Device applicable to an image recording apparatus for feeding a recording medium

Abstract

A device applicable to an image recording apparatus for feeding a recording medium in the form of a paper roll or a cut paper to a predetermined recording section of the apparatus. The device includes a plurality of paper feed mechanisms for feeding a recording medium. A sensor responsive to the kind of a recording medium in the form of a roll and a sensor responsive to the amount of remaining recording medium are associated with each of the paper feed mechanisms. When two or more paper feed mechanisms are each loaded with a recording medium of a desired kind, one of them which has a larger amount of recording medium remaining therein is automatically selected. When the amount of recording medium remaining in the feed mechanism being selected becomes substantially zero, another feed mechanism which is also loaded with a recording medium of the specified kind is automatically selected in place of the feed mechanism which has been exhausted. In the case of a rolled recording medium, when the length of recording medium remaining in the feed mechanism being selected and substantially run out is short of a necessary length, an extra recording medium is fed in addition to the number of recording media which is specified beforehand so as to produce an extra copy.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.