Paper feeding and transport through printers

摘要

Multiple paper sources, including several single sheet channels and a tractor driven endless sheet channel, feed a common channel; the single sheets are friction roller driven upstream from the common channel. The common channel is curved and feeds past a flat platen off a downstream friction roller pair which however deflects the paper to hold it taut against the platen. The friction rollers and tractors are reversibly driven and the tractor is separately disconnected from the drive and through a sensor control sheets can be retracted from the platen.