Patent ID: 7614621

Claim:
A feeding apparatus comprising: a housing part comprising a bottom surface configured to hold stacked sheets and a separating part disposed adjacent to the bottom surface at an end of the housing part and configured to separate said stacked sheets one by one; an arm member configured to pivot about its one end as a pivot center; and a first feeder rotating body disposed far from said one end and a second feeder rotating body disposed closer to said one end than is said first feeder rotating body, said first feeder rotating body and said second feeder rotating body being mounted to said arm member, and configured to separate and feed said stacked sheets one by one while cooperating with said separating part, wherein said first feeder rotating body and said second feeder rotating body are disposed in a tandem arrangement along a longitudinal direction of said arm member and are driven by a power transmission mechanism to rotate in the same direction, and wherein when said arm member pivots, said arm member is configured to maintain the pivot center, a rotation center of said first feeder rotating body, and a rotation center of said second feeder rotating body at constant positions relative to each other, and said arm member is configured to selectively pivot between a first position in which a rotation center of said first feeder rotating body is closer to the bottom surface than a rotation center of said second feeder rotating body, a second position in which the rotation center of said first feeder rotating body and the rotation center of said second feeder rotating body are at equal distance from the bottom surface, and a third position in which the rotation center of said first feeder rotating body is further from the bottom surface than the rotation center of said second feeder rotating body.