Patent ID: 8517375

Claim:
A feeding device for feeding a feeding material, comprising: a receiving unit that receives stacked feeding materials; a feeding guide unit that slides in accordance with a width size of the feed material received in the receiving unit, and comes into contact with a side of the feed material to guide the feed material; and a separation unit having an inclined surface structure that abuts on a tip of the fed feed material so that a separating load is exerted, and separates the following feed material to feed only the feed material at the uppermost position, wherein the separating load of the separation unit is changed to at least two stages in conjunction with a movement in a width direction of the feeding guide unit, the movement being based on a width of the feeding material such that the separation load is increased for feeding material having a small width and decreased for feeding material having a large width, wherein the change of the separating load is performed by changing a material of a separating action surface of the separation unit abutting on the tip of the feeding material with a first friction coefficient to a material having a second friction coefficient or changing a shape of the separating action surface of the separation unit abutting on the tip of the feeding material with a first friction coefficient to a shape having a different friction coefficient.