Abstract: A sheet stacking apparatus includes a door pivotable relative to an apparatus main body, a sheet stacking unit, on which sheets are stacked, provided in the door, and a load application unit. When the door is closed, the sheet stacking surface is tilted with one end side located higher than the other end side. When the door is opened, the sheet stacking surface is tilted with the one end side capable of being located lower than the other end side. The stopper portion prevents the sheets on the sheet stacking unit from falling when the door is opened. If the door is opened, the load application unit applies load to a pivot of the door before the sheet stacking surface becomes substantially horizontal.

Abstract: A sheet discharge device of the present invention includes discharge rollers configured to transport a sheet in a predetermined transport direction and to discharge the sheet to a discharge tray, and an upper discharge tray disposed above the discharge tray with a space being interposed therebetween. A bottom face of the upper discharge tray that faces the discharge tray includes a guide rib extending in an oblique direction inclined relative to the transport direction.

Abstract: A bicycle crankset, which is adapted to connect to a chain, includes a chainring and a crankarm. The chainring has a plurality of teeth, a plurality of connecting bores of first noncircular motion path, and a plurality of connecting bores of circular motion path. The crankarm has a plurality of connecting arms to be selected to secured to the connecting bores of first noncircular motion path or the connecting bores of circular motion path. The chainring provides a first noncircular path of motion when the connecting arms of the crankarm are secured to the connecting bores of first noncircular motion path, and chainring provides a circular path of motion when the connecting arms of the crankarm are secured to the connecting bores of circular motion path.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus is provided with a pick-up roller that contacts sheets loaded on a load tray to pick up, a paper feed roller that feeds a picked-up sheet, and a separation roller brought into press-contact with the paper feed roller to separate the sheet, where the sheets are separated from the pick-up roller, the separation roller is rotated in a sheet return direction different from a sheet feed direction, and subsequently, the paper feed roller is separated from the separation roller. It is possible to prevent damage to a sheet and sheet jam from occurring in pulling out the load tray loaded with sheets to the front side.

Abstract: A sheet stacking system is disclosed that has improved tolerance for sheets that are not flat. Successive sheets are aligned onto a stack by a plurality of registration belts. The heights of the pivoting registration belts are compared with one another to determine the unevenness of the top of the stack. This unevenness is represented by the difference between the heights of the highest and lowest registration belt ?stack-height and is monitored to quantify the planarity of the top of the stack. When the unevenness (?stack-height) exceeds a threshold, the system switches to a modified method to control the elevation of the stack. This method may include stopping the machine from stacking before the unevenness is too large for the registration belts to uniformly drive sheets. This invention prevents the stacker from attempting to stack when sheets are expected to skew thereby preventing jams and unusable stacks.

Abstract: A paper feeder of a printer 1 includes a manual feed tray 21, a paper feeder roller 23, and a flapper drive unit 25. The manual feed tray 21 has a flapper 33 which can move up and down in the paper stacking direction. The paper feeder roller 23 is located above the manual feed tray 21, and is able to feed the paper on the flapper 33. The flapper drive unit 25 can move the flapper 33 up and down in the paper stacking direction to contact the paper feeder roller 23 through the paper, and moves the flapper 33 up and down at least from the moment that the paper is placed in the manual feed tray 21 until the paper is fed by the paper feeder roller 23.

Abstract: A paper sheet storage and payout device, which, by winding and unwinding tape between a first take-up drum on which the tape is wound from one end, and a second take-up drum on which the tape is wound from the other end, with paper sheets placed thereupon, stores and pays out paper sheets. A separation mechanism is provided on the payout side of the tape from the second take-up drum, and during payout separates the paper sheets from the wrapping peripheral region of the tape wrapped around the second take-up drum. This separation mechanism is provided with a separation member which separates paper sheets from the wrapping peripheral region, and a sliding portion which holds the separation member, and which slides so as to track the amount of tape wrapped around the second take-up drum by bring into contact with the wrapping peripheral region a guide roller.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus having a paper pickup unit includes a power unit to drive a shaft of the paper pickup unit, wherein the paper pickup unit includes a pressing plate at which a recording medium, such as a sheet of paper, is stacked, a paper feed unit body to receive the pressing plate, a shaft rotatably mounted on a front end of the pressing plate, a pickup roller to rotatably engage the shaft to pick up the recording medium stacked on the pressing plate, and a guide cam installed at least one side of the shaft and having a shock absorbing part engaged with a guide part installed at the paper feed unit body.

