet from the sheet stack, a sheet loading device carrying the sheet stack, and including a first bottom plate carrying a rear-side portion of the sheet stack and a second bottom plate separated from the first bottom plate and carrying the leading end portion of the sheet stack below the attracting and separating device; and a lifting device lifting and lowering the sheet loading device, and including a first lifting device lifting and lowering the first bottom plate and a second lifting device lifting and lowering the second bottom plate to move the leading end portion of the sheet stack toward and away from the attracting and separating device. | 06-27-2013 |
20130234385 | PRINT MEDIUM FEEDING APPARATUS WITH ELECTRODE IN ENDLESS BELT - A print medium feeding apparatus includes an endless belt disposed to face stacked media and configured to rotate, the endless belt divided into sections having electrodes, respectively, fixed terminals configured to be in contact with two or more of the electrodes while the two or more of the electrodes are passing through a position facing the media as the electrodes are moved by rotation of the endless belt, a voltage applying unit connected to the fixed terminals and configured to apply voltage to the two or more of the electrodes that are in contact with the fixed terminals, a connection unit configured to make and break a connection between the voltage applying unit and at least one of the fixed terminals, and a switching unit configured to change a state of the connection of the connection unit in response to size of the media. | 09-12-2013 |
20130300052 | SHEET FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME - A sheet feeder attracts an uppermost sheet of a sheet stack of a plurality of stacked sheets, and feeds the sheet in a sheet feeding direction. The sheet feeder includes an endless belt, a charging device, and a control device. The endless belt is made of a dielectric material, passes over upstream and downstream rollers, and is disposed above the sheet stack to face the sheet stack. The charging device applies an alternating voltage to an outer circumferential surface of the endless belt to form thereon alternating charge patterns. The control device separately controls the respective rotation states of the upstream and downstream rollers to make a sheet contact surface of the endless belt go slack in sheet attraction and make the sheet contact surface of the endless belt taut with tension into a substantially flat surface in sheet conveyance. | 11-14-2013 |
20140001699 | SHEET CONVEYOR AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME | 01-02-2014 |
20140312557 | SHEET FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME - A sheet feeder, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes an endless attraction belt that is rotatably disposed facing a top surface of a sheet stack, a belt charger to attract an uppermost sheet of the sheet stack, and a sheet separator to press the attraction belt against the sheet stack, bend a contact region to which the uppermost sheet is attracted and contacted to the attraction belt, and separate the uppermost sheet from a subsequent sheet or other sheet of the sheet stack. In this configuration, a curvature of a contact surface of the sheet separator with respect to the attraction belt is changeable. | 10-23-2014 |
20150115518 | SHEET FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME - A sheet feeder, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet container, a sheet conveying member disposed facing a sheet stack that includes multiple sheet members loaded on the sheet container to separate an uppermost sheet member placed on the sheet stack from the other sheet members and to convey the uppermost sheet member, and a pressing member switchable between a pressing position to press the sheet stack from above and a retracted position to separate from the sheet stack. | 04-30-2015 |
20150360891 | IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS WITH TRANSPORT FOR MAGNETIC SHEETS - A magnetic sheet transport apparatus according to an embodiment includes a transport path on which a magnetic sheet having a magnetic flux is transported. A magnetic member is disposed on the transport path. A separation unit is disposed on the magnetic member. The separation unit causes the magnetic sheet to be separated from the magnetic member so that the magnetic sheet being transported on the transport path is not pushed onto the magnetic member by the magnetic flux. | 12-17-2015 |
20160031662 | SHEET FEEDING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS - Provided is a sheet feeding device and an image forming apparatus capable of performing sheet feeding by electrostatic adsorption at a low noise with a simple configuration. A first outer nip conveying roller | 02-04-2016 |
20160194166 | SHEET FEEDER AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS INCORPORATING SAME | 07-07-2016 |