Patent ID: 7595916

Claim:
A manuscript carrying apparatus, comprising: a pickup roller arranged to rotate while being lowered from above manuscripts such that the pickup roller automatically takes out sheet-by-sheet and carries to a carry path one or more manuscripts loaded in the manuscript tray through contact with the sheets of the manuscript; a drive source disconnectably connected to the pickup roller via a clutch and is configured to raise and lower the pickup roller when the clutch disconnects and connects, respectively; a biasing force portion arranged to provide an upward biasing force to the pickup roller when the clutch disconnects from the drive source to raise the pickup roller, wherein the pickup roller makes a soft contact to an upper surface of a top manuscript in the manuscript tray by being lowered incrementally and gradually in a plurality of repetitions of a raising-lowering operation to approach the upper surface of the top manuscript in the manuscript tray in which the pickup roller rotates while being lowered and stops rotating while being raised and in which an amount of raising of the pickup roller is smaller than a previous raising amount; at least one driving force transmission member provided between the clutch and the pickup roller and arranged to transmit a driving force to the pickup roller by an engagement of mutually partitioned engaging portions when the clutch connects; and at least one elastic member provided between the clutch-side engaging portion partitioned in the pickup roller and the pickup roller-side engaging portion partitioned in the clutch side of the driving force transmission member and arranged to suppress drive power load fluctuation produced by disconnection/connection of the clutch.