A document feeder includes a lift plate, a pickup roller, a lift motor, a retard roller, and a control unit. In a manual feed mode, the control unit rotates the retard roller to feed a document in a document conveyance direction. Further, the control unit causes the lift motor to start lowering the lift plate while the pickup roller is feeding a document after the rotation of the pickup roller is started.

A paper feeding device 100 includes a support hook 5 that supports a lower edge of a front side of a bundle of stacked paper sheets X, and a paper trailing edge storing part 32 provided between a lower end of the abutting surface 31 and the paper feeding table 11, and the paper feeding device retracts the lowermost layer paper sheet of the loaded paper sheets so as to store its trailing edge in the paper trailing edge storing part 32 and then advance it.

An object of the invention is to provide a sheet materials separation-aiding apparatus capable of creating a gap between a specific sheet material and a sheet material coming into contact with the lower surface thereof even when the location precision of a stack of laminated sheet materials is low in the height direction of the stack of laminated sheet materials and in the direction orthogonal to the height direction.

A sheet feeder, which is included in an image forming apparatus, includes a sheet loader, an air blowing device, a regulator, a sheet attracting device, and a sheet conveying body. The sheet loader loads a sheet bundle including a sheet and a subsequent sheet placed below the sheet. The air blowing device blows air and lifts the sheet over the sheet bundle. The regulator regulates movement of the subsequent sheet, and includes an opposing portion located upper end and separated from the sheet loader toward the downstream side of the sheet conveying direction and an inclined portion upwardly inclined relative to a vertical axis from a same position as the sheet loader to the downstream side of the sheet conveying direction. The sheet attracting device attracts the sheet lifted over the sheet bundle. The sheet conveying body conveys the sheet in a sheet conveying direction.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes an endless attraction member (200) attracting a sheet and rotating, and the attraction member (200) includes a plurality of electrode pattern areas. Each of the electrode pattern areas includes first and second electrodes (510 and 511) supplied the voltages from a power feed portion respectively. The electrode pattern areas are arrayed in the circumferential direction in such a manner that the electrode pattern areas are electrically insulated each other, and each circumferential direction length of the electrode pattern areas is set shorter than a circumferential direction length, between the power feed portion and the discharge portion, of the attraction member.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes a document tray configured to support a document, a pickup roller configured to feed the sheet supported on the document tray, a separation roller pair configured to separate the sheets fed by the pickup roller one by one, a paddle arranged between the pickup roller and the separation roller pair in a sheet feeding direction and feeding the sheet supported on the document tray, and a drive motor capable of driving the pickup roller, the separation roller pair and the paddle. The paddle feeds the sheet supported on the document tray with a conveyance force weaker than the pickup roller.

A cardboard dispensing apparatus for providing cardboards at a food product supply area comprises a cardboard store for storing cardboards that form a cardboard stack, a cardboard buffer storage for storing a plurality of cardboards, and a cardboard conveyor for conveying the cardboards from the cardboard buffer storage to the food product supply area. A cardboard extracting device is configured to extract cardboards from the cardboard store and move the cardboards into the cardboard buffer storage, while the cardboard conveyor is configured to remove the cardboards from the cardboard buffer storage and convey them to the food product supply area.

A robotic manipulator for handling an object is provided. The robotic manipulator includes a first robotic arm and a first end effector coupled to the first robotic arm. A movement of the first robotic arm orients the first end effector with respect to the object. The robotic manipulator includes a housing, a first conveyor operably coupled to the housing, a second conveyor operably coupled to the housing at an angle with respect to the first conveyor, and a first actuation mechanism. The first and second conveyors are arranged to form a top surface and the bottom surface respectively of a spatula-shaped base. The first actuation mechanism operates the first and second conveyors in one of a first direction and a second direction to manipulate the object. The operation of the first conveyor is independent of the operation of the second conveyor.

A sheet feed device includes: a conveyor configured to convey a top sheet of sheets floated from a sheet stack; a blower configured to blow air in an obliquely upward direction from a position lower than the conveyor toward the sheet stack; and a direction converter configured to convert a direction of the air blown by the blower to a direction which is downward more than a direction of the air at a position where the air is blown from the blower and let the air flow in between the top sheet and a second sheet subsequent to the top sheet of the sheets floated from the sheet stack.

A machine (100) for unstacking objects (10) includes a belt mechanism (110, 120, 121, 130) having a conveyor belt (110), a first drive mechanism (115) for driving the conveyor belt (110), a second drive mechanism (120, 121) for shifting the conveyor belt (110) between a forwarded position and a retracted position, and a third drive mechanism (130) for adjusting a height position of the conveyor belt (110). Further, the machine (100) includes a gripper mechanism (150, 160) having a gripper (150) and a fourth drive mechanism (160) for moving the gripper (150) between different height positions. A controller of the machine (100) is configured to control the gripper mechanism (150, 160) to grip an end portion of an uppermost object (10) of a stack (20) and lift the end of the uppermost object (10), to control the second drive mechanism (120, 121) and the third drive mechanism (130) to position a forward end of the conveyor belt (110) below the lifted end portion of the uppermost object (10), and to control the first drive mechanism (110) and the second drive mechanism (120, 121) to operate in a coordinated manner by shifting the conveyor belt (110) towards the forwarded position while at the same time driving the conveyor belt (110) in a backwards direction to draw the uppermost object (10) onto the conveyor belt (110).