To Endless Belt Conveyor Patents (Class 271/10.1)
  • Patent number: 10120320
    Abstract: A sheet transport device includes a transport unit that transports a sheet, an endless belt that transmits a driving force from a motor to the transport unit, a rotary member that rotates by being pressed by the sheet transported by the transport unit, and a sensor that generates a signal in accordance with rotation of the rotary member. The rotary member is arranged in such a manner that a portion of the rotary member faces an inner peripheral portion of the endless belt.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Daisuke Yamabe
  • Patent number: 10040652
    Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus includes a supporting portion and a feeding unit. The supporting portion supports a sheet and is capable of being drawn out from and being attached to an apparatus body. The feeding unit is provided in the apparatus body and includes a feeding portion, a conveyance portion, a separation unit, and a guide member. The feeding portion feeds the sheet supported by the supporting portion. The conveyance portion conveys the sheet. The separation unit forms a separation nip with the conveyance portion and is detachable from the feeding unit. The guide member includes a guide surface and a lower surface. The guide surface guides the sheet to the separation nip. The lower surface is provided below the guide surface and includes an exposing portion exposing at least a part of the separation unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 7, 2018
    Assignee: CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Keiko Fujita
  • Patent number: 8840103
    Abstract: A sheet conveying device includes: a separation sheet feeding mechanism having a paper feeding belt and a separation roller; and an adjustment mechanism that changes contact state of the paper feeding belt to the separation roller by changing relative position of the paper feeding belt and the separation roller, and changes and adjusts separation performance of the separation roller for the subsequent sheet, wherein the adjustment mechanism includes a cam follower member changing the relative position of the feeding belt and the separation roller, the cam member includes a first cam face and a second cam face which are formed at each rotation radius position in accordance with the rotation angle position, and are spaced apart in the rotation radius direction, and the cam follower member has a contact unit guided by the first cam face and the second cam face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: September 23, 2014
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Limited
    Inventors: Takashi Fukumoto, Mamoru Kambayashi, Michitaka Suzuki, Atsushi Fujita, Masataka Fukuchi, Ryuji Yoshida, Hideki Tobinaga, Norio Kimura, Kenichiro Morita, Koki Sakano, Takuya Sano, Takuya Morinaga, Takashi Nakano
  • Publication number: 20140084531
    Abstract: A sheet conveying device includes: a separation sheet feeding mechanism having a paper feeding belt and a separation roller; and an adjustment mechanism that changes contact state of the paper feeding belt to the separation roller by changing relative position of the paper feeding belt and the separation roller, and changes and adjusts separation performance of the separation roller for the subsequent sheet, wherein the adjustment mechanism includes a cam follower member changing the relative position of the feeding belt and the separation roller, the cam member includes a first cam face and a second cam face which are formed at each rotation radius position in accordance with the rotation angle position, and are spaced apart in the rotation radius direction, and the cam follower member has a contact unit guided by the first cam face and the second cam face.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2013
    Publication date: March 27, 2014
    Applicant: RICOH COMPANY, LIMITED
    Inventors: Takashi FUKUMOTO, Mamoru KAMBAYASHI, Michitaka SUZUKI, Atsushi FUJITA, Masataka FUKUCHI, Ryuji YOSHIDA, Hideki TOBINAGA, Norio KIMURA, Kenichiro MORITA, Koki SAKANO, Takuya SANO, Takuya MORINAGA, Takashi NAKANO
  • Patent number: 8534663
    Abstract: An automatic document feeder includes a paper pick-up device, a transfer roller assembly, and a duplex feeding channel. The transfer roller assembly includes a shaft, a first roller, a second roller, a first idler, a second idler, and a power-coupling device. When the power-coupling device is connected with the shaft and the first roller for transmitting a paper, the first roller is driven to be rotated by the shaft. When the front edge of the paper is moved to the second roller, the first roller is driven to be rotated at a higher speed by the paper. Consequently, a power connection between the first roller and the shaft is released by the power-coupling device. Then, the first roller reaches a static status in order to correct the skew phenomenon of a next paper.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2012
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2013
    Assignee: Primax Electronics Ltd.
