Sheet feeder

Abstract

A sheet feed tray on which sheets are stored, a feed member for feeding out sheets one at a time from the sheet feed tray, a separating member for separating sheets when a plurality of sheets are fed out at a time from the sheet feed tray by the feed member, to feed the sheets one at a time, a transporting member for transporting the sheet delivered from the separating member to a image forming member, a sheet detecting member for detecting the passage of the leading edge of the sheet past a first position in the transporting member, a calculation member which, based on the behavior of a sheet which is fed by the feed member, but is then detained by the separating member, determines a target time at which a sheet should arrive at a second position downstream of said first position, and calculates from the detection result provided by the sheet detecting member the deviation from said target time of the sheet, and control member for varying the sheet transport speed on the basis of the results of calculation made by the calculation member so that the sheet arrives at the second position at the preset desired time.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.