Patent ID: 7938396

Claim:
A sheet feeding device for feeding a sheet, comprising: a sheet accommodating portion for accommodating a sheet stack constituted by a plurality of sheets; a sheet carrying plate provided in the sheet accommodating portion and carrying the sheet stack; a pickup roller that contacts an upper face of the sheet stack and dispatches the sheet of an uppermost layer of the sheet stack; an elevator mechanism that displaces the sheet carrying plate between a sheet feeding position in which the upper face of the sheet stack contacts the pickup roller and a separating position in which the upper face of the sheet stack is separated from the pickup roller; a first heated air mechanism for blowing heated air toward a side face of the sheet stack accommodated in the sheet accommodating portion, the side face being parallel to the sheet feeding direction; and a controller for controlling the operation of the elevator mechanism and the operation of the first heated air mechanism during a sheet feeding preparation period before starting a sheet feeding operation for feeding a first sheet of the sheet stack, wherein the controller simultaneously performs, during the sheet feeding preparation period, control for operating the first heated air mechanism to blow heated air to the side face of the sheet stack and control for operating the elevator mechanism to cause the elevator mechanism to carry out, at least once, a separating operation for displacing the sheet carrying plate between the sheet feeding position and the separating position.