Patent ID: 7866659

Claim:
A sheet-feeding mechanism, comprising: a feeding roller which rotates in a sheet-conveying direction, at least a surface of the feeding roller being flexible; and a retard roller having a plurality of press-contact rollers, which are arranged on a common axis and come in press-contact with the feeding roller at a predetermined pressure so as to form a plurality of press-contact surfaces, and being rotatable in an opposite direction with respect to the sheet-conveying direction, the plurality of press-contact rollers having a first press-contact roller and a second press-contact roller which are adjacent to each other in an axial direction, wherein a hardness of the feeding roller being smaller than a hardness of the retard roller, and a portion of the feeding roller corresponding to an axial clearance between the first press-contact roller and the second press-contact roller is deformed to bulge toward an axis of the retard roller due to a difference in the hardness between the feeding roller and the press-contact rollers.