Did You Know...
...that the Slinky toy was the result of a failed attempt by engineer Richard James to produce an antivibration device for ship instruments? His goal was to develop a spring that would instantaneously counterbalance the wave motion that rocks a ship at sea. Instead, he developed the Slinky.
PatentStorm News
Make the Most of Our Site
See this month's Top Inventors and Most Cited Patents.
Stay on top of the latest innovations by subscribing to an RSS feed.
Registered users: Manage your profile.
| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 8146917 | Conveying device with roller separating unit A conveying device performs an appropriate initialization sequence at start of an operation thereof in response to a manipulation of a lever of a non-operational conveying mechanism thereof. The conveying device includes a pair of rollers configured to convey a shee... | 04/03/2012 |
| 8132811 | Drive nip release apparatus An energy storage apparatus has one or more camshafts, one or more cams connected to the camshaft, one or more followers contacting the cam, one or more biasing members connected to the follower, and one or more tracks connected to the follower. With embodiments her... | 03/13/2012 |
| 8113514 | Sheet decurling device and image forming apparatus A moving unit includes first and second transportation paths that can selectively link to main transportation path of a recording sheet, a first roller arranged between the first and the second transportation paths, second and third rollers capable of making contact... | 02/14/2012 |
| 8104766 | Sheet conveyor, image forming apparatus having sheet conveyor, and sheet conveying method A sheet conveyor includes a first roller and a second roller pressurized to the first roller to hold and convey a sheet, wherein when the sheet is held between the first roller and the second roller, the first roller and second roller are separated at a space equiva... | 01/31/2012 |
| 8091890 | Medium feeding device and recording apparatus with separated reverse direction feed driving roller A medium feeding device includes a feed roller pair, a transport roller, a medium guiding path section, and a controller. The feed roller pair includes a feed driving roller driven by power and a feed driven roller to be rotationally driven, and feeds a medium to be... | 01/10/2012 |
| 8083230 | Bi directional paper handling transport A method and apparatus for bi-directionally transporting sheet stock in a marking engine by disposing idler rolls on opposite sides of a drive roll on movable idler roll decks for forming forward and reverse nips and feeding sheets from opposite directions into the ... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8083231 | Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus with opening conveying path The present invention provides a sheet conveying apparatus and an image forming apparatus having the same, in which a jammed sheet can be easily viewed and easily removed. A sheet conveying apparatus of the present invention comprises a fixation guide portion... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8083232 | Substrate media transport system with spaced nip An apparatus and method for transporting substrate of media including a nip assembly having a drive wheel operably connected to a drive mechanism for rotating the drive wheel and an idler wheel disposed adjacent the drive wheel. The drive wheel and idler wheel formi... | 12/27/2011 |
| 8052145 | Document handling apparatus A document handling apparatus is disclosed which is particularly well adapted for counting documents of value, such as banknotes. The document handling apparatus comprises an input module for receiving a stack of documents and feeding them one by one into the appara... | 11/08/2011 |
| 8028992 | Recording sheet transporting apparatus and image forming apparatus A recording sheet transporting apparatus includes a first roller which transports a recording sheet, a first transmitting gear to which a drive force is transmitted from a drive source, a second roller which is movable in a radial direction with respect to the first... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8028991 | Image forming apparatus A supporting unit is mounted on a body of an image forming apparatus in a swingable manner around a swing fulcrum. A through shaft serves as the swing fulcrum, which is inserted into the supporting unit through the swing fulcrum so that both ends of the through shaf... | 10/04/2011 |
| 8002278 | Printing apparatus with planetary gear unit for resolving paper jam A printing apparatus includes a housing including a feeding tray and an ejecting tray, an image forming unit disposed in the housing, a drive motor disposed in the housing, and a driving device disposed in the housing and driven by the drive motor. The driving devic... | 08/23/2011 |
