| 摘要 |
A feeding device of the present invention comprises rotatable cassettes (26,27) each having a rotatable section (32) which are movable to either longitudinal or lateral feeding position and paper feeding cassettes (25,28,29) one of which is selected for a paper feeding operation, and the device also comprises paper existence detection devices (57) for detecting the existence or nonexistence of copy paper in the paper feeding cassette (25-29) and control devices (52) for controlling driving motors (36) so as to set respective rotatable sections (32) of rotatable cassettes (26,27) in the same longitudinal or lateral feeding position as the paper feeding cassette (25) when copy paper of the same size as that in the paper feeding cassette (25) is stored in the rotatable cassette (26,27) and when the nonexistence of copy paper has been detected by the paper existence detection device (57), and thereby desired copy paper can be fed successively and automatically. Besides the above arrangement, the feeding device of the present invention also comprises paper remaining amount detection devices (71) for detecting a remaining amount of the copy paper in the paper feeding cassette (25-29) selected for the paper feeding operation, and in the case where it has been detected by the paper remaining amount detection device (71) that a remaining amount of the copy paper in the paper feeding cassette (25-29) has got less than a predetermined amount, the control devices (52) control the driving motor (36) so as to set the rotatable section (32) in the same longitudinal or lateral feeding position as the paper feeding cassette (25). Moreover, the predetermined amount is determined based on an amount by which the paper feeding cassette can (25) continue its paper feeding operation until the rotatable section (32) completes its rotational movement after it has been detected by the paper remaining amount detection device (71) that a remaining amount of the copy paper in the paper feeding cassette (25-29) has got less than the predetermined amount. |
