Patent ID: 8091888

Claim:
An apparatus for handling sheets containing information thereon, comprising: a movable sheet transfer member having a transfer surface which contacts a selected one of the sheets containing the information thereon so as to transfer the selected sheet along a transfer direction; a sheet supporting surface area disposed so as to be contactable with the selected sheet which is being transferred; an information reader arranged along the transfer direction of the selected sheet so as to face a surface of the selected sheet which is being transferred and delimiting an information reading range within which the information contained on the selected sheet is readable by the information reader, which information reading range includes an information reading point at which the information contained on the selected sheet is read from the selected sheet by the information reader; wherein, as seen in a view direction which is perpendicular to both of a thickness direction and the transfer direction of the selected sheet, a tangential line, at a boundary point of the transfer surface of the sheet transfer member from which the selected sheet starts to separate from the transfer surface of the transfer member, extends in a side area of an imaginary straight line passing through the boundary point and the information reading point so as to intersect the sheet supporting surface area at a position between the boundary point and a furthest extent of the information reading range from the boundary point; wherein the boundary point corresponds to a point at which the sheet transfer member contacts the selected sheet; and wherein the boundary point and the sheet supporting surface area are spaced from each other in a direction perpendicular to the imaginary straight line, and the selected sheet is pressed against the sheet supporting area at a position between the boundary point and the information reading range.