SEPARATING SHEET, SEPARATING PAD, AND PAPER FEEDING DEVICE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a paper feeding device capable of suppressing stresses exerted on a paper sheet when it is fed, and provide a separating sheet and a separating pad used therefor. SOLUTION: This paper feeding device is equipped with a rotatable paper feed roller and the separating sheet 110 brought into pressure contact with a peripheral surface of the feed roller. Paper sheets are entrained by the rotation of the feed roller and inserted between the feed roller and the separating sheet 110. The separating sheet 110 causes the paper sheets to pass therethrough in a one-by-one separated manner. The separating sheet 110 has a rigidity characteristic in the width direction wherein its rigidity in the pressure contact direction is smaller at end parts Ed and Ed than at a middle part Ct in a contact surface, where the width direction is the direction normal to the direction in which the paper sheets pass through the feeding device, the pressure contact direction is the direction in which a force acts on the sheet 110 when it is brought into pressure contact with the feed roller, and the contact surface is a surface thereof contacted by the paper sheets when they pass.