Sheet Feeding Device
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorKazutoshi Nakamura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sheet feeding device including a roller to apply conveying force to one of a plurality of stacked sheets, a separator piece to apply conveying resistance to the stacked sheets and to nip the one of the stacked sheets in cooperation with the roller, a movable member being movable with respect to the roller, a pair of spring arms configured to contact the stacked sheets at an upstream position along a conveying direction with respect to a nipping position between the roller and the separator piece, and a bridge to bridge between the pair of spring arms, is provided. The bridge and the movable member are slidably in contact with each other at least when the sheet feeding device is in a conveyable condition.
Claims8
A sheet feeding device configured to separate a plurality of stacked sheets and convey the separated sheets individually along a conveying direction, comprising:
- a roller arranged to be in contact with one of the stacked sheets and configured to rotate on the one of the stacked sheets to apply conveying force to the one of the stacked sheets by rotation;
- a separator piece arranged to face the roller and configured to contact the stacked sheets to apply conveying resistance to the stacked sheets and to nip the one of the stacked sheets together with the roller;
- a movable member arranged on an opposite side from the roller across the separator piece and configured to be movable with respect to the roller;
- a pair of spring arms configured to contact the stacked sheets at an upstream position along the conveying direction with respect to a nipping position between the roller and the separator piece to press the stacked sheets toward the roller, each of the spring arms arranged on either side of the separator piece along a widthwise direction, the widthwise direction being orthogonal to the conveying direction, to extend along the conveying direction;
- and
- a bridge configured to bridge between the pair of spring arms to connect the paired spring arms,
- wherein the bridge and the movable member are slidably in contact with each other at least when the sheet feeding device is in a conveyable condition, in which the stacked sheets are conveyable.
An image reading apparatus, comprising:
- a reader unit configured to read an image appearing on an original sheet;
- and
- a sheet feeding device configured to separate a plurality of stacked original sheets and convey the separated sheets individually along a conveying direction to the reader unit,
- wherein the sheet feeding device comprises:
- a roller arranged to be in contact with one of the stacked sheets and configured to rotate on the one of the stacked sheets to apply conveying force to the one of the stacked sheets by rotation;
- a separator piece arranged to face the roller and configured to contact the stacked sheets to apply conveying resistance to the stacked sheets and to nip the one of the stacked sheets in cooperation with the roller;
- a movable member arranged on an opposite side from the roller across the separator piece and configured to be movable with respect to the roller;
- a pair of spring arms configured to contact the stacked sheets at an upstream position along the conveying direction with respect to a nipping position between the roller and the separator piece to press the stacked sheets toward the roller, each of the spring arms arranged on either side of the separator piece along a widthwise direction, the widthwise direction being orthogonal to the conveying direction, to extend along the conveying direction;
- and
- a bridge configured to bridge between the pair of spring arms to connect the paired spring arms,
- wherein the bridge and the movable member are slidably in contact with each other at least when the sheet feeding device is in a conveyable condition, in which the stacked sheets are conveyable.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.