    Inventor: Ping-Hung Kuo
  • Publication number: 20120326378
    Abstract: A system for conveying sheets of corrugated paperboard material or other materials. The system includes a processing module configured for transferring the material in a conveying direction, the processing module having a first nip point. A conveyor is positioned downstream of the processing module and also configured for transferring the material in the conveying direction. The conveyor includes a first support roller and second support roller having a first conveyor belt wound therearound, with the belt defining a deflector section extending from the first support roller to the second support roller. Similar to the processing module, the conveyor includes a second nip point. An adjustment drive can be operatively associated with either or both of the first and second support rollers and configured to adjust the position of the second nip point in or counter to the delivery direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2011
    Publication date: December 27, 2012
    Inventor: Curtis A. Roth
  • Patent number: 8177216
    Abstract: A sheet conveying device, that can be included in an image forming apparatus, includes a first sheet conveying path, a second sheet conveying path, a third conveying path, and a belt-type sheet conveying unit. The first sheet conveying path has a curved portion, and feeds and conveys a sheet therethrough. The second sheet conveying path has a curved portion and different from the first sheet conveying path, and feeds and conveys the sheet therethrough. The third sheet conveying path is provided from a confluence of the first sheet conveying path and the second sheet conveying path. The belt-type sheet conveying unit is disposed on one side of the third sheet conveying path corresponding to an outer side of the curved portion of the first sheet conveying path and an inner side of the curved portion of the second sheet conveying path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2012
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroyuki Watase, Masayuki Ueda
  • Patent number: 8042931
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a sheet stacking unit that stacks and stores the sheet before printing, a first conveying path that conveys the sheet from this sheet stacking unit, a second conveying path that conveys the sheet from this first conveying path to a space between the recording head and a sheet guide member while reversing the sheet, a third conveying path that conveys the sheet from the first conveying path to a temporary storing unit in a state in which a front-to-rear direction of the sheet is maintained, a fourth conveying path that conveys the sheet from the temporary storing unit to the space in a state in which the front-to-rear direction of the sheet is maintained, a first switching mechanism that switches a conveying direction of the sheet, and a second switching mechanism that guides the sheet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignees: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba, Toshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masashi Hiroki, Satoshi Kaiho
  • Publication number: 20110187783
    Abstract: A medium convey apparatus including: a convey mechanism including an endless belt having a medium-placed face; and a first adsorbing mechanism which includes first and second electrodes each facing a face of the convey mechanism opposite to the medium-placed face, and which adsorbs a recording medium to the medium-placed face by applying a specific voltage to between the first and second electrodes; wherein a surface layer member covers the first and second electrodes; and wherein at least one of the endless belt and the surface layer member has at least an area facing the first and second electrodes, wherein the area is formed of a resin material containing an ion conductive resistivity control material, and wherein a volume resistivity of the resin material ranges from 1010 to 1014 ?·cm when the specific voltage is applied in an environment at a temperature of 22.5° C. and a relative humidity of 50%.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 31, 2011
    Publication date: August 4, 2011
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shigeki KATO
  • Patent number: 7946326
    Abstract: An automatic sheet laminating apparatus includes a first sheet input tray, a second sheet input tray, a plurality of transfer roller assemblies, a separating roller assembly, a braking sensor, a braking element, a laminating module, and a control unit. The first sheet input tray is used for placing a pouch including a first film and a second film. The second sheet input tray is used for placing a sheet article. The separating roller assembly includes a separating driving roller and a separating follower roller. When the pouch is detected by the braking sensor, the braking element stops rotation of the separating follower roller. After a first predetermined time period, the separating follower roller is rotated again. As such, the rear ends of the first film and the second film are separated from each other, so that the sheet article could be inserted between the first film and the second film.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: Primax Electronics Ltd.
