Patent ID: 8857811

Claim:
A sheet transport device, comprising: a housing member; a sheet tray in which a number of sheets are accommodated, the sheet tray being detachably attached to the housing member and configured to be pulled out of the housing member in a first direction; a sheet transport path formed in the housing member and extending from the sheet tray in a second direction that intersects the first direction; a sheet dispensing portion disposed to face the sheets accommodated in the sheet tray, and to dispense the sheets to the sheet transport path; a sheet feeding portion that is rotated in contact with the sheet dispensed from the sheet dispensing portion, and feeds the sheet toward downstream of the sheet transport path; a sheet separating portion facing the sheet feeding portion, and separating the sheet to be fed from the other sheets; and a projecting member configured to be projected and retracted with respect to the sheet transport path at a downstream position in the second direction away from a leading end of a sheet accommodated in the sheet tray, near an imaginary line extending from a sheet nip portion in the first direction and at a distance from the sheet nip portion in the first direction, the sheet nip portion being formed by the sheet feeding portion and the sheet separating portion.