Sheet feeder with buckle restraint and feed roll slippage

Claim 1

Apparatus for feeding single sheets of paper from a stack of said sheets, comprising: a lower guide surface for supporting the under surface of said sheets during feeding thereof, an upper guide surface spaced above said lower guide surface, separation means for separating a single sheet from said stack and feeding said single sheet along said lower guide surface, said means for separating including a single, centrally-located feed roll providing a moving feed surface, registration means downstream of said means for separating, said registration means being activated at the end of a predetermined delay period beginning when said means for separating is activated, said delay period being sufficient to assure that said single sheet is moved into engagement with said registration means before the end of said period, said upper and lower guide surfaces extending from said feed roll to said registration means, said upper guide surface being shaped in the vicinity of said feed roll so as to permit said feed roll to contact said sheets, said upper and lower guide surfaces being fixed in predetermined positions during operation of said apparatus, the separation between said upper and lower guide surfaces being greater at a location intermediate said separation and registration means than at said means to define a buckle-restraint region intermediate said means wherein buckling of said sheet occurs after engagement with said registration means and before the end of said delay period, and said moving feed surface of said feed roll being adapted to slip with respect to said sheet after said sheet has buckled against the surface of said region, whereby differences in the amount of time required to feed said sheets from said stack into engagement with said registration means can be accommodated because said delay period can be made longer than the longest feeding time expected and said buckle-restraint region and slipping of said feeding surface can present excessive buckling of sheets arriving before the end of the longer delay period.