    Inventors: Bin-Tao Lee, Jiang-Wei Wu, Xiao-Xiong Wei
  • Publication number: 20110101598
    Abstract: A method is provided of operating a document feeding mechanism having a document transport path which passes through an extended nip defined between an advance belt disposed on one side of a document transport path and a retard belt disposed on an opposite side of the document transport path. The method comprises controlling operation of the advance belt to pick sheets from a document stack and to feed picked sheets one-by-one through the extended nip from an upstream end of the document transport path to a downstream end of the document transport path, and controlling operation of the retard belt to hold back other sheets of the document stack from being fed through the extended nip as one sheet is being picked from the document stack and fed through the extended nip from the upstream end of the document transport path to the downstream end of the document transport path and thereby to reduce chance of a document jam condition.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 30, 2009
    Publication date: May 5, 2011
    Inventor: Frank B. Dunn
  • Patent number: 7862030
    Abstract: A first guide member includes a concave-shaped guide surface. A recording medium such as a sheet fed by register rollers takes a curved position while being fed in a sheet feeding direction such that the leading edge of the sheet slides on the guide surface. A space is defined between the sheet and the guide surface due to the stiffness of the sheet. Thus, the sheet smoothly curves. When a speed of conveying the sheet by the register rollers is faster than a speed of conveying the sheet by a conveying belt, slack in the sheet is allowed in the space defined between the sheet and the guide surface. Therefore, the sheet can be stably conveyed without applying excessive load to the sheet or a sheet conveying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2009
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroshi Igarashi
  • Publication number: 20100258998
    Abstract: Provided are a paper media transfer device and an automatic teller machine having the same. The paper media transfer device may include: a medium guide portion being provided on one side of a transfer direction of the paper media, and including a guide surface having at least one high point and at least one low point along the transfer direction of the paper media; and a medium transfer portion forming a transfer path of the paper media together with the medium guide portion to transfer the paper media, and including a belt member that is curved in correspondence to the guide surface, and a belt roller that drives the belt member and maintains the curved shape of the belt member, or adds a tension to the belt. Through this, it is possible to improve a tightening force.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 12, 2008
    Publication date: October 14, 2010
    Applicant: NAUTILUS HYOSUNG INC.
    Inventors: Jin Hwan Cha, Won Joon Lee, Young Il Choi
  • Publication number: 20100230890
    Abstract: A recording apparatus for forming an image on a recording medium, including: a recording head; a conveyor belt to convey the medium in a conveyance direction; an attraction device including a first electrode having first extending portions and a second electrode having second extending portions and configured to permit the belt to generate an attractive force to attract the medium to the belt by giving mutually different potentials to the first and second electrodes; and, a pressing device including a contact member having electrical conductivity and disposed at a position where the contact member is opposed to respective upstream sections of the first and second extending portions, which upstream sections are located on an upstream side of the head in the conveyance direction, the contact member being configured to contact the medium placed on the belt, the pressing device being configured to press the medium onto the belt by the contact member.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 3, 2010
    Publication date: September 16, 2010
    Applicant: BROTHER KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
    Inventor: Shigeki KATO
  • Publication number: 20100098471
    Abstract: A sheet conveying apparatus includes a conveying path for conveying a sheet, an optical displacement sensor that detects displacement of the sheet, and a calculating unit that calculates a movement index value indicating moving distances of the sheet in a conveying direction and a direction perpendicular thereto based on an output from the optical displacement sensor. The optical displacement sensor includes a plurality of light receiving elements arranged in a matrix array. A row alignment direction and a column alignment direction of the light receiving elements are tilted with respect to the conveying direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 13, 2009
    Publication date: April 22, 2010
    Inventors: Osamu SATOH, Tsutomu Kawase
  • Patent number: 7681874
    Abstract: A sheet conveying device, that can be included in an image forming apparatus, includes a first conveying unit to convey a sheet in a first sheet conveying direction, a second conveying unit to convey the sheet conveyed by the first conveying unit in a second sheet conveying direction that is different from the first sheet conveying direction, a first sheet conveying path provided between the first conveying unit and the second conveying unit, a belt-type sheet conveying unit to the holding section of the second conveying unit, and a positioning control mechanism to move and position the first supporting member and the second supporting member in respective directions different from each other. The belt-type sheet conveying unit includes a belt, a first rotary belt holding member, a second rotary belt holding member, a first supporting member, and a second supporting member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 29, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Tadashi Kusumi
  • Publication number: 20090295064
    Abstract: To provide a sheet conveying apparatus capable of preventing meandering of a belt. A flange roller arranged at an entrance of sheets is used for a conveying roller immediately before a flange roller for feeding conveying rollers to a first conveying path for conveying the sheets. Namely, the flange roller is arranged just closely to an upstream side of the conveying belts arranged on the flange roller in a rotational direction. Further, a flange roller arranged at an exit of the sheets is used for a conveying roller immediately after a flange roller for feeding the conveying rollers finishing conveyance of the sheets on a second conveying path for discharging the sheets. Namely, the flange roller is arranged just closely to a downstream side of the conveying belts arranged on the flange roller in the rotational direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2009
    Publication date: December 3, 2009
    Applicant: KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOSHIBA
    Inventor: Haruhiko Horiuchi
  • Patent number: 7618140
