Patent ID: 6932338

Claim:
A friction sheet feeding machine, comprising: (a) a tray effective for holding a stack of sheets with a lowermost sheet, (b) a driven friction feed roller configured and arranged for pulling the lowermost sheet in a machine direction from underneath the stack, (c) a driven friction retard roller above the friction feed roller for contacting a leading edge and any exposed upward facing major surface of a sheet immediately overlying the lowermost sheet so as to retard advancement of the overlying sheet, wherein driven rotation of the friction retard roller is reversible as between a concurrent direction relative to the friction feed roller when in a first state and a countercurrent direction relative to the friction feed roller when in a second state, (d) a first motor operably connected to the friction feed roller for driving the friction feed roller, and (e) a second motor operably connected to the friction retard roller for driving friction retard roller, (f) wherein the first and second motors are operably associated wherein the second motor is operational only when the first motor is operated.