Patent ID: 8118299

Claim:
A manual sheet feeder, comprising: a pickup roller provided to contact a sheet placed on a sheet tray to convey the sheet to a sheet feed roller; a pickup arm rotatably provided to a shaft of the sheet feed roller to rotatably support the pickup roller; a sheet stopper rotatably provided to stop and align a leading edge of the sheet placed on the sheet tray; a rotation regulation member rotatably provided to regulate rotation of the sheet stopper in a direction of sheet feed by engaging with the sheet stopper positioned at a standby position; a solenoid comprising a movable core having a straight line motion; a solenoid link rotatively coupled to the movable core; and a first spring to bias the pickup arm in a direction in which the pickup arm is rotated downward, wherein at start of sheet feeding operation: the pickup arm is rotated by the first spring in a direction in which the pickup roller is moved downward in conjunction with rotation of the solenoid link caused by the straight line motion of the movable core in one direction; and the rotation regulation member is rotated in conjunction with the rotation of the solenoid link caused by the straight line motion of the movable core in the one direction to release regulation of rotation of the sheet stopper by releasing engagement with the sheet stopper, and wherein the manual sheet feeder further comprising further comprises: a second spring to bias the sheet stopper to rotate the sheet stopper in a direction opposite the direction of sheet feed; and a third spring to bias the rotation regulation member to rotate the rotation regulation member in a direction in which rotation of the sheet stopper is regulated at the standby position, wherein at completion of the sheet feeding operation: the pickup arm is rotated in a direction in which the pickup roller is moved upward in conjunction with rotation of the solenoid link caused by the straight line motion of the movable core in the other direction; the rotation regulation member is rotated by the third spring in conjunction with the rotation of the solenoid link caused by the straight line motion of the movable core in the other direction; and the sheet stopper engages with the rotation regulation member when being rotated and returned to the standby position by the second spring to regulate the rotation of the sheet stopper.