Patent ID: 7021621

Claim:
A sheet-supply device for supplying sheets from a stack of sheets one at a time in a sheet feed direction, the sheet-supply device comprising: a hopper portion that has an inclined wall for holding a stack of sheets in an inclined position and a lower edge receiving portion for receiving lower edges of the sheets; a sheet feed mechanism that includes a sheet-supply roller for supplying a topmost sheet from the stack of sheets loaded on the hopper portion; and a first friction member, that is provided at a position near a lower end of the inclined wall of the hopper portion and corresponding to a position where the sheet-supply roller is provided, slidably movable along the inclined wall between a normal position where the first friction member is located during a normal sheet feed operation, and a second position upstream of the normal position in the sheet feed direction, the first friction member moves toward the second position when a sheet is fed in a direction opposite to the sheet feed direction and the sheet contacts the first friction member.