Patent ID: 7506868

Claim:
A sheet feeder having an upstream side and a downstream side, the sheet feeder comprising: a suction carrier that sucks an uppermost sheet of sheets piled up and carries the uppermost sheet from the upstream side to the downstream side in a carrying direction; an oblique carrier that carries a sheet, wherein the oblique carrier is located downstream of the suction carrier, wherein the oblique carrier carries the sheet slantingly toward a guide wall in order to position an edge of the sheet along the guide wall, and wherein the oblique carrier carries the sheet downstream in the carrying direction; and a handling member for allowing only the uppermost sheet carried by the suction carrier to pass the handling member, wherein the sheet feeder separates sheets one by one from the sheets piled up on a sheet feeding table and then carries the sheets, wherein there are provided: a detector located on the sheet feeder at a location for detecting a front edge of the sheet and a rear edge of the sheet which has passed the handling member and has been put on the oblique carrier, wherein the detector is located downstream of the handling member; and a retracting mechanism, wherein the handling member is retracted by the retracting mechanism to a position away from an operative position adjacent the sheet passing the handling member in response to the detector detecting the front edge of the sheet, and wherein the handling member is returnable to the operative position by the retracting mechanism in response to the detector detecting the rear edge of the sheet after the detector detects a front edge of the sheet.