Patent ID: 7331576

Claim:
A media unit feeder device adapted to cooperate with a drive mechanism to drive an end media unit in a feed direction, the end media unit having a leading edge and a trailing edge with respect to the feed direction, said media unit feeder device comprising: a media unit hopper adapted to receive a stack of a plurality of media units and to provide the end media unit to the drive mechanism, said media unit hopper comprising: a hopper assembly disposed adjacent to the drive mechanism and having opposing upstream and downstream hopper members with respect to the feed direction; and a directing member operably engaged with the upstream hopper member, between the upstream hopper member and the drive mechanism, the directing member being configured to engage the trailing edge of the end media unit so as to direct the end media unit downstream, with respect to the stack, past the downstream hopper member and to the drive mechanism, the directing member thereby being adapted to reduce an adhesive force between the end media unit and media units remaining in the stack in the media unit hopper; a biased member disposed adjacent to the drive mechanism, downstream of the media unit hopper, and configured to urge the end media unit against the drive mechanism as the end media unit is fed past the biased member and downstream to a printing apparatus by the drive mechanism, the biased member thereby being adapted to increase a driving force on the end media unit by the drive mechanism; and a gate apparatus disposed adjacent to the drive mechanism downstream of the biased member, the gate apparatus being mounted separately from and being discretely operable with respect to the biased member, the gate apparatus having a flexible blade member operably engaged therewith, the blade member being configured to cooperate with the gate apparatus, separately and discretely of the biased member, so as to control a thickness of the media unit capable of being fed to the printing apparatus.