Patent ID: 7445205

Claim:
In a printer in which various types of print media sheets are separated from a stack thereof in a sheet separator/feeder and fed individually for imaging, wherein some of said print media sheets include coated paper print media sheets with high humidity adhesion separation difficulties and uniform imaging difficulties caused by excessively non-uniform humidity areas, the improvement comprising: a variable temperature air puffer for pneumatically engaging sheets stacked in said sheet separator/feeder for sheet separation assistance; said variable temperature air puffer having a variable temperature heated air supply and an automatic control system for said variable temperature heated air supply; said automatic control system for said variable temperature heated air supply including electronic signal information on the type of print media sheets in said sheet separator/feeder; said automatic control system further including electronic signal information on ambient conditions including at least ambient humidity information; said automatic control system further including set points information for said electronic signal information on the type of print media sheets and said electronic signal information on ambient conditions, for automatically providing in response thereto control signals for said variable temperature heated air supply for said variable temperature air puffer for said coated paper print media sheets, to provide said variable temperature air puffer with an air temperature appropriate for separation of coated paper print media sheets but without causing excessively non-uniform humidity areas of said coated paper print media sheets.