Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – Separator and conveyor
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-21
2003-09-02
Bollinger, David H. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
Separator and conveyor
C271S110000, C271S114000, C271S124000, C271S145000, C271S167000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06612562
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
The embodiments described herein relate generally to media feeding systems and more specifically to systems and methods for feeding variable size media to a printer.
Certain printers are known that have several delivery paper feed paths for feeding paper into a print engine feed path. For example, certain printers have a paper source under the horizontal print engine such that paper is pulled from the source tray and curled around the back of the printer and then fed into the horizontal print engine feed path. Some printers utilize more than one paper tray in order to accommodate different paper sizes. Such a design minimizes the amount of area of a surface required for the footprint at the expense of using more space in a vertical direction. Conventional printers often provide a paper feed bypass tray that provides paper at a close to horizontal feed path to the print engine feed path. A bypass feed path does not necessarily have to be horizontal to the print engine feed path. An inkjet printer has a generally small print engine band that requires the paper be parallel to the print head. An example of a description of a printing feed mechanism that incorporates a horizontal envelope feeder is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,733,310 issued Mar. 22, 1988 to Kapp, et al.
As can be appreciated, conventional paper trays feed paper from the top of the stack of paper and must be removed from the printer in order to feed additional paper into the tray.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
In one embodiment, a media feeder includes a propulsion source and singulator to feed single media items from a stack.
In another embodiment, the media feeder includes a power source, receives a feeder control signal and feeds media from the bottom of a stack.
In another embodiment, the media feeder includes at least two media sources and a control mechanism to control which source to utilize for a subsequent feed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3947015 (1976-03-01), Funk et al.
patent: 4350330 (1982-09-01), Brown
patent: 4362100 (1982-12-01), Wu et al.
patent: 4444385 (1984-04-01), Berry
patent: 4522382 (1985-06-01), Chu et al.
patent: 4522385 (1985-06-01), Stefansson
patent: 4523869 (1985-06-01), Martin
patent: 4652161 (1987-03-01), Crean et al.
patent: 4693620 (1987-09-01), Harumatsu
patent: 4715595 (1987-12-01), Ishigaki
patent: 4729680 (1988-03-01), Osterlund et al.
patent: 4733310 (1988-03-01), Kapp et al.
patent: 4834277 (1989-05-01), Gomoll et al.
patent: 4844638 (1989-07-01), Kagami et al.
patent: 4859098 (1989-08-01), Kawashima et al.
patent: 4881837 (1989-11-01), Falconieri et al.
patent: 4958950 (1990-09-01), Kobayashi et al.
patent: 4995745 (1991-02-01), Yokoi et al.
patent: 5014973 (1991-05-01), Markert
patent: 5022642 (1991-06-01), Hasegawa et al.
patent: 5042953 (1991-08-01), Thurner et al.
patent: 5071273 (1991-12-01), Kato
patent: 5192067 (1993-03-01), Saito
patent: 5375826 (1994-12-01), Flores
patent: 5443359 (1995-08-01), Miller et al.
patent: 5457524 (1995-10-01), Metcalf et al.
patent: 5573235 (1996-11-01), Asai
patent: 5615873 (1997-04-01), Kobayashi et al.
patent: 5664771 (1997-09-01), Nagatani et al.
patent: 5692744 (1997-12-01), Funato
patent: 5704605 (1998-01-01), Yasuoka
patent: 5769408 (1998-06-01), Selak et al.
patent: 5793177 (1998-08-01), Chia
patent: 5806843 (1998-09-01), Hansen et al.
patent: 5860616 (1999-01-01), Lamothe
patent: 5884909 (1999-03-01), Umeda
patent: 5893556 (1999-04-01), Akahane et al.
patent: 5938355 (1999-08-01), Suzuki
patent: 5992843 (1999-11-01), Lee
patent: 5992846 (1999-11-01), Umeda
patent: 6062558 (2000-05-01), Takahashi
patent: 6082730 (2000-07-01), Campbell et al.
patent: 6086061 (2000-07-01), Vedoy et al.
patent: 6105953 (2000-08-01), Komuro
patent: 6412770 (2002-07-01), Demmeler
U.S. Statutory Invention Registration—Registration No. H17; Published Feb. 4, 1986.
Gale Linda L.
Sette Paul R.
Sloan, Jr. Richard A.
Bollinger David H.
Chaclas Angelo N.
Macdonald George M.
Malandra Charles R.
Pitney Dowes Inc.
LandOfFree
Method and system for feeding media to a printer does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method and system for feeding media to a printer, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method and system for feeding media to a printer will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3026116