Patents Examined by Jeremy R. Severson
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Patent number: 11130649Abstract: A sheet discharge device includes a discharge member, a discharge tray and a stopper. The discharge tray includes a groove and a fixed magnetic body. The groove is formed along a discharge direction. The fixed magnetic body is disposed at a predetermined position along the groove. The stopper includes a guide piece, a contact piece and a moving magnet body. The guide piece is engaged with the groove in a slidable manner. With the contact piece, the leading edge of the sheet is allowed to be come into contact. The moving magnetic body generates a magnetic force in a direction in which the moving magnetic body and the fixed magnetic body are attracted each other. When the guide piece is slid along the groove and the moving magnetic body reaches the predetermined position, a resistance is applied to a sliding movement of the guide piece by the magnetic force.Type: GrantFiled: February 4, 2020Date of Patent: September 28, 2021Assignee: KYOCERA Document Solutions Inc.Inventor: Takehiko Okada
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Patent number: 11124374Abstract: Disclosed is a sheet conveying apparatus, including: a first guide member for restricting a movement of an end portion of a sheet in a sheet width direction; a second guide member for restricting a movement of the other end portion of the sheet in the sheet width direction; and a moving portion, wherein when one guide member of the first guide member and the second guide member is moved in the sheet width direction, the moving portion moves the other guide member in a direction opposite to a direction in which the one guide member is moved while being interlocked with a movement of the one guide member in a first area of a moving area, and allows the one guide member to be moved without being interlocked with a movement of the other guide member in a second area of the moving area.Type: GrantFiled: April 25, 2019Date of Patent: September 21, 2021Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Akio Ogasawara
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Patent number: 11117772Abstract: A medium ejection apparatus includes an ejection roller pair configured to eject a medium, a driving device configured to rotate at least one roller of the ejection roller pair, a processor for detecting a size of the medium, and controlling the driving device to increase a rotation speed of the at least one roller to be higher than a previous rotation speed, from a predetermined timing after a rear edge of the medium passes through a nip position of the ejection roller pair. The processor changes the predetermined timing in accordance with the size of the medium.Type: GrantFiled: June 6, 2019Date of Patent: September 14, 2021Assignee: PFU LIMITEDInventor: Kazuhito Seki
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Patent number: 11117774Abstract: A system for controlling curl in sheets passing beneath a camera includes applying a thin layer of high velocity air to a curved baffle positioned beneath the camera. The high velocity air layer, which will have a tendency to follow the curved baffle (Coanda effect), will divert sheets (Bernoulli effect) towards the curved baffle. By positioning the curved baffle along the media paper path and by applying a uniform air stream to it, a lower pressure area will be created. This will flatten the trajectory of the sheets and thereby remove curl before the sheets pass the camera.Type: GrantFiled: April 23, 2019Date of Patent: September 14, 2021Assignee: XEROX CORPORATIONInventors: Rachel Lynn Tanchak, Erwin Ruiz, Carlos M Terrero, Roberto A Irizarry, Glenn Batchelor, Ali R Dergham
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Patent number: 11117767Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a feeding roller configured to feed a printing sheet stacked on a stacking unit, a conveyance roller configured to convey the printing sheet fed by the feeding roller, a printing unit configured to print the printing sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller, a conveyance control unit configured to control conveyance of printing sheets so that the trailing edge of a preceding sheet as a printing sheet precedingly fed from the stacking unit and the leading edge of a succeeding sheet as a printing sheet succeedingly fed from the stacking unit overlap each other, and a determination unit configured to determine whether to convey the succeeding sheet to a position facing the printing unit while keeping an overlap state between the preceding sheet and the succeeding sheet.Type: GrantFiled: December 2, 2019Date of Patent: September 14, 2021Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventors: Tomofumi Nishida, Noriyuki Sugiyama, Yasuyuki Asai, Motoyuki Taguchi, Tetsuya Saito, Yoshiaki Suzuki, Syunichi Kunihiro
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Patent number: 11117761Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet stacker to stack at least one sheet; a sheet feed roller disposed at one side of the sheet stacker and to feed a sheet fed from the sheet stacker; a multi-feed prevention roller disposed to face the sheet feed roller and to prevent multi-feed of the sheet fed from the sheet stacker; a magnetic torque limiter disposed coaxially with the multi-feed prevention roller; a hall sensor disposed at one side of the magnetic torque limiter and to detect rotation of the magnetic torque limiter; and a controller configured to rotate the sheet feed roller in a state in which the sheet feed roller and the multi-feed prevention roller are in contact with each other without a sheet and to identify a lifetime of the multi-feed prevention roller by using a signal output from the hall sensor.Type: GrantFiled: January 5, 2018Date of Patent: September 14, 2021Assignee: HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.Inventors: Eiji Aoki, Jin Soo Lee