    Abstract: An image recording device includes a conveying mechanism disposed in a predetermined conveying path including a plurality of rollers for conveying a recording medium by a predetermined conveying distance while nipping the recording medium. The device also includes an upstream-side trailing edge detector for detecting a trailing edge of the recording medium, a downstream-side trailing edge detector for detecting the trailing edge of the recording medium, and a skip warning region determination unit for determining whether the trailing edge is located in a skip warning region. Moreover, the device includes a storage unit for storing a correction value table including a predetermined correction value, and a correction unit for correcting the predetermined conveying distance when the trailing edge is in the skip warning region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2009
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki
    Inventor: Shinya Kato
  • Patent number: 7602513
    Abstract: A paper conveying apparatus, having a simple structure, in which variation in a load imposed on paper is reduced to suppress printing irregularities, and also a printer are provided. A pair of rollers of a second conveying apparatus, arranged at a predetermined interval away from a first conveying apparatus, are composed of a rotationally-driven driving roller and a driven roller which is trailingly rotated, with paper being gripped between the driving roller and the driven roller. The pairs of rollers of the second conveying apparatus are arranged in different positions along the paper conveying direction. The paper gripping pressure of the pair of driving rollers arranged on the upstream side along the paper conveying direction is set to be lower than that of the other pairs of driving rollers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2003
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2009
    Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hideo Uwagaki, Ryoichi Kawai, Shigeo Miyamoto
  • Publication number: 20090166951
    Abstract: An apparatus is shown for the stacked depositing of sheets, having a rolling apparatus which comprises a displaceable unit (10), on which a first roll (30) and a second roll (38) are arranged next to one another and about which at least one first belt (32) or at least one second belt (40) is guided. The adjustable unit comprises a central roll (46) having guiding elements (48, 50, 62, 66), which is suitable for receiving a sheet from a transfer apparatus and guiding it by way of an edge to one end of a stacking surface. Furthermore, the apparatus comprises means (44, 70, 74, 76) for pulling a sheet (100) from the stacking surface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 16, 2007
    Publication date: July 2, 2009
    Applicant: WINCOR NIXDORF INTERNATIONAL GMBH
    Inventors: Martin Landwehr, Peter Heimann
  • Publication number: 20090108514
    Abstract: An paper feeding mechanism has a driving module, a feeding module and a catching module. The feeding module has an active roller, a passive roller connected to the active roller, a shaft connected to the active roller and a rotating gear engaged with the driving module for receiving rotation source from the driving module. The catching module has a pick-up roller with a passive gear, a separating roller with an active gear and a connecting gear interconnecting the active gear and the passive gear. An endless belt interconnects the passive roller of the feeding module and the separating roller of the catching module for transferring the rotation source form the feeding module to the catching module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2007
    Publication date: April 30, 2009
    Inventor: Yueh-Shing LEE
  • Patent number: 7506866
    Abstract: A first guide member includes a concave-shaped guide surface. A recording medium such as a sheet fed by register rollers takes a curved position while being fed in a sheet feeding direction such that the leading edge of the sheet slides on the guide surface. A space is defined between the sheet and the guide surface due to the stiffness of the sheet. Thus, the sheet smoothly curves. When a speed of conveying the sheet by the register rollers is faster than a speed of conveying the sheet by a conveying belt, slack in the sheet is allowed in the space defined between the sheet and the guide surface. Therefore, the sheet can be stably conveyed without applying excessive load to the sheet or a sheet conveying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2009
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Hiroshi Igarashi
  • Patent number: 7500664
    Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes a medium supply device having a lift plate and a lift mechanism positioning the lift plate The image forming apparatus also has a pickup roller a feeding device including a feeder member feeding each medium supplied from the supply device, and a nip roller pressing the medium onto the feeder member, and a recording portion recording an image on the medium fed by the feeding devices, and a multiple supply preventer. The multiple supply preventer contacts a leading edge of the medium to be supplied by the supply device and a leading edge of at least one other recording medium, and the upper end of the preventer is located below a straight line extending from a point between the pickup roller and topmost medium, to a point between the feeder member and nip roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2006
    Date of Patent: March 10, 2009
    Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Atsuhisa Nakashima
  • Patent number: 7497565
    Abstract: A medium feeding device is adapted to be attached to a recording apparatus to feed a recording medium thereto or adapted to be attached to a liquid ejecting apparatus to feed a target medium thereto A first tray is provided with a hopper adapted to support the recording medium or the target medium which is to be automatically fed to the recording apparatus or the liquid ejecting apparatus by a feeding roller. A second tray is arranged above the first tray and adapted to support the recording medium or the target medium which is to be manually fed to the recording apparatus or the liquid ejecting apparatus. The second tray includes a tray body and an extensible member which is retractably extended from the tray body toward the feeding roller.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 3, 2009
    Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation
    Inventors: Masaaki Kinoshita, Junya Kato
  • Publication number: 20080191403
    Abstract: The present invention provides an automatic document feeder comprising a pick up roller module, a drive roller module, an ejecting idle roller module and a main belt. A main driving roller of the driving roller module drives the main belt to transport the document, and the main belt encircles the main driving roller and a first ejecting idle roller of the ejecting idle roller module.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 14, 2007
    Publication date: August 14, 2008
    Applicant: PRIMAX ELECTRONICS LTD.
