Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus

A sheet feeding apparatus comprising:

• a sheet stacking unit on which sheets are stacked;
• a feeding unit which contacts a top sheet of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking unit, and feeds the sheet in a sheet feeding direction;
• a conveying unit which receives the sheet fed by the feeding unit and conveys the sheet in a sheet conveying direction intersecting with the sheet feeding direction;
• a separation slope which is disposed between the feeding unit and the conveying unit and is inclined to be located in downstream in the sheet feeding direction as going to upside, so as to abut against a front edge of the sheet fed by the feeding unit and separate the sheet one by one;
• a friction member which is disposed on the separation slope in a center of a width direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction, the sheet slidably contacting the friction member;
• an opposite member which is disposed to face the friction member;
• and
• a biasing unit which biases one of the friction member and the opposite member against the other.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming portion which forms an image on a sheet;
• and
• a sheet feeding apparatus which supplies the sheet to the image forming portion, wherein the sheet feeding apparatus including:
• a sheet stacking unit on which sheets are stacked;
• a feeding unit which contacts a top sheet of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking unit, and feeds the sheet in a sheet feeding direction;
• a conveying unit which receives the sheet fed by the feeding unit and conveys the sheet in a sheet conveying direction intersecting with the sheet feeding direction;
• a first separating unit which is disposed between the feeding unit and the conveying unit, and includes a separation slope inclined to be located in downstream in the sheet feeding direction as going to upside, so as to abut against a front edge of the sheet fed by the feeding unit and separate the sheet one by one;
• and
• a second separating unit which is disposed between the first separating unit and the feeding unit, and includes a separation nip portion which separates the sheet having passed through the separation slope one by one.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• an image forming portion which forms an image on a sheet;
• and
• a sheet feeding apparatus which supplies the sheet to the image forming portion, the sheet feeding apparatus including:
• a sheet stacking unit on which sheets are stacked;
• a feeding unit which contacts a top sheet of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking unit, and feeds the sheet in a sheet feeding direction;
• a conveying unit which receives the sheet fed by the feeding unit and conveys the sheet in a sheet conveying direction intersecting with the sheet feeding direction;
• a separation slope which is disposed between the feeding unit and the conveying unit and is inclined to be located in downstream in the sheet feeding direction as going to upside, so as to abut against a front edge of the sheet fed by the feeding unit and separate the sheet one by one;
• a friction member which is disposed on the separation slope in a center of a width direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction, the sheet slidably contacting the friction member:
• an opposite member which is disposed to face the friction member;
• and
• a biasing unit which biases one of the friction member and the opposite member against the other.