Abstract: There is provided a sheet feeding device in which a sheet is discriminated at preliminary loosening before feeding, and is set to be controlled according to the type of the sheet by a simple configuration without requiring a special configuration. In the sheet feeding device in which air is blown onto a sheet stack, and a sheet floating at the uppermost level by the blowing is absorbed and conveyed, a sheet type is discriminated, based on a moving amount of the tray, at preliminary loosening before sheet feeding after setting the sheet in a tray.

Abstract: An apparatus for a media feeding system having a trail edge guide, a frame, an elevator, a feed head and a stack of media including a plurality of sheets of media disposed on the elevator, wherein the plurality of sheets of media include an uppermost set of sheets of media located at a top portion of the stack of media. The apparatus includes a trail edge deflector having a body including an angularly disposed lower surface, at least one opening, and at least one stopping surface. The angularly disposed lower surface being shaped to contact and thereby shingle the uppermost set of sheets of media, the at least one opening being shaped for complimentary sliding engagement with the trail edge guide thereby permitting the trail edge deflector to slide along a portion of the trail edge guide and the at least one stopping surface being shaped to limit downward sliding movement of the trail edge deflector along the trail edge guide.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus which can prevent decrease in useful lives of components for air sheet feeding without bringing about throughput degradation when performing an image forming operation using a plurality of sheet supply units. When a sheet is fed from a first sheet supply unit having a fan that is driven so as to supply sheets, then a sheet is supplied from a second sheet supply unit, and then a sheet is supplied form the first sheet supply unit again, and in a case where a suspension time period over which no sheet is supplied from the first sheet supply unit is longer than a preparation time period from when driving of the fan is started to when the fan is brought into a driving state required to supply a sheet, driving of the fan is temporarily stopped.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus includes a back end detecting sensor which detects a back end side in a conveying direction of the topmost sheet stacked on the sheet tray, a front end detecting sensor which detects a front end side in the conveying direction of the topmost sheet, and a CPU. The CPU disables start of a sheet feeding operation of a feeding unit in a case where the back end detecting sensor and the front end detecting sensor do not detect the sheet when the sheet tray is lifted toward the feeding unit and then stopped in a predetermined position. Accordingly, a state that a feeding failure is possibly caused is detected before feeding the sheets so as to eliminate the wasteful feeding operation.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus is constituted from a sheet loading section having a raising and lowering plate, sheet side surface regulating members that regulate side surfaces of sheets, and an air blowing section that blows air towards the side surface of sheets in a top part, a sheet suction and conveying section, a reflection type sensor which detects the upper limit position of the sheets in the sheet loading section, a control section which, when an output of the reflection type sensor becomes an output indicating the state between the sheets that are put in the floating state due to the air flow blown out from an air blowing section and the sheets that are maintaining the stacked state, carries out control so as to raise the raising and lowering plate.

Abstract: An upper air blowing portion that blows air from above a sheet held by a tray is provided above the portion between a trailing end restricting plate and an absorption conveyance portion. A controlling portion drives the upper air blowing portion so as to restrict the movement of the sheet in the direction reverse to the sheet feeding direction, when the sheet held on the tray moves in the direction reverse to the sheet feeding direction with the air blown by the air blowing portion.

Abstract: A sheet-supplying device, including: a sheet stacking plate on which plural sheets are stacked; an air-suction sheet conveying mechanism which draws up a sheet and conveys the sheet; an air-suction detecting sensor which detects that the air-suction sheet conveying mechanism has drawn up the sheet; a floating-air blowing section which blows air against side edges of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking pate to float the sheet; and a control section which controls the floating-air blowing section to conduct a sheet supplying operation, wherein the control section selects a first sheet supplying mode or a second sheet supplying mode, based on at least one of: information of a size of the sheets; information of a thickness of the sheets, and information of a type of the sheets.

Abstract: A sheet supply device including an elevation section for up and down movement of the sheet bundle accommodated on the sheet placement table, blow sections for blowing air to the upper side surface of the sheet bundle to float up the sheet from the aforementioned sheet bundle, and a non-contact sheet detection sensor for detecting the existence or nonexistence of a sheet at the predetermined position of the aforementioned sheet placement table. The elevation drive motor is controlled in such a way as to move the sheet bundle up and down, based on the frequency or ratio of the sheet existence in the detection result of the sheet detection sensor in the operation mode of the blow section.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus is provided with a sheet feeding device 60, a first air blow device 40 to blow air towards a side edge of a sheet bundle and a sheet side regulation member 71. The sheet side edge regulation member is provided with an air outlet 72 to blow air towards the side edge of the sheet bundle and an exhaust outlet 73 to exhaust air accumulated between a sheet separated from the sheet bundle and the sheet bundle.

