Patent ID: 8702093

Claim:
A sheet loading device, comprising: a sheet tray that has a sheet housing space for housing a plurality of sheets; a lift plate disposed in the sheet housing space, the lift plate having a top face as a loading face for loading the sheets, and lifts one edge of the sheets upward; a guide member that is movable among a plurality of predetermined fixed positions, the guide member being disposed facing a side surface of the sheets that intersects with the one edge of the sheets and being configured to restrict a position of the sheets in a sheet width direction; and an auxiliary restricting member disposed on the one edge side of the guide member and protruding farther toward the side surface of the sheets housed in the sheet tray than the guide member, the auxiliary restricting member restricting the side surface of the sheets lifted by the lift plate by biasing the side surface with a first biasing force when the number of sheets housed in the sheet tray is a first number of sheets, and restricting the side surface of the sheets lifted by the lift plate by biasing the side surface with a second biasing force that is greater than the first biasing force when the number of sheets housed in the sheet tray is a second number of sheets that is greater than the first number of sheets, the auxiliary restricting member including: a first contact part that comes into contact with the side surface of the sheets lifted by the lift plate; a first biasing part that biases the first contact part, with the first biasing force, toward the side surface of the sheets housed in the sheet tray; and a second biasing part that applies to the first contact part a biasing force that leads to the second biasing force when the number of sheets housed in the sheet tray is the second number of sheets, the second biasing part including a second contact part that is disposed lower than the first contact part, and comes into contact with the side surface of the sheets housed in the sheet tray, and a transmission part that is connected to the first contact part and the second contact part, and that, in connection with a movement of the second contact part in the sheet width direction, moves the first contact part in a direction that is opposite to the movement of the second contact part in the sheet width direction.