Sheet feeding apparatus

Abstract: Apparatus comprising a sheet support (3-5) for supporting sheets (2), a supply means (10) for feeding out the sheets (2) from the sheet support (3-5), and a separation means for separating the sheets fed from the supply means (10) one by one, the separation means including a fixed frictional separating means (6), a rotary member (1) mounted for movement in contact with and in separation from the frictional separating means (6), and a bias means (11) for biasing the rotary member (1) to urge it against the frictional separating means (6). The sheets (2) fed from the supply means (10) are separated one by one by passing the sheet (2) through a contact area (10) between the rotary member (1) and the frictional separating means (6).

Description: The present invention relates to a sheet feeding apparatus according to the preamble of claim 1. This sheet feeding apparatus is provided for separating and feeding a sheet one by one by the cooperation of a feeding means such as a rubber roller or rubber belt with a frictional separating means such as a rubber sheet embedding cork therein, which is urged against the feeding means. As shown in Fig. 6, a conventional sheet feeding apparatus comprises a cylindrical roller 1 rotatably supported by a body 2 and rotatingly controlled by a clutch CL and the like. An uppermost sheet P of a sheet stack contained in a sheet cassette 3 is urged against the roller 1 by means of a bias spring 5 via an imtermediate plate 4 of the cassette. Further, a rubber sheet 6 made of rubber material with cork embedded therein is pressed against the roller 1 at a downstream side of a contact area between the roller 1 and the sheet stack with respect to a sheet feeding direction. The rubber sheet 6 is fixed to a guide plate 7 which is rotatably supported by a shaft 7a extending perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction. The guide 7 is biased toward the roller 1 by means of a spring 8 so that the rubber sheet 6 is pressed against the roller 1 with a predetermined pressure. As sheets pass through a contact area between the rubber sheet and the roller, the sheet P is separated one by one and is fed out. However, in the above-mentioned conventional sheet feeding apparatus, while the sheet P is being fed with being pinched by the roller 1 wherein the rubber sheet 6 acts as the frictional separating means, the fine vibration is created due to the sliding friction between the sheet P and the rubber sheet 6, which is transmitted to the rubber sheet 6 and the guide plate 7 supporting it, thus generating noise. The noise varies the kind of sheets such as an Overhead Projector (OHP) sheet, and, since such noise becomes the continuous discordant noise during the feeding of the sheet, in the conventional sheet feeding apparatus, such noise was minimized by increasing the weight of a supporting member for the guide plate 7, i.e., the separating means, or by providing a weight for preventing the vibration, or by reducing the coefficient of friction of the surface of the separating means. However, since the frictional separating means is urged against the roller 1 by the elastic means such as the spring 8 and the like, it was very difficult to suppress the vibration. Further, when the sheet is fed to a next feeding means (for example, regist rollers) 9 in the frictional separating portion, since, in the separating portion, the sheet P is pinched between the rubber sheet 6 of the frictional separating means and the roller 1 which is now freely rotated due to an OFF condition of the clutch CL, the sheet P continues to slidingly contact with the rubber sheet 6 until a trailing end of the sheet leaves the rubber sheet. In addition, the rubber sheet 6 is so arranged that it can follow the movement of the sheet P by smoothly rocking or pivoting during the feeding of the sheet P. Thus, the fine vibration created by the sliding friction between the rubber sheet 6 and the sheet P is transmitted to the whole structure including the guide plate 7, thus creating the great noise. Now, the generation of the fine vibration will be fully described. When the sheet P is drawn between the rubber sheet 6 having high coefficient of friction and the freely-rotated roller 1, the sheet firstly remains stationary due to the static friction until a force applied to the sheet reaches a predetermined value. When the force exceeds the predetermined value, The sheet P starts to move. As the sheet P moves, the dynamic friction is gradually increased to decrease the speed of the sheet P, and, ultimately to stop the sheet again. When the sheet is stopped, since the static friction acts on the sheet P, the latter remains stationary until the force reaches the predetermined value. In this way, the movement and stop of the sheet P are repeated alternately (this is called as "stickslip"). This repeated movements are amplified by the pivotable guide plate 7 to create the great vibration in the sheet feeding direction, thus generating the noise. A generic sheet feeding apparatus according to the preamble of claim 1 is known from the JP-A-59 153 737. A rotary roller can be separated from an immobile frictional separating pad by means of a release lever as support means of the roller. The release lever is biased by a spring as bias means, so that the separating pressure is adjustable. The pivot axis or fulcrum of the release lever lies, with respect to the feeding direction, upstream of the frictional separating pad. Therefore, operating conditions can possibly occur under which the separating pressure is not correctly adjusted. A further sheet feeding