Abstract: An aeration device adapted to aerate one or more sheets of a stack of sheets includes a side blower configured to selectively provide an air stream at an outlet thereof along an airstream direction so as to impinge against at least a portion of the stack. A height detecting device is configured to detect a height of an uppermost sheet of the stack. A side blower adjustment device is configured to adjust a height of the side blower and/or an angle of the airstream direction so as to track, by the air stream, the uppermost sheet of the stack based on an input from the height detecting device.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus which feeds each of sheets lifted by blowing air, wherein the amount of movement of a tray from the detection of the tray which stacks a plurality of sheets by a lower position detecting sensor to the detection of the uppermost position of the sheets on the tray by a sheet surface detecting sensor is m, wherein the amount of movement of the tray until the sheet on the tray is positioned within a predetermined range when the sheet on the tray is outside from between the lifting lower limit sensor and the lifting upper limit sensor (the predetermined range) is q, wherein the amount of the sheets stacked on the tray is calculated from the amount of movement m+q of the tray and is then displayed on a remaining amount displaying portion.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device includes a loading tray configured to receive a plurality of sheets thereon; a sheet transporting unit which transports the uppermost sheet among the sheets to an image forming unit; a blowing unit which blows air to one end portions of the sheets to lift the end portion of the uppermost sheet to separate the sheets from each other; a rear end regulating member which is disposed behind the rear ends of the sheets; and side end regulating members which are disposed next to both side ends of the sheets. A portion of the side end regulating members at which the side end regulating members come in contact with the sheet is provided with an emission portion allowing air to be emitted from the blowing unit.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus and an image forming apparatus which can certainly feed sheets without being influenced by an aging change of fan characteristics are provided. An air is blown to sheets stacked on a tray by an air blowing mechanism having a plurality of fans which are independently rotated, thereby loosening the sheets. Prior to starting the feeding of the sheet, rotational speeds of the fans of the air blowing mechanism are controlled so as to be set to target rotational speeds which have been preset every plural fans so that a wind pressure which can loosen the sheets in the driving state of all fans is obtained.

Abstract: A sheet separating device includes: an air blowing unit that is configured to blow air toward a side face of stacked sheets being stacked with a plurality of sheets to separate the sheets by forming an air layer between the sheets; and a sheet pressing unit that is configured to apply a pressing force on the uppermost sheet in the stacked sheets while the uppermost sheet is separated from other sheets, the pressing force having a downward component and a component in a direction along the uppermost sheet.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device includes: a sheet feeding tray adapted to stack a sheet bundle including a plurality of sheets thereon; a blowing section which blows air against a leading edge of the sheet bundle in a sheet conveyance direction from a front side of the sheet conveyance direction; a sticking and conveying section which sticks an uppermost sheet stacked on the sheet feeding tray by air sucking, and feeds the uppermost sheet to a conveyance roller; a sucking duct provided inside the sticking and conveying section, which is divided into a plurality of ducts in the sheet conveyance direction; and an intercepting member which intercepts at least one of the plurality of divided ducts.

Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus and a sheet take-out apparatus that prevents a sheet conveyed by a take-out portion from hanging-down and falling, when the take-out portion is stopped due to an emergency. If a take-out emergency process state occurs during the take-out of sheets, the sheet take-out apparatus stops upward movement of a backup plate, moves down feed stoppers, and presses a sheet bundle from above to prevent the sheet on the uppermost surface from being taken out. The sheet take-out apparatus also keeps a rotor air valve on and takes out the sheet caught in a sheet take-in port. When residual sheets on the backup plate are later detected, the sheet take-out apparatus moves down the position of the backup plate, turns off air valves for the rotor, fixed absorbing unit, and handling, and loads a hanging-down sheet on the backup plate, to prevent the sheet from scattering.