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Patent number: 11111092Abstract: A sheet conveying device includes: a tray; a roller; a roller arm; a lever; and a dust proof cover including: a first cover, a second cover, and a pressure piece. The roller arm is movable between an abutment position where the roller abuts on the tray and a separation position where the roller is away from the tray. The second cover is movable between a first position in proximity to the tray and a second position away from the tray. The pressure piece is away from the lever to permit the roller to be positioned in the abutment position when the second cover is in the first position, and presses the lever to move the roller to the separation position when the second cover is in the second position.Type: GrantFiled: September 13, 2019Date of Patent: September 7, 2021Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Hirotaka Aoki
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Patent number: 11097911Abstract: A medium conveyance device includes a body, a table in which a placement surface is formed and that is supported by the body movably to be arranged in a first area or a second area, a guide that is supported by the table movably to be arranged in a third area or a fourth area and that regulates move of an original that is placed on the table such that a height of the guide is lower when the guide is arranged in the fourth area than when the guide is arranged in the third area, and a mechanism that moves the guide along with move of the table such that the guide is arranged in the third area when the table is arranged in the first area and the guide is arranged in the fourth area when the table is arranged in the second area.Type: GrantFiled: July 3, 2019Date of Patent: August 24, 2021Assignee: PFU LIMITEDInventor: Shogo Yoshita
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Patent number: 11091338Abstract: A sheet conveying device includes a first roller, a second roller, and a controller. The first roller is configured to rotate in a forward direction for sheet conveyance along a sheet conveying direction. The second roller is disposed downstream with respect to the first roller in the sheet conveying direction and configured to rotate in a forward direction along the sheet conveying direction and in a reverse direction. The controller is configured to control the second roller to rotate in the reverse direction at a timing when a leading end of a sheet that is nipped and conveyed by the first roller reaches a nip of the second roller.Type: GrantFiled: March 25, 2019Date of Patent: August 17, 2021Assignee: TOSHIBA TEC KABUSHIKI KAISHAInventors: Michael W Lawrence, Gary L Noe, Mikio Yamamoto
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Patent number: 11091335Abstract: An example bridge module includes a media transport roller to move in a translational direction, a rotatable guide proximate to the media transport roller, a handle coupled to the rotatable guide to cause the rotatable guide to articulate into an open configuration and away from the media transport roller, and an elongated member operatively connected to the rotatable guide, the elongated member to articulate into the open configuration creating an unobstructed pathway to the media transport roller.Type: GrantFiled: October 19, 2017Date of Patent: August 17, 2021Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.Inventors: Kevin K Kuramura, Devin S Uehling, Kevin Lo, Devin Knowles, Kevin Witkoe
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Patent number: 11084674Abstract: According to one embodiment, a paper sheet processing apparatus includes a conveyance device with a conveyor belt, and an inspection device configured to inspect a paper sheet conveyed by the conveyor belt. The inspection device includes an image detection device configured to capture an image of the paper sheet and the conveyor belt and obtain an image of the paper sheet and the conveyor belt, an image processing device configured to detect a degradation level of the conveyor belt based on an belt image of the conveyor belt, and a controller configured to transmit information encouraging replacement of the conveyor belt to a monitor.Type: GrantFiled: December 6, 2019Date of Patent: August 10, 2021Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions CorporationInventor: Atsushi Seki
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Patent number: 11084680Abstract: This disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for taking flexible sheets off a delivery belt, such as from a scanner or copier, and restacking them in the order and orientation (face) they were originally scanned in. This requires flipping over such sheets by use of a spindle wheel with a plurality of fingers defining slots therebetween for receiving the sheets and reversing their face (flipping). By knowing the speed of the delivery belt and using a continuously spinning spindle wheel it is possible to avoid the effects of momentum on the fingers which distorts their position during stopping and starting action. Instead, the spindle wheel is in constant rotation but the speed of rotation is adjusted from a first speed, then a second tapering speed, to a third speed which is adapted to ensure that the slot between fingers is accurately presented to the leading edge as it enters the slot and does not get rejected by an accidental encounter with a finger.Type: GrantFiled: April 2, 2019Date of Patent: August 10, 2021Assignee: Imaging Business Machines LLCInventors: Mark Pilgrim Widener, Eddie L. Groom, Robert Babanats
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Patent number: 11072505Abstract: A sheet storage apparatus includes a storage unit having bottom and side surface portions and a width regulation unit that regulates a sheet edge position and includes first and second regulation members movable in a direction opposite to a movement of a moving first regulation member. The bottom surface portion is provided with first and second positioning holes to position the first regulation member, provided with first and second fixing holes. When a direction of the fixing member in a state where the first regulation member is fixed to the bottom surface portion is defined as a first direction and a direction of the fixing member in a state where the first regulation member is fixed to the side surface portion is defined as a second direction, the first direction and the second direction are other than parallel.Type: GrantFiled: April 22, 2019Date of Patent: July 27, 2021Assignee: Canon Kabushiki KaishaInventor: Tatsuo Nishiyama
