A felt gripper head contains two regions of felt material each on plates that slide and form a slight angle with respect to each other during engagement with a fibrous substrate material.

A felt gripper head contains two regions of felt material each on plates that slide and form a slight angle with respect to each other during engagement with a fibrous substrate material.

An image forming apparatus includes a paper feed device and an image forming apparatus main body including a paper feed cassette removable from the image forming apparatus main body and including an image forming unit. The paper feed cassette stores a recording material, and the image forming unit forms an image on the recording material. The paper feed device allows the image forming apparatus main body to be stacked on the paper feed device below the paper feed cassette. The paper feed device is provided with a coupling section. In a space formed in a case where the paper feed cassette is removed from the image forming apparatus main body, the coupling section is fixed to the image forming apparatus main body by a fixing unit to couple the image forming apparatus main body and the paper feed device together.

Embodiments of a system and method for unloading articles from a container of items for use in an automatic stack feeder are disclosed. The automatic stack feeder may comprise a belt, a moveable lower paddle, and a moveable upper paddle, wherein the lower paddle is configured to partially extend through a belt of the automatic stack feeder. The movement of the belt, the lower paddle, and the upper paddle are coordinated such that there is no need to interrupt the operation of the automatic stack feeder to unload the container.

Embodiments of a system and method for unloading articles from a container of items for use in an automatic stack feeder are disclosed. The automatic stack feeder may comprise a belt, a moveable lower paddle, and a moveable upper paddle, wherein the lower paddle is configured to partially extend through a belt of the automatic stack feeder. The movement of the belt, the lower paddle, and the upper paddle are coordinated such that there is no need to interrupt the operation of the automatic stack feeder to unload the container.

A system for feeding a diaphragm includes a diaphragm separating device adapted to separate a diaphragm from a stack of diaphragms, a first visual device adapted to identify the diaphragm separated from the stack of diaphragms and a position of the diaphragm, a robot adapted to pick up the diaphragm separated from the stack of diaphragms under guidance of the first visual device, and a second visual device adapted to check whether the diaphragm picked up by the robot is a single diaphragm.

A system for feeding a diaphragm includes a diaphragm separating device adapted to separate a diaphragm from a stack of diaphragms, a first visual device adapted to identify the diaphragm separated from the stack of diaphragms and a position of the diaphragm, a robot adapted to pick up the diaphragm separated from the stack of diaphragms under guidance of the first visual device, and a second visual device adapted to check whether the diaphragm picked up by the robot is a single diaphragm.

A cloth clamping device includes a clamping mechanism that comes into contact with a cloth and an up-and-down movement mechanism that moves the clamping mechanism up and down. The clamping mechanism includes a support portion, a leg portion, a foot portion, and a clamping portion. The clamping portion has a leading end portion facing the foot portion in a sideway direction and a base end portion being pivotally supported by the support portion. When the leg portion is lowered with respect to the support portion, the leading end portion pivots downward and is positioned in a sideway direction with respect to the foot portion, and when the leg portion is raised with respect to the support portion, the clamping portion comes into contact with the upper surface of the cloth and the leading end portion is positioned above the foot portion, and the clamping mechanism draw up the cloth.

A toothbrush includes a brush head having a capsule receiving zone sized to receive a dentrifice capsule. A plurality angled bristles may retain the capsule in such zone. Loading of such toothbrush with a capsule may be performed with a dispenser including a toothbrush manipulation element adapted to move a retention structure associated with the brush head, and dispensation element adapted to deliver the capsule into the receiving zone. Such dispenser may include a desiccant material disposed to receive moisture from a capsule storage container. A dispenser may further include a plurality of toothbrush insertion apertures each adapted to receive a portion of a different toothbrush, so as to enable multiple users each having different toothbrushes to use the same dispenser without requiring contact between multiple brushes and single capsule interface surface of the dispenser.

A method and apparatus for automated aerating and handling a sub stack of a stack of rectangular paper sheets where the sub stack is gripped near or at opposed corners of a common edge of the sub stack by means of two robotic grippers (A, B) having two opposed gripping fingers (A1, A2, B1, B2), lifting and rotating the corners in mutually opposite first directions such that the work stack achieves an upwards concave form, gripping the corners by the robotic grippers (A, B), and rotating the grippers in second directions opposite to the first directions such that the upper sheet of the sub stack has a curvature smaller than the bottom sheet of the sub stack, preferably a substantially plane form.