Abstract: A recording-medium feeding device feeds a recording medium by separating loaded recording media sheet by sheet. An air outlet blows air to the recording media from a lateral side with respect to a direction of feeding the recording-medium. The air outlet is formed cross a recording-medium feeding plane, such that an upper edge in an upstream of the recording-medium feeding direction is higher than an upper edge in a downstream of the recording-medium feeding direction.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device includes an air separating unit includes a floating air blowing unit and a separating air blowing unit that blow air to leading edges of a bundle of sheets in a paper feeding direction to float and separate upper sheets, and a side air blowing unit that blows air to both side edges of the sheet bundle to separate each of the sheets in the bundle, an air suctioning unit that suctions the air to suction a top sheet thus separated, a sheet feeding unit that feeds the sheet thus suctioned and retained, and a control unit that controls to blow floating air, to blow separating air, to blow side air, and to suction the air all at different operational timings.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a retaining roller, a nipping device, a retaining device, an image forming head, and a controller. The retaining roller retains a recording medium and rotates. The nipping device is capable of operating to open and close and holds the recording medium between the nipping device and the surface of the retaining roller to mechanically retain the recording medium. The retaining device retains the recording medium on the surface of the retaining roller. The controller controls, on the basis of a condition for use of the recording medium, the nipping device to nip the recording medium between the nipping device and the surface of the retaining roller.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device includes: a lift-blowing unit which blows air to a plurality of sheets stacked on a tray to lift an uppermost sheet from the sheets; a sheet absorbing unit which absorbs the sheet lifted by the lift-blowing unit by a negative pressure; an air suctioning unit which supplies the negative pressure to the sheet absorbing unit by air suction; a handling-blowing unit which handles the sheets by blowing air to the sheets absorbed onto the sheet absorbing unit; and a sheet transporting unit which transports the absorbed sheet, wherein the handling-blowing unit adjusts a volume of air blown thereby.

Abstract: An upper limit detection sensor detects that a top face position of a sheet stack on a tray reaches an upper limit position which enables feeding of sheets one by one by a sheet feeding portion and a lower limit detection sensor detects that the top face position of the sheet stack on the tray reaches a lower limit position which enable feeding of sheets one by one. When the sheet stack is loosened by blowing air against a side face of the sheet stack on the tray with an air spouting nozzle provided on an air loosening device, if a sheet floated by air from the air loosening device exceeds an upper limit position of a feeding enabled range, the lowering amount of the tray is controlled so that at least a sheet next to the sheet to be fed is not lower than a lower end position of the air spouting port of the air loosening device.

Abstract: An image-forming apparatus and sheet feeding device capable of feeding sheets without skewing or multi-feeding of sheets using a small number of side air blowing drive sources. The sheet feeding device has a plurality of side discharge nozzles comprising side discharge outlets for blowing air onto the respective side edge surfaces of a paper stack, and two sirocco fans which are communicatively connected in series as a side air blowing drive source, and are communicatively connected, via a side discharge drive source chamber and a side discharge relay tube (duct), to the plurality of side discharge nozzles. The respective side discharge nozzles capable of moving in linkage with side fences, and an immovable fixed side discharge nozzle are disposed at different distances from the leading edge of the loaded and set paper stack with respect to a sheet feeding direction.

Abstract: A sheet supply apparatus is provided which controls vertical movement of a sheet support tray so that a position of an upper surface of stacked sheets on the support tray is adjusted to a height located below a separation air outlet, wherein adsorption is possible at the height and so that a fall region, in which a pressure difference with respect to a separation region is generated, is formed below the separation region in which the separation air blasted from the separation air outlet is blasted along the sheet adsorbed on the adsorbent surface.

Abstract: A sheet supply apparatus including: a suction conveyance mechanism which suctions a topmost sheet of a plurality of sheets stacked and conveys the suctioned sheet to a sheet conveyance path; an outlet elevation mechanism which moves an air outlet to and from a first position at which the air outlet faces the side of the stacked sheets and a second position at which the air outlet faces a side of the sheet suctioned onto the suction surface; a suction detection sensor; a sheet supply detection sensor; and a control section which moves the air outlet to the first position or to the second position by controlling the outlet elevation mechanism based on detections by the sensors.

