Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – Separator and conveyor
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-11
2001-07-03
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
Separator and conveyor
C271S117000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06254080
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a sheet paper controlling apparatus and method of using it, and it more particularly relates to a paper sheet controlling mechanism for helping to guide individual sheets of paper being fed seriatim to a printing station, such as a laser printing engine.
2. Background Art
There have been many different types and kinds of paper feeding and controlling mechanisms used for non-impact printers, such as laser printers or the like. For example, conventionally a stack of paper sheets contained in a paper tray of a laser printer is fed one sheet at a time to the laser printing engine for printing individual paper sheets. There have been a variety of different types and kinds of mechanisms for transporting the top sheet of the stack to the printing station. Such mechanisms must, for some applications, deliver the paper sheets at a high rate of speed within an acceptable jam rate.
One highly successful feeding mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,969, which is incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein. The patented feed mechanism includes a pivotally mounted feed arm which extends into the open top paper tray and engages the top sheet of the stack. When the mechanism is activated, the top sheet is ejected from an angled end wall of the tray, and is delivered therefrom to the printing station.
While such a mechanism has proven to be highly successful for many applications, under some circumstances and some applications, the paper sheet being fed from the top of the stack along the angled wall of the tray can curl back away from the angled wall and out of its desired path of travel to a slight extent, thereby causing an undesirable and unwanted paper feeding jam. The curling of the paper sheet can be caused by a variety of conditions, including humid ambient conditions causing the natural paper curl to be exaggerated. Another reason for causing a paper jam is that the paper sheet can have a bent or curled corner, thereby causing interference with the desired smooth uninterrupted movement of paper sheets along the paper path.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved paper controlling technique for helping guide the top sheet of a stack of paper sheets from a paper tray in an uninterrupted manner within tolerable jam rates. In this regard, such a mechanism should help reduce any unwanted and undesirable paper jams in an effective and relatively inexpensive manner. Also, such a mechanism should be continuously effective as the heigth of the stack diminishes during the process of feeding paper sheets individually therefrom down to the last sheet in the paper tray.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved paper sheet controlling apparatus and method of using it, wherein paper sheets being fed from a stack of like paper sheets is facilitated to reduce the possibility of unwanted paper jams.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved method and apparatus for controlling the movement of paper sheets, wherein the method and apparatus continues to function effectively at substantially all phases of the feeding operation as the heigth of the stack diminishes during the process of feeding paper sheets individually therefrom down to the last sheet of the stack.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved method and apparatus for controlling paper sheet movement for utilization in a paper tray employed in a printing system, such as a laser printing system.
Briefly, the above and further objects of the present invention are realized by providing a paper controlling method and apparatus for operation within a paper tray for helping control the movement of each sheet of paper being fed from a paper stack contained within the tray in a smooth, uninterrupted manner, to reduce the jam rate.
A method and apparatus for controlling the movement of paper sheets from a paper tray or the like is disclosed, and includes using a moveable sheet feeding device for removing the topmost single sheet from a stack of paper sheets seriatim to feed them along a path of travel to a paper printing station. A retractable guide device is used for helping to guide the sheets and to help retain them in the desired path of travel, and thus prevents the paper sheets from curling or other moving away from the path of travel. An end portion of the guide device is connected to and moves with a paper feeding mechanism as it continues to move downwardly into engagement with the current topmost sheet of the stack as it diminishes during a paper feeding operation.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3749395 (1973-07-01), Bazzarone et al.
patent: 3768803 (1973-10-01), Strange
patent: 5074540 (1991-12-01), Belec et al.
patent: 6164432 (2000-12-01), Monsees
BDT Products, Inc.
Bower Kenneth W
Ellis Christopher P.
Foley & Lardner
Kleinke Bernard L.
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