Patent ID: 8123211

Claim:
A pickup roller lifting and lowering mechanism of a paper feeding unit comprising; a lifting and lowering driving mechanism having a base disc, which is a disc radially extending from a rotation axis of the lifting and lowering driving mechanism, and a cam that is set in contact with the base disc, the lifting and lowering driving mechanism including a cam gear urged in a direction opposite to an inserting direction of a paper feeding cassette in which recording media are stacked and a push-back mechanism that urges the cam gear in a direction opposite to the paper feeding cassette and releases the urging of the cam gear in the inserting direction of the paper feeding cassette by being pressed by a pressing projection provided in the paper feeding cassette; a rotation lever rotated by the cam and the base disc; a pickup roller lifting and lowering shaft rotated by the rotation lever; and a pickup roller lowered by the rotation of the pickup roller lifting and lowering shaft, having a pickup roller axis which is parallel to the inserting direction of the paper feeding cassette.