Abstract: A pickoff system for removal of mail pieces one at a time from the end of a stack includes a pickoff belt mechanism, a sensor positioned to determine mail piece movement speed, and a measurement device determines belt movement speed during operation of the pickoff belt mechanism. A vacuum system includes a vacuum pump and a vacuum manifold positioned to apply suction to the mail piece in a direction that tends to hold the mail piece against the belt of the pickoff belt mechanism. A controller is configured to compare the belt movement speed and the mail piece movement speed during operation, and when mail piece movement speed is slower than belt movement speed, indicating slipping of the mail piece relative to the belt of the pickoff belt mechanism, the controller temporarily increases suction force applied to a mail piece being transported by the pickoff belt mechanism.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device includes an air separating unit includes a floating air blowing unit and a separating air blowing unit that blow air to leading edges of a bundle of sheets in a paper feeding direction to float and separate upper sheets, and a side air blowing unit that blows air to both side edges of the sheet bundle to separate each of the sheets in the bundle, an air suctioning unit that suctions the air to suction a top sheet thus separated, a sheet feeding unit that feeds the sheet thus suctioned and retained, and a control unit that controls to blow floating air, to blow separating air, to blow side air, and to suction the air all at different operational timings.

Abstract: A high productivity sheet feeding apparatus in which there is no occurrence of abnormalities related to sheet feeding irrespective of the size and type of sheet, and an image forming system having that sheet feeding apparatus are provided. This sheet feeding apparatus has the feature that it has, a stacking unit for stacking sheets, a conveying unit that is placed above and spaced from said stacking unit and that conveys the sheets, a flotation unit that makes the sheets in the upper part of the sheets stacked in said stacking unit float up towards said conveying unit, and a suction unit that sucks the air included in between the plurality of sheets that have been made to float up towards said conveying unit by said flotation unit.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device may include a sucking and conveying mechanism having a suction surface, which sucks sheets stacked on a sheet stacking table, from an upper surface of the sheets, sucks an uppermost sheet to be sucked on the suction surface, and conveys the uppermost sheet onto a sheet conveyance path; a floating air blowing mechanism which blows floating air against the sheets from a side surface of the stacked sheets; a sheet position detecting sensor which detects an upper surface height position of the sheets stacked, and detects a floating state of the sheets floated; and a controller which judges the floating state of the sheets detected in a floating state detecting period in connection with a blowing of the floating air, and controls an air volume of floating air blown from the floating air blowing mechanism based on the floating state of the sheets.

Abstract: This invention provides a simple vacuum level switch to be used inside the feedhead's vacuum plenum to detect when the vacuum level exceeds a predefined threshold. This switch is composed of an opening in the plenum that is covered by a cap which is in turn spring-loaded against the opening. The mechanical properties of the spring are such that the cap is pushed away from the opening by ambient air pressure at the point when the vacuum threshold has been reached during sheet acquisition. A Hall Effect or optical sensor is used to detect this motion and the corresponding signal is sent to the feeder controller. This enables more intelligent control of the feeder while also providing an inexpensive method for tracking sheet acquisition times.

Abstract: A printer for sheets of porous media supplied from a stack of such sheets. The printer has a printhead, a sheet pick-up assembly having a conduit connected to a reversible air supply, the conduit having an outlet directed towards a top sheet of the stack for directing an airstream onto the top sheet such that air penetrates the top sheet and generates an air cushion lifting the top sheet from a second sheet, the reversible air supply configured to suck air into the outlet after the top sheet has lifted from the second sheet to hold the top sheet against the outlet and a sheet feed mechanism for displacing the conduit to draw the top sheet away from the stack.

Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus and a sheet take-out apparatus that prevents a sheet conveyed by a take-out portion from hanging-down and falling, when the take-out portion is stopped due to an emergency. If a take-out emergency process state occurs during the take-out of sheets, the sheet take-out apparatus stops upward movement of a backup plate, moves down feed stoppers, and presses a sheet bundle from above to prevent the sheet on the uppermost surface from being taken out. The sheet take-out apparatus also keeps a rotor air valve on and takes out the sheet caught in a sheet take-in port. When residual sheets on the backup plate are later detected, the sheet take-out apparatus moves down the position of the backup plate, turns off air valves for the rotor, fixed absorbing unit, and handling, and loads a hanging-down sheet on the backup plate, to prevent the sheet from scattering.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device blows air on a sheet stack supported on a tray, raises several sheets, attracts an uppermost sheet to an attraction conveying belt, and conveys the attracted sheet. The sheet feeding device includes a next-sheet detection mechanism for detecting the height of a second sheet subsequent to the uppermost sheet.

