US Patent Issued to Konica Minolta on Dec. 16 for "Article supporter, supply device, and image forming apparatus" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 16 -- United States Patent no. 12,497,253, issued on Dec. 16, was assigned to Konica Minolta Inc. (Tokyo).

"Article supporter, supply device, and image forming apparatus" was invented by Taro Takechi (Kunitachi, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An article supporter for a supply device includes a feeder that supplies, by air suction, an uppermost thinly tabular article from a bundle of a plurality of thinly tabular articles that is stacked and is partially different in thickness, the article supporter for supporting the bundle with a gap between the uppermost thinly tabular article and the feeder, and the article supporter includes: a first support that supports respe...