Patent ID: 7641187

Claim:
A sheet feeding apparatus, comprising: a stack holding unit on which sheets are to be stacked; a feed shaft on which a feed roller for feeding a sheet stacked on said stack holding unit and a flange are coaxially arranged, wherein said feed roller comprises a conveying face, in contact with the sheet stacked on said stack holding unit, for conveying the sheet, and a non-conveying face being spaced from the sheet stacked on said stack holding unit, and said flange comprises a first area protruded beyond a peripheral surface of said feed roller, for blocking a sheet conveying path, and a second area which has a radius smaller than a radius of the conveying face of said feed roller and being spaced from the conveying path; a separating roller in contact with the feed roller, for separating sheets; and a return lever for returning sheets conveyed downstream from said separating roller to said stack holding unit, said return lever being arranged at a position different from the flange in an axial direction of said feed shaft, wherein the flange turns integrally with the feed roller, and a radius of the first area is larger than the radius of the second area, and wherein when the feed roller is in a standby state, said return lever is moved at a first position for blocking the sheet conveying path and said flange is located at a sheet conveying path blocking position where the first area of the flange and said return lever overlap each other as viewed from a direction parallel to said feed shaft.