| 摘要 |
<p>A sheet feeding apparatus includes a retard mechanism (28) to prevent the inadvertent feeding of doubled or overlapped sheets. The retard mechanism (28) is mounted on the free end of a lever arm (50) pivotally secured adjacent to its other end to the base (14) of the sheet feeding apparatus. The lever arm (50) with the retard mechanism (28) mounted thereon is spring-urged toward the feed roller (10), but is permited to be moved slightly away from said roller by a dual spring arrangement (104, 122) to accommodate the thickness of the sheet being fed between the feed roller and the retard assembly. A manually releasable one-way retaining device (68) permits movement of the lever arm (50) and retard mechanism (28) toward the feed roller (10) as the roller and belts (26) wear, but prevents movement away from said roller (10) except for the limited movement permitted to accommodate sheets during feeding.</p> |
