Sheet supplying apparatus

Claim 1

In a sheet supplying apparatus of the type comprising suction disks for sucking and retaining a sheet, a pressure reducing source for applying a suction pressure to said suction disks, and driving means for driving said suction disks, to thereby supply sheets different in size one after another having no particular ordering of size from the topmost to the bottommost wherein the improvement is characterized in that a plurality of suction disks for retaining a sheet are arranged along a lateral direction of said sheets, and an edge detection means separate and distinct from the suction disks is provided for detecting only an edge of a sheet to be taken out and for disabling each of said suction disks beyond the edge of said sheet to be taken out, wherein said edge detection means comprises a plurality of edge detectors corresponding to each of said suction disks, each edge detector disabling its corresponding suction disk upon detecting the edge of the sheet to be taken out, wherein said suction disks are connected in series so that the disabling of one suction disk will result in the disabling of any further suction disks located beyond one suction disk.

Claim 5

An apparatus according to claims 1 or 2, wherein all of said sheets have first and second lateral edges, wherein all of said first edges are aligned and wherein said edge detection means detects only said second lateral edges.

Claim 6

An apparatus according to claims 1 or 3, wherein all of said sheets have first and second lateral edges and wherein said edge detection means detects both said lateral edges and disables any suction disks located beyond either of said lateral edges.