| 摘要 |
<p>A sheet feeder comprising a pickup roller provided with a drive shaft arranged to traverse a sheet tray and roller sections fixed intermittently to the drive shaft, and a resilient supporting means for supporting the drive shaft such that a plurality of exposed parts thereof are pressed substantially independently in the direction of the bottom plate of the sheet tray. Since each exposed part of the thin and flexible drive shaft can be pressed substantially independently to ward the side of the bottom plate of the sheet tray, each roller part can be brought into tight contact with a sheet substantially independently. The sheet can thereby be fed with high reliability utilizing the flexibility of the drive shaft. Consequently, a very fine pickup roller can be employed and a highly reliable, extremely thin sheet feeder can be realized. When a plurality of sheet feeders are stacked, a compact multitray can be provided.</p> |
