Patent ID: 7401774

Claim:
A media separator that cooperates with a media pick to form a nip in a feed path and to feed sheets of media through the nip, one at a time in a feed direction, the media separator comprising: a separation pad having a contact surface that forms at least a portion of the nip and a slide surface, the contact surface including a first friction region having a first coefficient of friction, and a second friction region arranged upstream of the first friction region in the feed direction and having a second coefficient of friction less than the first coefficient of friction; a bracket that supports the separation pad in the nip for movement along the feed direction relative to the bracket between a first position, in which a sheet of media fed through the nip frictionally engages the first friction region and moves the separation pad in the feed direction relative to the bracket by a friction force with the separation pad, against a bias force, and a second position, in which the sheet of media fed though the nip contacts the first friction region and the second friction region and the separation pad frictionally engages the sheet of media fed through the nip with a retard/separation force equal to the bias force, the bracket including a guide surface that engages the slide surface of the separation pad and supports the separation pad for sliding movement along the feed direction relative to the bracket between the first position and the second position; and a retard spring connected between the bracket and the separation pad, and wherein in the first position the sheet of media fed through the nip in the feed direction engages the first friction region with a friction force sufficient to cause the separation pad to move from the first position to the second position against the bias force of the retard spring, and in the second position the separation pad frictionally engages the sheet of media with a retard/separation force equal to the bias force of the retard spring.