Abstract: In an image recording apparatus, a feed roller pair including a drive roller and a pinch roller is disposed on an upstream side of a sheet feed direction from an image recording unit. The pinch roller is rotatably supported in a pinch roller holder so as to press in contact with drive roller with a specified pressure. A holder support member is integrally formed with an inside frame constituting a housing of the apparatus. Rolling bearings are interposed between the pinch roller holder and the holder support member. The pinch roller holder is supported in the holder support member so as to roll in a direction where a recording sheet is fed.

Abstract: A paper-releasing mechanism includes a paper-feeding device for feeding papers, a supporting shelf arranged under the paper-feeding device, a driving roller and an idle roller arranged in the front of the paper-feeding device and an elastic unit engaged with the idle roller and the supporting shelf. The elastic unit includes a connecting arm, act arms bending from the ends of the connecting arm respectively, two helixes each of which extends from the act arm and forms an aperture and two follow act arm each of which extends from the helix and forms a ring at the end thereof, the ring being sleeved on the rolling pivot of the idle roller, the apertures being sleeved on a pivot formed on the supporting shelf.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device includes a guiding member having an upper guiding surface for guiding the upper surface of a document and a lower guiding surface for guiding the lower surface of the document to guide the document to a support portion. The guiding member is movable to a set position for guiding the document to the support portion without causing the document to come into contact with a feeding roller, a recording-sheet separation position withdrawn for separating one sheet from the other recording sheets and feeding the separated sheet, a document separation position for guiding the document to the feeding roller, and a sheet return position for returning the recording sheet or the document to a corresponding support portion using a return lever. The guiding member is held via a spring such that the guiding member can be returned by itself from the sheet return position to the set position.

Abstract: A sheet-conveying device includes a sheet conveying path along which a sheet is conveyed, a conveying roller, an inclined roller, an inclined-roller-supporting member that supports the inclined roller such that the inclined roller can rotate around a rotational axis that is inclined with respect to a rotational axis of the conveying roller, and a sheet contact member having a contact surface with which an edge portion of the sheet comes into contact. The inclined-roller-supporting member moves between a position where the inclined roller comes into pressure contact with the conveying roller and a position where the inclined roller is separated from the conveying roller. The sheet contact member moves between a position where the edge portion of the sheet can come into contact with the contact surface and a position where the contact surface cannot restrict the position of the edge portion of the sheet.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus comprises a sheet stacking portion for stacking sheets thereon, a sheet feeding rotating member for feeding the sheet stacked on the sheet stacking portion, a stopper for regulating the sheet stacked on the sheet stacking portion, and a rotatable gear adapted to hold the stopper at the regulating position of regulating the sheet stacked on the sheet stacking portion, by engaging with the stopper. In this construction, the engagement of the gear and the stopper is released when the gear is rotated.

Abstract: A multipurpose tray includes a first tray having a first loading surface and a second tray provided to be freely slidable along a predetermined direction with respect to the first tray. The second tray has a second loading surface with an area continuous to the first loading surface changing according to its slide movement. The first tray is provided with a first lever opening and the second tray is provided with a second lever opening with a changing distance L from the first lever opening along a direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction. The multipurpose tray further includes a lever having one end guided by the first lever opening and the other end guided by the second lever opening, and a sheet pressing part provided at the one end of the lever and regulating the sheet position in the direction orthogonal to the predetermined direction. With this configuration, usability of the multipurpose tray can be improved while it can be made sufficiently small.

Abstract: A configuration for generating blowing air or suction air, in particular a directing element in a sheet-processing machine, has a throttle path formed with vortex chambers. The vortex chambers generate vortex flows in a flow channel and they are formed by projections on just one side of the flow channel. This allows the element to be advantageously produced by molding, such as injection molding, thermo-molding, or stamping.

Abstract: A member for preventing feeding of a plurality of sheets at a time including a composition containing a resin component. Not less than 10 parts by mass nor more than 100 parts by mass of a polyester thermoplastic elastomer is contained in 100 parts by mass of the resin component. The polyester thermoplastic elastomer is composed of a hard segment and a soft segment. The hard segment consists of diester groups of aromatic dicarboxylic acid. The soft segment consists of ester groups of aliphatic carboxylic acid or aliphatic polyether groups.