Patent ID: 7708269

Claim:
A sheet feeding device adapted for use in a sheet processing apparatus, the sheet feeding device comprising: a housing; a stacking plate adapted for sheets to be fed into the sheet processing apparatus to be stacked thereon; a sheet stacker adapted to support the stacking plate in such a manner that the stacking plate is lifted up and down and to be movable horizontally between a housed position where the sheet stacker is housed in the housing and an exposed position where the stacking plate is exposed outside of the housing; a damping member adapted to exert on the sheet stacker a damping force according to moving speed of the sheet stacker, between beginning of movement of the sheet stacker from the housed position to the exposed position and end of movement of the sheet stacker from the exposed position to the housed position; and a transmitting member, wherein the damping member is a centrifugal clutch having an input shaft and an output shaft, the output shaft being fixed to the housing, and wherein the transmitting member is adapted to translate the horizontal movement of the sheet stacker into rotation of the input shaft.