Sheet feeding apparatus and image forming apparatus

摘要

The sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet tray on which sheets are stacked, a feeding roller which contacts a top sheet on the sheet tray and feeds the sheet in a sheet feeding direction, and a pair of intermediate conveying rollers which receives the fed sheet and conveys the sheet in a sheet conveying direction. The sheet feeding apparatus further includes a fixed slope portion, a sheet separation member, and an opposite member. The fixed slope portion includes a separation slope which is inclined in downstream of the sheet feeding direction as it is closer to the pair of intermediate conveying rollers, so as to abut against the sheet fed by the feeding roller and separate the sheet one by one. The sheet separation member and the opposite member have a separation nip portion which separates the sheet having passed through the separation slope one by one.

主权项

1. 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 first separating unit which is disposed between the feeding unit and the conveying unit, the first separating unit including a separation slope, the separation slope being inclined upwards in the downstream direction and the separation slope extending in a sheet width direction perpendicular to the sheet feeding direction 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 conveying unit and is positioned at an extension of the separation slope in the sheet feeding direction, wherein the second separating unit includes a sheet separation member which is movable to a protruding position and a retracted position, wherein the sheet separation member is disposed in a notch portion formed in a center of the separation slope in the sheet width direction; an opposite member which includes a surface in a stationary state disposed to face the sheet separation member; and a biasing unit which biases the sheet separation member from the retracted position to the protruding position so as to abut the sheet separation member against the opposite member at the protruding position to form a separation nip portion which separates the sheet having passed through the separation slope one by one.