Abstract: A sheet-supplying device has a sheet-accommodating tray, a raising/lowering unit, a first position sensor, a second position sensor, a controlling unit. The raising/lowering unit raises and lowers the sheet-accommodating tray substantially. The first position sensor detects a first position indicating a position in the stacked direction of one end portion of a topmost sheet stacked in the sheet-accommodating tray. The second position sensor detects a second position indicating a position in the stacked direction of another end portion of the topmost sheet. The controlling unit controls the raising/lowering unit to raise or lower the sheet-accommodating tray based on both the first position detected by the first position sensor and the second position detected by the second position sensor so that one end of the topmost sheet in the stacked status is positioned at a prescribed position in the stacked direction.

Abstract: An upper limit detection sensor detects that a top face position of a sheet stack on a tray reaches an upper limit position which enables feeding of sheets one by one by a sheet feeding portion and a lower limit detection sensor detects that the top face position of the sheet stack on the tray reaches a lower limit position which enable feeding of sheets one by one. When the sheet stack is loosened by blowing air against a side face of the sheet stack on the tray with an air spouting nozzle provided on an air loosening device, if a sheet floated by air from the air loosening device exceeds an upper limit position of a feeding enabled range, the lowering amount of the tray is controlled so that at least a sheet next to the sheet to be fed is not lower than a lower end position of the air spouting port of the air loosening device.

Abstract: A sheet feeding apparatus including a sheet tray for storing a plurality of sheets of paper, the sheet tray capable of being pulled out in a direction perpendicular to a sheet feed direction, a pair of side regulating members for regulating both lateral surfaces of the sheets, the regulating members being provided over the sheet tray and perpendicular to the sheet feed direction, a vacuum belt to suck a sheet of paper from above and feed the sheets, and a moving mechanism for moving the vacuum belt or one of the regulating members that is provided on a back side in the direction of pulling out the sheet tray in the vertical directions, in such a way that, when the sheet tray is pulled out, the uppermost end of the regulating member provided on the back side is lower than the lowermost surface of the vacuum belt.

Abstract: There is provided a sheet feeding device in which a sheet is discriminated at preliminary loosening before feeding, and is set to be controlled according to the type of the sheet by a simple configuration without requiring a special configuration. In the sheet feeding device in which air is blown onto a sheet stack, and a sheet floating at the uppermost level by the blowing is absorbed and conveyed, a sheet type is discriminated, based on a moving amount of the tray, at preliminary loosening before sheet feeding after setting the sheet in a tray.

Abstract: Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including: a plurality of paper feed trays in which paper sheets are to be stacked; paper feed units each provided to each of the plurality of paper feed trays, the paper feed units sucking or discharging air in accordance with setting values corresponding to types of paper sheet to carry the paper sheets stacked in the respective paper feed trays toward a paper path; a storage unit to store the setting values for the paper feed units according to the types of paper sheet; an input unit to input a change instruction value for changing at least one of the setting values; and a control unit to change the at least one of the setting values stored in the storage unit into the change instruction value and to store the changed at least one of the setting values into the storage unit.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for fluff management in an image production device is disclosed. The method may include fluffing a stack of media with a predetermined amount of air flow, sensing sheet separation in the media stack, determining if the sheet separation meets predetermined criteria, wherein if the sheet separation does not meet the predetermined criteria, adjusting the air flow used for fluffing the media stack.

Abstract: A printer comprising: a support structure; a feed arrangement positioned on the support structure and configured to feed an endmost sheet of print media from the stack and including a movable pick-up assembly, the pick-up assembly having an array of spaced apart nozzles configured to direct air on to respective locations along said topmost sheet so that said topmost sheet can be picked-up from the stack by moving said pick-up assembly; a pair of rollers configured to engage with said endmost sheet fed from said feed arrangement; a printing station configured to print ink upon said endmost sheet engaged by said rollers; and an air displacement mechanism connected to the nozzles to displace air out of some expulsion nozzles and into some other suction nozzles, wherein said pick-up assembly is capable of rotational movement.

Abstract: A paper sheet feeding device for sequentially feeding, to a conveyance path, mail items simultaneously received includes a suction mechanism provided adjacent to a pickup position. The suction mechanism includes a chamber having an opening opposed to the pickup position, a guide plate provided at the opening of the chamber, and two projections vertically arranged on the surface of the guide plate. When air is drawn from the pickup position through a plurality of suction holes formed in the guide plate, the leading one of the mail items closest to the pickup position is drawn to the pickup position, and is curved between the two projections. A handling nozzle blows air into the space that is formed between the leading mail item and a subsequent mail item when the leading mail item is curved.

