Sheet supplying apparatus

A sheet supplying apparatus comprising:

• sheet supporting means for supporting a sheet;
• sheet supply means for feeding out the sheet supported by said sheet supporting means;
• separation means disposed downstream of said sheet supply means in a sheet supplying direction and having a normal rotation member rotated in a sheet supplying direction and a reverse rotation member rotated in a reverse direction opposite thereto to separate the sheets fed out by said sheet supply means one by one;
• and
• drive force transmission switching means for transmitting a rotational force to said reverse rotation member to rotate said reverse rotation member in the reverse direction in a continuous supply mode in which the sheets supported in said sheet supporting means are continuously fed out by said sheet supply means, and for transmitting a rotational force to said reverse rotation member to rotate said reverse rotation member in the sheet supplying direction in a manual sheet insertion mode in which a single sheet manually inserted is fed toward said separation means.

An image reading apparatus comprising:

• sheet supporting means for supporting a sheet;
• sheet supply means for feeding out the sheet supported by said sheet supporting means;
• separation means disposed downstream of said sheet supply means in a sheet supplying direction and having a normal rotation member rotated in a sheet supplying direction and a reverse rotation member rotated in a reverse direction opposite thereto to separate the sheets fed out by said sheet supply means one by one;
• drive force transmission switching means for transmitting a rotational force to said reverse rotation member to rotate said reverse rotation member in the reverse direction in a continuous supply mode in which the sheets supported in said sheet supporting means are continuously fed out by said sheet supply means, and for stopping the transmission of the rotational force to said reverse rotation member in a manual sheet insertion mode in which a single sheet manually inserted is fed toward said separation means;
• and
• reading means for reading an image formed on the sheet separated by said separation means.

An image reading apparatus comprising:

• sheet supporting means for supporting a sheet;
• sheet supply means for feeding out the sheet supported by said sheet supporting means;
• separation means disposed downstream of said sheet supply means in a sheet supplying direction and having a normal rotation member rotated in a sheet supplying direction and a reverse rotation member rotated in a reverse direction opposite thereto to separate the sheets fed out by said sheet supply means one by one;
• drive force transmission switching means for transmitting a rotational force to said reverse rotation member to rotate said reverse rotation member in the reverse direction in a continuous supply mode in which the sheets supported in said sheet supporting means are continuously fed out by said sheet supply means, and for transmitting a rotational force to said reverse rotation member to rotate said reverse rotation member in the sheet supplying direction in a manual sheet insertion mode in which a single sheet manually inserted is fed toward said separation means;
• and
• a reading means for reading an image on the sheet separated by said separation means.