    Inventors: Chia-Tsui Lan, Ching-Tse Wang, Teng-Kuang Lee
  • Publication number: 20080157458
    Abstract: A friction feeder apparatus for handling sheets of paper of differing thicknesses includes a first plurality of laterally spaced apart transport belts positioned in underlying relation to the paper and a second plurality of laterally spaced apart separator wheels positioned in overlying relation to the paper. The transport belts are staggered with respect to the separator wheels. A sheet of paper passing through the feeder apparatus is undeflected from the top as it encounters the transport belts and is unsupported from the bottom as it encounters the separator wheels so that the sheet of paper is not held flat as it passes through the feeder but instead is forced into a wave-like, sinusoidal-like shape. In a first embodiment, the separator wheels are downstream of a fixed nip roller and in a second embodiment, the separator wheels are upstream of the fixed nip roller.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Inventor: Todd C. Werner
  • Patent number: 7275633
    Abstract: A device for changing a direction of conveyance of flat postal items and a position of the postal items relative to their direction of conveyance includes a driven carousel tray to which one or more gripper arms whose lengths are modifiable in a controlled manner are fastened. At free ends of these arms controlled joint ends having two or three degrees of freedom are provided and grippers are attached thereto. The gripper arm lengths, the spatial orientations of the grippers during rotation and the rotation speed can be controlled in such a manner that the grippers carry out linear movements along the conveyor tracks of the conveyor means to be supplied and carried away at approximately the same speed of conveyance as the respective conveyor means. During the linear movements, the joint ends and the grippers are oriented in the same spatial orientation relative to the respective conveyor tracks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: October 2, 2007
    Assignee: Siemens AG
    Inventor: Armin Zimmermann
  • Patent number: 7151621
    Abstract: An image reading apparatus which enables the area occupied by the apparatus to be made small and can stably transport even a thick sheet having stiffness. A sheet P contained in an inclined sheet containing portion 3 is transported to image reading portions 8 and 9 by a vertically extending first sheet transporting path R1, and an image on the sheet P is read by the image reading portions 8 and 9, and the sheet P on which the image has been read is delivered to a substantially horizontal delivery stacking portion 14 by a substantially horizontally extending second sheet transporting path R2. The image reading portion 9 is provided between the vertically extending first sheet transporting path R1 and the substantially horizontally extending second sheet transporting path R2, and in the image reading portion 9, the transport direction of the sheet P passed along the first sheet transporting path R1 is changed to a direction toward the second sheet transporting path R2.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2006
    Assignee: Canon Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Masahiro Shirai, Masashi Shimamura
  • Publication number: 20040245696
    Abstract: The holding-down arrangement for holding down a sheet (24) in a sheet-bearing region of a sheet-processing machine, in particular of a folding machine, includes a plurality of blowing devices (19, 21) which, during use, are directed toward a sheet (24) and direct an air jet (20, 22) onto the sheet (24). The holding-down arrangement may be fitted in a sheet-aligning device which is arranged downstream of a sheet infeed and includes a sheet-bearing device (12), on which an incoming sheet (24) comes to rest.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 30, 2004
    Publication date: December 9, 2004
    Applicant: Maschinenbau Oppenweiler Binder GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Georg Dannemann, Christoph Beck, Bodo Tegtmeier, Eberhard Krieger
  • Publication number: 20040201160
    Abstract: A conveying mechanism capable of preferably inhibiting the portion of a transfer belt located in an image forming area from meandering. A plurality of ribs (84) are provided so as to extend approximately parallel to a transfer direction (X) on an upper surface (8a) of a guide member (8). The intervals between the ribs (84) are constituted to be gradually narrowed in the left direction (Y). A transfer belt (3) is gradually moved in the left direction (Y) by the abutment between an inner side face (3d) thereof and the plurality of ribs (84). The movement of the transfer belt (3) in the left direction (Y) is limited and restricted by the abutment between a right side face (81a) of a projection piece (81) of the guide member (8) and a left side face (3b) of the transfer belt (3).
