Patent ID: 7591462

Claim:
A media transfer apparatus for an automatic media dispenser, comprising: a media cassette for holding media at an angle, the media cassette including: a discharge port located at a front of the media cassette; an inclined guide plate located at the front of the media cassette; and a push plate configured to push media in the automatic media dispenser towards the front of media cassette and against the inclined guide plate; a pickup roller for contacting media waiting to be discharged, so as to separate and transfer the media sheet by sheet, wherein the media is arranged above the pickup roller and the inclined guide plate is located below the pickup roller; a main feed roller and a delivery roller facing each other to form a first gap or juncture, said main feed roller and said delivery roller for transferring a separated sheet of the media along a media transfer route; and a sensor for detecting a front end of a separated sheet, having passed through said first gap or juncture between said main feed roller and said delivery roller, wherein when said sensor detects the front end of the separated sheet, a power supplied to said pickup roller is stopped, and transfer of the separated sheet continues by rotation of said main feed roller and said delivery roller, wherein said pickup roller is connected to a rotation shaft by a one-way bearing, so that said pickup roller experiences idle rotation without receiving power when said sensor detects the front end of the separated sheet of media, the idle rotation of said pickup roller allowing continued transfer of the sheet of media, said media transfer apparatus is suitable for dispensing sheets of media having different dimensions, wherein said first gap or juncture is a first juncture, and wherein a distance from a contact point between said main feed roller and said delivery roller to a contact point between said pickup roller and a sheet of media to be dispensed, is approximately equal to a dimension of a smallest sheet of medium to be dispensed, with the dimension being measured in a direction in which the smallest sheet of media is transferred.