apparatus is known from the DE-A 3 017 329. Contrary to the generic sheet feeding apparatus this sheet feeder does not comprise an immobile frictional separating pad. However, the pivot axis of the support means supporting the rotary roller is also provided upstream of the separating point. It is an object of the present invention to further develop the sheet feeding apparatus according to the preamble of claim 1 such that a suitable separating pressure between the immobile frictional separating pad and the sheet feed roller is obtained under all operating conditions. This object is achieved by the features indicated in the characterizing portion of claim 1. Advantageous further developments are set out in the dependent claims. The use of the claimed sheet feeding apparatus in an image forming apparatus is claimed in claim 6. According to the present invention the generation of noise during the separation of a sheet is prevented. The sheets fed from the sheet support are separated one by one by passing the sheet through a contact area between the rotary roller and the frictional separating means. In this way, by fixing the frictional separating means and by shifting a feeding means while urging it against the frictional separating means, the sheets can be separated one by one. Since the frictional separating means is fixed, it is possible to suppress the amplification of the vibration of the frictional separating means, thus preventing the generation of the noise during the feeding of the sheet. Incidentally, since the rotary roller is driven by the movement of the sheet, the vibration generated in the frictional separating means is blocked by the rotary member not to be amplified at the rotary member, thus eliminating the noise. Fig. 1 is a schematic elevational sectional view of a sheet feeding apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the sheet feeding apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a schematic sectional plan view of a sheet feeding apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a part of the sheet feeding apparatus of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a schematic elevational sectional view of an image forming system incorporating the sheet feeding apparatus of Fig. 1; and Fig. 6 is an elevational sectional view of a conventional sheet feeding apparatus. The present invention will now be explained in connection with embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings. First of all, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described referring to Figs. 1 and 2. An uppermost sheet of a sheet stack P contained in a cassette 3 is urged against a supply roller (supply means) 10 by a spring 5 via an intermediate plate 4 of the cassette. A frictional separating means 6 made of urethane rubber and the like is disposed at a downstream side of the supply roller with respect to a sheet feeding direction, and is fixed to a body 2. A roller (feeding means) 1 is rotatably supported on an arm 13 which is pivotally mounted on a drive shaft 12 and biased by a spring (pressure generating means) 11 so that the roller 1 is pressed against the frictional separating means with a predetermined pressure. In the illustrated embodiment, the weight of the roller 1 itself also acts on the frictional separating means 6. Incidentally, the roller 1 may be urged against the frictional separating means only by the weight of the roller 1 itself. In this case, the roller 1 itself constitutes the pressure generating means. A driving force from the drive shaft 12 is transmitted to the roller 1 through a gear train 14. A clutch (not shown) is disposed in a transmission path to the drive shaft 12 from a driving power source so that transmission of the the driving force from the driving power source to the roller 1 can be selectively turned ON or OFF. When the supply roller 10 is rotated, the sheets P on the intermediated plate 4 are fed to be directed to a nip (contact area) N between the frictional separating means 6 and the roller 1 in a separating portion, where the sheet P contacting the roller 1 is further fed, but the sheet P contacting the frictional separating means 6 is braked there, whereby only one sheet can be fed out. In this case, when several sheets P are entered into the nip N at a time, the nip N is opened by the fact that the roller 1 is pivoted or slid. Further, when the sheet P is fed by a next feeding means (for example, regist rollers 9) in the separating portion to be drawn from the nip N in the separating portion, the roller 1 can be smoothly pivoted to follow the movement of the sheet P, thus preventing the double feed of the sheets. Fig. 3 shows a second embodiment of the present invention. More particularly, in this embodiment, in order to urge the roller 1 acting as only the feeding means as in the case of the first embodiment or both the supply means and the feeding means as in the case of the second embodiment against the frictional separating means 6, as shown in Fig. 3, the transmission of the pressure and the driving force to the roller 1 is effected at the center of the roller so that the more stable separating ability can be obtained. Also in this embodiment, the same elements as those in the previous embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the explanation thereof will be omitted. The drive shaft 12 has a clutch (not shown) for controlling ON/OFF of the transmission of the driving force, and an arm 13 is pivotally mounted on the center of the shaft 12 via a bearing 20. An idler gear 14 is rotatably mounted on the arm 13, which gear can transmit the driving force from