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 27, 2004
    Publication date: October 14, 2004
    Inventor: Atsuhisa Nakashima
  • Publication number: 20040188914
    Abstract: A banknote dispenser is constructed to include a housing adapted to hold banknotes in a stack for dispensing, a power module, a transferring wheel set driven by the power module to spread a stack of banknotes into a stepped stack of banknotes and then to dispense banknotes individually by a respective push block being rotated with a respective wheel of the transferring wheel set, an output wheel set adapted to transfer banknotes individually from the transferring wheel set to a banknote outlet, and a sensor adapted to control the operation of the power module subject to the presence of banknotes in the housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2003
    Publication date: September 30, 2004
    Inventor: Hung-Yi Chang
  • Patent number: 6776406
    Abstract: A feeder/separator apparatus for separating and moving sheets from a stack of sheets is described. The feeder/separator includes an input area for positioning the stack of sheets; a first and second series of rollers for jointly feeding a sheet on the bottom of the stack into an area of the apparatus including a third and forth series of rollers and a first series of belts; a pre-separation brake adapted to act in a pivoting pattern only on the first series of belts to cause a first stage separation of the bottom sheet; a separation brake adapted to act in a linear pattern only on the fourth series of rollers to cause a second stage separation of the bottom sheet, the pre-separation and separation brakes permitting the bottom sheets to be separated from the stack; and a fifth series of rollers and a second series of belts both being adapted to feed the bottom sheets away from the feeder/separator apparatus in a sheet feed path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2002
    Date of Patent: August 17, 2004
    Assignee: Ascom Hasler Mailing Systems, Inc.
    Inventors: Hans Jaeger, Stefan Etter, Thomas Gasser
  • Patent number: 6644187
    Abstract: A printer of the present invention includes a chain-delivery type of sheet conveying device arranged in an image transfer region that adjoins image transfer drums. The sheet conveying device includes a pair of drive pulleys, a pair of driven pulleys, a pair of chains each being passed over one drive pulley and one driven pulley, and a clamper affixed to the chains at opposite ends thereof. Each chain has a circumferential length that is an integral multiple of the circumference of an image transfer drum, and a number of teeth that is an integral multiple of the number of teeth of the drive pulley. A stabilizing mechanism is positioned in the image transfer region for preventing the chains from shaking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 11, 2003
    Assignee: Tohoku Ricoh Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Toyoo Okamoto, Yoshihiko Kudoh, Akira Saito
  • Patent number: 6641132
    Abstract: A sheet feeding device of the present invention includes a feeding mechanism including a belt and a reverse roller, and circular collars or similar spacing members adjoining the belt for spacing the reverse roller and belt. When a single sheet is conveyed from a nip between the belt and the reverse roller to a preselected position downstream of the nip in the direction of sheet feed, the spacing member spaces the belt and reverse roller with the drive of only the belt or the drive of both of the belt and reverse roller being interrupted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2002
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2003
    Assignee: Ricoh Company, Ltd.