| 7992870 | Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus A sheet conveying apparatus comprising a pair of rollers configured to pinch a sheet to be conveyed, a driving source, a roller mechanism configured to change a clearance between the pair of rollers with a force generated by the driving source, and a manual mechanis... | 08/09/2011 |
| 7984907 | Automatic feeder with separable transmission gears and image acquiring apparatus In an automatic feeder and an image acquiring apparatus, a cover is rotatably connected to a body through a first pin and openable and closable with respect to the body. A roller gear rotates a transporting roller to transport a sheet. An actuating member is attache... | 07/26/2011 |
| 7900918 | Sheet conveying system, as well as image forming apparatus and sheet conveying apparatus thereof A sheet conveying system in which when a sheet is passed from a sheet conveying apparatus to another, each including a sheet conveyance controller, the receiving apparatus can smoothly control acceleration, deceleration, or stop of conveyance of the sheet. A first s... | 03/08/2011 |
| 7883089 | Image forming apparatus In an image forming apparatus including an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium conveyed from a sheet feeding unit to obtain an image with photographic quality, at least a part of the recording medium has a transparent portion. When an image ... | 02/08/2011 |
| 7871075 | Image forming apparatus and sheet conveyance apparatus for improving jam-handling capability using a lever attached to a roller pair An image forming apparatus includes a sheet conveyance path, a pair of rollers configured to rotate in a conveyance direction to convey a sheet in the path by holding the sheet, and to reversely rotate in a direction opposite thereto. The reverse rotation is regulat... | 01/18/2011 |
| 7850169 | Automatic original feeder A feed roller and a separation roller each having convex portions are arranged so that the convex portions engage with each other. A lever is provided such that one end of the lever is fixed to a rotatable shaft and other end slides on a shaft around which the separ... | 12/14/2010 |
| 7789387 | Roller assembly for feeding stacked sheet material A roller assembly for conveying stacked sheet material along a feed path. The roller assembly includes a first roller adapted for rotation within a housing, a second roller pivotally mounting about an axis to the housing and opposing the first roller to define a rol... | 09/07/2010 |
| 7762550 | Printing medium transferring apparatus According to detection results obtained by a plurality of printing medium detection device, a printing medium is carried in while controlling an operation of pressing a pinch roller to be in contact with a conveying roller and of separating the pinch roller from the... | 07/27/2010 |
| 7731188 | Sheet registration system with auxiliary nips A sheet handling system comprising a sheet registration system having sheet registration nips and a receiving system for a sheet including a capturing point for engaging said sheet. Auxiliary nips are positioned between the sheet registration nips and the receiving ... | 06/08/2010 |
| 7722040 | Sheet carrying device and sheet carrying method for image forming apparatus In an embodiment of the invention, a cam of a pitch adjustment mechanism can be slid and moved along a first shaft. When a sheet is a standard paper, the pitch adjustment mechanism is ejected from an adjustment position by an urging force of a movement spring and is... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7722039 | Sheet conveying device and image forming apparatus A cam unit includes three cams fixed on a common cam shaft for moving a pair of feeding rollers, a pair of lateral registration rollers, and a stopper unit, respectively. A control unit corrects a lateral registration of a sheet whose skew is corrected by the stoppe... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7722038 | Retractable image camera mechanism for a document processing system A document processing system includes a feeder stage, a transport stage, and a retractable mechanism cooperating with a portion of the document track. An assertable member is arranged with respect to the document track such that assertion of the member causes retrac... | 05/25/2010 |
| 7717423 | Duplex ADF mechanism An duplex auto-document feed mechanism comprises an auto-document feedpath having a simplex feedpath portion and a duplexing feedpath portion in feeding communication with the simplex feedpath portion, the auto-document feedpath has a media input and a media output,... | 05/18/2010 |
