Sheet stack support trays

Claim 1

In a document sheet feeder for a copier with a document stacking tray with variabley spaced-apart edge guides, in which flimsy document sheets of various dimensions must be stacked in said tray and fed out from said tray between said edge guides without mis-stacking or binding between said edge guides, yet in which said edge guides must maintain substantial alignment of said documents by maintaining said edge guides spaced apart by a distance only slightly greater than the dimensions of the documents being so stacked and fed, wherein one of said edge guides is fixed and the other is resettable to variable spacings relative thereto to accommodate different document sheet dimensions, and wherein said resettable side guide is resettable by a slideable movement of said side guide and an integral slide mounting therefor which is integral with said tray, the improvement wherein: said resettable edge guide is slideably mounted to said slide mounting therefor with a preset limited degree fo allowable independent slideable movement between said resettable edge guide and said slide mounting, and wherein preset spring force spring means are mounted to interconnect between said resettable edge guide and said slide mounting thereof, said spring means being adapted to be compressed upon said resetting of said edge guide, and said spring means being adapted to expand after said resettable edge guide has been reset to automatically slideably move said resettable edge guide away from said fixed edge guide by a small preset limited distance by said slideable movement between said resettable edge guide and its said slide mounting. whereby said resettable edge guide retracts by said limited distance away from the documents when it is released after being pushed against a stack of documents in said tray.