Abstract: The medium holding apparatus includes: a medium holding device having a plurality of suction grooves through which a sheet-shaped medium is held by suction; and a suction pressure generating device which is connected to the suction grooves and generates a suction pressure in each of the suction grooves, wherein the suction pressure in one of the suction grooves that holds a first end portion of the sheet-shaped medium is made stronger than the suction pressure in one of the suction grooves that holds a central portion of the sheet-shaped medium.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for controlling a fluffer port in an image production device is disclosed. The method may include receiving an input from one or more sensors; the one or more sensing at least one of media type, media weight, temperature, and humidity, selecting a fluffer port configuration from a plurality of fluffer port configurations based on the received sensor input, and sending a signal to fluff a media stack using the selected fluffer port configuration.

Abstract: A sheet feed device includes a sheet storage portion, a pick-up unit, a sheet-feed separation unit, and an air blower. The sheet storage portion stores a stack of sheets. The pick-up unit picks up the sheets stored in the sheet storage portion. The sheet-feed separation unit separates and feeds one by one the sheets picked up by the pick-up unit. The air blower blows air against a lateral side face of the stack of sheets stored in the sheet storage portion. The pick-up unit picks up the sheets while the air blower blows air and before the sheet-feed separation unit starts to operate.

Abstract: A sheet surface detecting mechanism, which detects the upper surface of sheets stacked on a tray, including: a sensor disposed in a position spaced apart from a conveying portion; a pivotal sensor flag turning the sensor ON/OFF; and a sheet surface detecting member being disposed in parallel with the sheets stacked on the tray, moving in a vertical direction while causing the sensor flag to pivot in contact with the upper surface of the sheets, and turning the sensor ON/OFF via the sensor flag.

Abstract: A sheet supply apparatus including: a suction conveyance mechanism which suctions a topmost sheet of a plurality of sheets stacked and conveys the suctioned sheet to a sheet conveyance path; an outlet elevation mechanism which moves an air outlet to and from a first position at which the air outlet faces the side of the stacked sheets and a second position at which the air outlet faces a side of the sheet suctioned onto the suction surface; a suction detection sensor; a sheet supply detection sensor; and a control section which moves the air outlet to the first position or to the second position by controlling the outlet elevation mechanism based on detections by the sensors.

Abstract: A method which is capable of completely separating a plate member with a large area without using a peeling member and eliminating a possibility of permanent deformation on the plate member. A plurality of suction pads are suckingly disposed on a surface of a topmost plate member in a substantially lattice shape. Then, while the topmost plate member is held by the suction pads disposed in a zigzag shape among the suction pads disposed in the substantially lattice shape, the topmost plate member is lifted by the remaining suction pads. Finally, the suction pads holding the topmost plate member are lifted.

Abstract: A test assembly is used to determine a characteristic of a separator sheet. The test assembly includes a source of light to illuminate at least a portion of the separator sheet. The test assembly also includes a vision inspection system to record at least one discrete image of the illuminated surface of the separator sheet and apply at least one test to the discrete image to determine the characteristic of the separator sheet.

Abstract: A sheet feeding device, having: a sheet feeding tray which stacks a paper sheet bundle formed by a plurality of sheets; a first blower which blows air to a side edge of the paper sheet bundle stacked on the sheet feeding tray; a second blower which blows air to a leading edge of the paper sheet bundle in a sheet conveyance direction from a forward side of the paper sheet bundle in the sheet conveyance direction; and an adsorption conveyance section which adsorbs a topmost sheet of the paper sheet bundle stacked on the sheet feeding tray and conveys the topmost sheet, wherein a first area in which the adsorption conveyance section is provided, and a second area in which a ventilation port of the first blower is provided, respectively includes an overlapping area in which the first area and the second area overlap on the sheet conveyance direction.

Abstract: A method maintains an environment within an interior of a sheet feeder during dead-cycling of an image forming device to which the sheet feeder is operatively connected. The method jets pulses of air into the interior of the sheet feeder that houses two or more pieces of media therein while the image forming device is dead-cycling. By the method, the attractive forces between two pieces of adjacent media. In a stack are reduced or minimized, and feeding of multiple sheets can be reduced or eliminated.

Abstract: An air blowing portion blows air toward an edge surface on a downstream side in a sheet feeding direction of a sheet. A presser portion presses an upper surface of the sheet at both side edge portions in a width direction of the sheet, thereby allowing, throughout an entire region of the sheets in a sheet feeding direction, a central portion in a width direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction of the sheet to blow up with the air blown by the air blowing portion.