a drive gear 21 fixed to the shaft 12 to the roller 1. A shaft 12' is rotatably supported by the arm 13 via a bearing 22 and is rotatingly driven by a gear 23. A pair of rollers 1, 1' are fixedly mounted on the shaft 12' on both ends thereof. The frictional separating means 6 made of urethane rubber and the like is disposed in confronting relation to the paired rollers 1 and 1'. In this case, as shown in Fig. 3, the paired rollers 1, 1' can be rocked in directions shown by the arrows L with respect to the frictional separating means 6 which is completely fixed. In this way, the pressure contact between the frictional separating means 6 and the paired rollers 1, 1' can be stabilized. Further, as shown in Fig. 4, the frictional separating means 6 may be pivotally supported by a shaft C extending parallel to the sheet feeding direction so that it can be rocked in the direction L perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction. It this case, the frictional separating portion is constituted by the frictional separating means 6 and the roller 1 urged against the frictional separating means by its own weight or by a spring, which also provides the stable separating ability to reduce the trouble in the feeding of the sheet, such as the skew-feed of the sheet. Incidentally, since the vibration generated in the frictional separating means 6 is directed toward the sheet feeding direction, even if the frictional separating means is rocked in the direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction, the vibration is not amplified. Fig. 5 shows an image forming system incorporating the sheet feeding apparatus of Fig. 1. In this system, a latent image is formed on a surface of a photosensitive drum 24 by image information emitted from an laser beam system 26 and sent to the drum along an optical path L. The latent image on the drum 24 is visualized by a developing device 27 to form a toner image. When the toner image is brought into a transfer portion B where a transfer roller 28 is contacted with the drum 24 as the drum is rotated, the toner image on the drum 24 is transferred onto the sheet fed from the sheet feeding apparatus as mentioned above to the transfer portion B at a predetermined timing controlled by the regist rollers 9. The sheet on which the toner image was transferred is separated from the photosensitive drum 24 and is then sent to a fixing device 29, where the image is permanently fixed to the sheet. Thereafter, the sheet is ejected onto an ejector tray 31 through ejector rollers 30 as a printed matter. After passing through the transfer portion B, the surface of the drum 24 is cleaned by a cleaner 32 to remove the residual toner from the drum. The reference numeral 25 denotes a charger for applying the charge to the drum 24 again. In this way, the photosensitive drum can be used again to from a new image. Incidentally, the image forming system is not limited to one utilizing the above-mentioned laser beam system, but other recording systems may be used.

Claims: A sheet feeding apparatus, comprising: sheet stack means (3) for supporting sheets (P); feeding means (10) for feeding out the sheets (P) from said sheet stack means (3); separation means (1, 6) for separating the sheets fed out by said feeding means (10) one by one, said separation means including immobile frictional separating means (6), a rotary roller (1) mounted on support means (13) provided rotatably around a pivot axis (12) for movement in contact with and in separation from said frictional separating means, and bias means (11) for biasing said rotary roller against said frictional separating means; and rotation transmitting means (12', 14) for transmitting the rotation to said rotary roller (1), said rotation transmitting means including a drive shaft connected to a drive means disposed on said pivot axis, and means (14) for transmitting the rotation from said drive shaft to said rotary roller, characterized in that said pivot axis (12) is provided downstream of said frictional separating means (6) with respect to the sheet feeding direction so that the first moment of said support means (13) tending to separate said rotary roller (1) from said frictional separating means is applied by friction between said rotary roller and said frictional separating means, and that said means for transmitting the rotation is a gear train (14) provided between said drive shaft and said rotary roller (1), so that the second moment of said support means (13) tending to cause said rotary roller (1) to contact with said frictional separating means (6) is applied by rotation transmitted by said gear train (14). A sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said bias means (11) is made of an elastic member. A sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said bias means (11) is constituted by the weight of said roller (1). A sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that a pair of rotary rollers (1, 1') is mounted on both ends of a supporting shaft (12') pivotable around its central position. A sheet feeding apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that said frictional separating means (6) is disposed for pivotable movement in the same direction as the pivotable direction of said supporting shaft (12'). Use of a sheet feeding apparatus according to any of the preceding claims in an image forming apparatus including an image formation means (24-29, 32) to which said sheet (P) is fed.

Inventors: KIKUCHI YUTAKA C O CANON KABUS, KIKUCHI, YUTAKA, C/O CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1991
Main classification: B65H3
IPC codes: B65H3