Patent ID: 7686292

Claim:
A sheet feeding device for feeding a recording sheet to a sheet transport path, the sheet feeding device comprising: a sheet feeding tray for placing a recording sheet to be fed; a feed roller, opposed to the sheet feeding tray for feeding the recording sheet to the sheet transport path by a driving rotation thereof about a rotation axis thereof extending in a widthwise direction of the recording sheet; a pressing member, disposed at a downstream end of the sheet feeding tray in a sheet transport direction, the pressing member being movable between a first position where the pressing member comes into contact with the feed roller or is made close to the feed roller, and a second position where the pressing member is kept away from the feed roller by a certain clearance an urging member for urging the pressing member towards the first position; an elevating mechanism cooperating with the urging member for moving the pressing member between the first and second positions each time the recording sheet is fed, and for bringing the leading end of the recording sheet into contact with the feed roller when the pressing member is moved towards the first position; and a position changer movably and slidably connected to the pressing member in a direction orthogonal to the sheet transport direction: wherein the position changer is movable between a contact position where the position changer is aligned for engagement by the elevating mechanism and a release position where the position changer is aligned for avoiding engagement with the elevating mechanism so that the elevating mechanism and the urging member move the pressing member between the first and second positions each time a recording sheet is fed when the position changer is in the contact position and, the urging member continuously urges the pressing member towards the first position when the position changer is in the release position.