| 7658381 | Retractable document handling mechanism for a document processing system A document processing system includes a feeder stage, a transport stage, and a retractable document handling mechanism cooperating with a portion of the document track. The mechanism includes an assertable member arranged with respect to the document track such that... | 02/09/2010 |
| 7637501 | Document feeding device and document reading apparatus with opening upstream and downstream guide members A document feeding device includes an upstream guide member that forms an upstream side of a document conveying path along which a document is guided from a sheet feeding tray to a platen, and a downstream guide member located between the upstream guide member and t... | 12/29/2009 |
| 7575233 | Printing medium transferring apparatus According to detection results obtained by a plurality of printing medium detection device, a printing medium is carried in while controlling an operation of pressing a pinch roller to be in contact with a conveying roller and of separating the pinch roller from the... | 08/18/2009 |
| 7552926 | Sheet transportation device and printer comprising a device of this kind A sheet transportation device includes a transportation roller driven during operation, a guiding element and an actuation device that is used to switchably affect the interspacing between the transportation roller and the guiding element. In a closed state during o... | 06/30/2009 |
| 7530568 | Double-sided document transport device In a double-sided document transport device having a document reverse mechanism for suppressing the occurrence of jam and deterioration of read image, after a document is transported to a reading position, it is transported to the reading position again to read a re... | 05/12/2009 |
| 7458577 | Image recording apparatus In an image recording apparatus, a feed roller pair including a drive roller and a pinch roller is disposed on an upstream side of a sheet feed direction from an image recording unit. The pinch roller is rotatably supported in a pinch roller holder so as to press in... | 12/02/2008 |
| 7455295 | Nip pressure Embodiments of example apparatuses and methods for changing nip pressure are described. ... | 11/25/2008 |
| 7448623 | Paper feeding mechanism and image forming apparatus employing the same A paper feeding mechanism for an image forming apparatus includes a drive roller rotated by a first shaft driven by a motor. A press roller is supported by a second shaft which is parallel to and spaced apart from the first shaft. The press roller is pressed against... | 11/11/2008 |
| 7431292 | Medium conveying apparatus A medium conveying apparatus has: a conveying roller shaft arranged so as to be movable vertically; a pressing member which presses the conveying roller shaft in plural positions; and an urging member which urges the pressing member toward a conveying path of a medi... | 10/07/2008 |
| 7429042 | Nip roller force adjustment mechanism An apparatus for conveying a substrate or sheet through a printing machine comprises a drive roller and a baffle assembly forming a path for the substrate past the drive roller. The baffle assembly includes an idler roller having an axle rotatably supported within t... | 09/30/2008 |
| 7427065 | Printer A sheet-feeding mechanism of a printer conveys a recording sheet nipped between a first sheet-feeding roller and a first pressing roller towards a thermal head. At the start of a printing operation, a second pressing roller is disposed distant from a second sheet-fe... | 09/23/2008 |
| 7422320 | Recording medium conveying device with nipping force control A recording medium conveying device that conveys a recording medium to a recording area, includes a pair of first conveyor rollers that are provided upstream of the recording area and convey a recording medium by nipping the recording medium therebetween, a detector... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7422209 | Sheet conveying apparatus and image forming apparatus A sheet conveying apparatus has a detection unit for detecting an inclination to a sheet conveying direction of a sheet; an inclination correction unit for correcting the inclination of the sheet by rotating which nipping the sheet based on a detection signal from t... | 09/09/2008 |
| 7407160 | Discharge system for printed sheets A discharge system for printed media sheets and a printer which utilizes such a discharge system, the discharge system including a tray for the media sheets; rotating transport elements forming a discharge nip for discharging the sheets onto the tray; a guide plate ... | 08/05/2008 |
| 7401776 | Sheet conveyance apparatus, sheet processing apparatus, and image forming apparatus The sheet conveyance apparatus includes a controller which controls a moving unit. The moving unit moves a sheet conveyance unit for conveying a sheet toward a direction intersecting with a sheet conveyance direction. The controller performs the control such that a ... | 07/22/2008 |
