Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – Separator and conveyor
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-24
2001-09-25
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
Separator and conveyor
C271S244000, C271S246000, C271S226000, C271S010120
Reexamination Certificate
active
06293537
ABSTRACT:
This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. §119 from an application entitled SHEET REGISTRATION DEVICE AND REGISTRATION METHOD filed with the Korean Industrial Property Office on Nov. 24, 1997 and there duly assigned Ser. No. 62292/1997 by that Office.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for paper feeding and alignment, and more particularly to devices for paper feeding and alignment in a printer such as an ink-jet printer.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Devices such as printers have paper feeding devices for feeding papers stored in a paper tray to the printing mechanism. A pickup roller is mounted in a typical feeding device, and papers are fed sheet by sheet by friction between paper loaded on a paper feeding plate (or knock up plate) and a powered pickup roller. There are two kinds of pickup roller methods in general use: one is a method using a circular pickup roller, and the other is a method using a semicircular pickup roller.
The method of arranging papers in a device using a circular pickup roller is described as follows. A paper is transported from a paper load cassette by rotation of a pickup roller. A paper transported by the pickup roller is transported to the contact line of a feed roller and a pinch roller, rotating in the counter direction to the paper processing direction. The front edge of the paper and the contact line of the feed roller and a pinch roller coincide exactly because a curl occurs in the fed paper. The feed roller then rotates in the forward direction (paper processing direction), and the pickup roller enters an idling state in which driving power is intercepted. However, this method produces a load on the paper on the paper feed plate from the pickup roller.
The most important reason that a semicircular pickup roller is adapted is to eliminate the load on a paper after the paper feeding is finished. That is, as feeding is finished, the transported paper becomes free as the paper feeding plate exchanges with the pickup roller. In this method, no curl occurs on a paper due to a counter rotation, and it is essential that a guide in the horizontal direction and at right angle to a feed roller be used for preserving the proper orientation of the paper. Therefore, a side of a paper is guided using a guide without a diversion. When papers are fed separated, sheet by sheet, however, any resistance to one side of a paper by, for example, the user's finger, will lead to distortion at the time of feeding in spite of using a guide. Also, in some devices two pickup rollers are used. Here, the feeding direction can be misguided and distorted due to inequality of input/output of the pickup rollers.
Based on my observation of the art, then, I have discovered that what is needed is a paper aligning apparatus which avoids the problem of continuous load on the paper seen with circular pickup rollers, and the problem of misguiding seen with semicircular pickup rollers.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved paper feeding device for a printer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a paper feeding device which does not put a load on the paper when the paper is being fed.
It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved paper aligning apparatus for a paper feeding device using a semicircular pickup roller.
It is a still further object to provide a paper aligning apparatus which prevents misguiding of the paper when papers are hand-fed sheet by sheet.
It is a yet further object to provide a paper aligning apparatus which prevents misguiding of the paper due to a mismatch of the pickup rollers in a paper feeding device using two pickup rollers.
The present invention achieves these objects by providing a method for paper alignment involving aligning the horizontal directional axis of a feed roller with the front edge of a paper and removing a load to a transported paper while it is fed. There is provided a device for paper alignment including a feeding means having a feed roller and a pinch roller which are adjacent to each other for feeding a paper; a pickup roller for picking up a paper loaded in a cassette and for supplying the paper to the feeding means; a paper feed plate (or knock up plate) for offering frictional power to the supplied paper to pick up a paper; and a one-way clutch for preserving frictional power of the pickup roller against a paper when the feed roller formed on the same axis with the pickup roller drives in a counter direction.
A further characteristic of the present invention is to provide a one-way clutch including: a cam which rotates in the same direction with the pickup roller, and which pushes the paper feed plate in order to eliminate a load to a paper after a paper enters the feeding means; a catch (or latch) device retarding gear rotation of the pickup roller when the feed roller drives in a counter direction at the moment that a paper is inserted into a gap of a roller part; and a lever retarding a rotation of the catch device when the feed roller rotates in a counter direction.
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Bushnell , Esq. Robert E.
Samsung Electronics Co,. Ltd.
Schlak Daniel K
Walsh Donald P.
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