    Inventor: Noriaki Sekine
  • Patent number: 6619650
    Abstract: A device is used to insert and/or deposit printed products into a conveying channel. The printed products are conveyed in the conveying channel with of carriers of a conveying element. An acceleration apparatus pre-accelerates the printed products in conveying direction. The acceleration apparatus conveys the printed products essentially in a straight line and at an angle to the conveying direction of the conveying channel. The printed products are preferably inserted with the aid of conveying belts and at an angle into the conveying channel. As a result of the slanted feed, the divisions of the conveying element can be optimized and the capacity increased.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: September 16, 2003
    Assignee: Grapha-Holding AG
    Inventors: Christoph Gysin, Heinz Boss
  • Patent number: 6439564
    Abstract: An arrangement for feeding documents piecemeal from a document bundle (9) comprises a banknote separator (200) which includes two mutually biased rollers (4,6) that are driven by a drive motor (1) that also drives a dispensing roller (3) which functions to dispense documents from the bundle. The rollers (4,6) of the roll pair are rotationally coupled together via a freewheeling hub. The second roller (6) does not rotate during dispensing of a document. Upon completion of a dispensing operation, the drive direction of the motor (1) is reversed, so as to bring the second roller (6) to a new angular position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 22, 2001
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2002
    Assignee: De la Rue Cash Systems AB
    Inventors: Jorgen Andersson, Teru Horpu, Anders Nordin
  • Patent number: 6340156
    Abstract: A structure including a transporting roller for transporting sheets; and a curling roller for transporting the sheets at a location downstream from the transporting roller in a sheet-transporting direction, the driving torque of the curling roller being larger than the driving torque of the transporting roller. The transporting roller and the curling roller are constructed so that their speeds can be switched from a first transporting speed to a second transporting speed which is greater than the first transporting speed. The time required to switch the speed of the curling roller from the first transporting speed to the second transporting speed is made longer than the time required to switch the speed of the transporting roller from the first transporting speed to the second transporting speed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2002
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventor: Itsuo Sekita
  • Patent number: 6331001
    Abstract: A sheet feeding machine includes a sheet feeding table which is vertically movable and capable of supporting a plurality of first recording sheets thereon, first sheet feeding device movably situated above the sheet feeding table, the first sheet feeding device feeding the first recording sheets successively from a topmost sheet as the sheet feeding table with the first recording sheets moves upward, a base body detachably attached to the sheet feeding table, the base body supporting a plurality of second recording sheets thereon, and second sheet feeding device situated on the base body and feeding the second recording sheets successively from a bottommost sheet so that when the base body is attached to the sheet feeding table, the second recording sheet is fed by the second sheet feeding device and is transferred further by the first feeding device as a conveying device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 6, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 18, 2001
    Assignee: Riso Kagaku Corporation
    Inventor: Hideyuki Sekiguchi
  • Publication number: 20010024011
    Abstract: The present invention provides a sheet feeding apparatus for separating and feeding sheets contained in sheet containing means one by one that has separating and feeding means including a feeding rotary member and a separating rotary member brought into pressure contact with the feeding rotary member and a torque limiter provided between the separating rotary member and a driving shaft wherein a coefficient of friction of the separating rotary member is set so that relations that &mgr;BC N>T/r, &mgr;BP>&mgr;CP, and T/r>&mgr;CP N>&mgr;PP N may be established among a coefficient of friction &mgr;BC between the feeding rotary member and the separating rotary member, a coefficient of friction &mgr;BP between the feeding rotary member and the sheet, a coefficient of friction &mgr;CP between the separating rotary member and the sheet, a coefficient of friction &mgr;PP between the sheets, a pressure contact force N of the separating rotary member, an idling torque T of the torque limiter and an effective
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 30, 2001
    Publication date: September 27, 2001
    Inventor: Masashige Tamura
  • Patent number: 6254079
    Abstract: A taking part has a taking unit that comes in contact with the piled sheets to generate a taking force and to take the sheets one by one with the taking force. A movable lever is arranged in a side of the taking unit with respect to the piled sheets, and a driving unit gives a driving force in a linear or rotational direction to the movable lever. A force controller controls the driving force given to the movable lever by the driving unit. A detecting unit detects a position of the movable lever, and a sheet supplying unit supplies the piled sheets to the taking unit. A sheet supplying unit controller controls the sheets supplying unit on the basis of the position of the movable lever detected by the detecting unit. The sheets are pressed by the lever at a preparatory step, and then the sheets are lifted and pressed to the taking unit while canceling the driving force by the lever. The sheet and the taking unit are assured to become in good contact with each other to make the taking operation stable.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 23, 1999
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2001
    Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
    Inventors: Takahiro Suzuki, Hiroyuki Kamiyama, Junichi Inoue