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Patent number: 11066265Abstract: A value note cassette includes a first storage area for storing first notes of value of a first value note type. The first notes of value are storable in the first storage area in a first orientation. The value note cassette also includes a second storage area for storing second notes of value of a second value note type. The second storage area is separate from the first storage area. The second notes of value are storable in the second storage area in a second orientation. The first orientation is orthogonal to the second orientation.Type: GrantFiled: May 6, 2019Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: Wincor Nixdor International GmbHInventors: Paul Freitag, Uwe Krueger, Peter Heimann
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Patent number: 11067160Abstract: Drive units for a vehicle having an electric machine and a transmission device are disclosed, as well as methods for assembling the drive units. The method may include mounting the transmission device in a transmission housing; passing an assembly mandrel axially through an aperture in the transmission housing and through a pinion shaft, which is designed as a hollow shaft and is rotatably mounted in the transmission housing; and centering a rotor shaft, which is designed at least partially as a hollow shaft, on the assembly mandrel.Type: GrantFiled: February 7, 2017Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: Schaeffler Technologies AG & Co. KGInventors: Thorsten Biermann, Thorsten Meyerhöfer, Philipp Storner
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Patent number: 11065072Abstract: A drive assembly of an instrument drive unit, is provided. The drive assembly includes a drive screw, a drive nut, a follower, a biasing element, and a drive element. The drive nut is threadedly engaged with a threaded portion of the drive screw such that rotation of the drive screw results in longitudinal movement of the drive nut. The follower is longitudinally slidable with respect to the drive screw. The biasing element is disposed in mechanical cooperation with the drive nut and the follower. The drive element is disposed in mechanical cooperation with the follower. Longitudinal translation of the drive element is configured to drive a function of the surgical instrument.Type: GrantFiled: July 17, 2020Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: COVIDIEN LPInventor: Brian Rockrohr
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Patent number: 11066263Abstract: A sheet conveying device, which is incorporated in an image forming apparatus, includes a first detector to detect an angle deviation of a recording medium to a sheet conveying direction, a second detector to detect a lateral shift of the recording medium to a width direction, a third detector to detect at least one of the angle deviation and the lateral shift after correction of the angle deviation detected by the first detector and the lateral shift detected by the second detector, and a rotary body to perform a primary movement by (1) rotating in the sheet conveying direction and returning to a reference position and by (2) moving in the width direction and returning to the reference position, and a secondary movement by performing at least one of (1) and (2) after the primary movement.Type: GrantFiled: June 25, 2019Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.Inventors: Jun Yamane, Hiromichi Matsuda, Katsuaki Miyawaki, Koichi Kudo, Tetsuo Watanabe, Toshihiro Okamoto, Hideyuki Takayama, Atsuyuki Oyamada
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Patent number: 11068013Abstract: An electronic pedal assembly may include a pedal platform and at least one force sensor configured to sense a force applied to the pedal platform. One or more control devices may be communicatively coupled to the force sensor(s) and configured to determine a throttle output for controlling the throttle condition of the vehicle based at least in part on the force applied to the pedal platform and based at least in part on an operating condition associated with operating the vehicle. In some embodiments, the force sensor(s) may be configured to measure a force distribution on the pedal platform. The control device(s) may monitor the force distribution and adjust an operation of the vehicle based on the force distribution. The operation of the vehicle can include controlling the throttle condition of the vehicle or an operation that is different from controlling the throttle condition of the vehicle.Type: GrantFiled: July 16, 2019Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: AB Elektronik GmbHInventors: Stefan Rühl, Dirk Neubauer, Roger Möllers
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Patent number: 11059613Abstract: A sheet storage apparatus having: a holding section that holds a storage bag for storing a sheet; a first clamping section; and a second clamping section, wherein the first clamping section and the second clamping section relatively approach to clamp the storage bag held by the holding section, and when a direction in which the first clamping section relatively approaches the second clamping section is defined as a first direction, and a direction opposite to the first direction is defined as a second direction, an end of the first clamping section in the first direction is located on a side in the first direction with respect to an end of the second clamping section in the second direction in a state in which the storage bag is clamped between the first clamping section and the second clamping section.Type: GrantFiled: April 26, 2019Date of Patent: July 13, 2021Assignee: GLORY LTD.Inventor: Tomohiro Yokoo
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Patent number: 11059688Abstract: A printer includes a first route to which a sheet from a roll paper is to be fed, a drive roller arranged on the first route and capable of sending the sheet, an image forming part (thermal printer head), a second route branched from the first route, a route changer for switching a route of the sheet, a curl corrector provided on the second route, and a cutter (cutting unit) provided on the first route. The curl corrector is configured to form the route with a curl correction roller and a guide member, and an advancing direction of the route is changeable 100 degrees or more when the sheet passes through the curl corrector.Type: GrantFiled: March 11, 2020Date of Patent: July 13, 2021Assignees: CITIZEN WATCH CO., LTD, CITIZEN SYSTEMS JAPAN CO., LTD.Inventors: Akira Takahashi, Naohisa Sawai