Patent ID: 8205876

Claim:
A sheet ejector comprising: a feed roller having a portion disposed lower than a catch tray and located on a sheet entry end of a fixed tray of the catch tray, wherein the feed roller is adapted to feed, in a predetermined ejecting direction, a later-ejected sheet under an earlier-ejected sheet; and a switching mechanism, different from the feed roller and the catch tray, adapted to switch a state of the feed roller relative to a sheet on the catch tray between: a contact state where the feed roller contacts the sheet when the sheet is on the catch tray at in a first position along a sheet feed path; and a non-contact state where the feed roller is kept from contacting the sheet when the sheet is on the catch tray in the same first position along the sheet feed path, wherein the switching mechanism includes a flap forming a portion of the catch tray and positioned upstream from the fixed tray and the feed roller in the predetermined ejecting direction, wherein the flap is adapted to, in response to an upstream end thereof in the predetermined ejecting direction swinging up and down, switch an ejection mode between: an insertion mode to insert a later-ejected sheet under an earlier-ejected sheet on the catch tray; and a stacking mode to stack a later-ejected sheet on an earlier-ejected sheet on the catch tray, and wherein the switching mechanism is adapted to, in response to the upstream end of the flap swinging up and down, switch the state of the feed roller relative to the sheet on the catch tray to the contact state in the insertion mode and to the non-contact state in the stacking mode.