Patent ID: 8746676

Claim:
A sheet feeding device, comprising: a sheet storage portion which accommodates a sheet; a pickup roller which abuts on a surface of the sheet accommodated in the sheet storage portion to feed the sheet in a sheet feeding direction; a driving motor which drives the pickup roller; a separating/feeding portion, provided apart from the pickup roller in the sheet feeding direction, which includes a feed roller and a separation roller pressed with the sheet feeding roller which separates to separate and feed the sheet fed by the pickup roller; a gear train which transmits a drive of the driving motor to the pickup roller; an input gear, provided on the gear train, having a plurality of protrusions; a regulating portion which is engaged with the protrusions of the input gear to regulate a rotation of the input gear; an actuator which moves the regulating portion between an engaged position at which the regulating portion is engaged with the protrusions of the input gear to regulate the rotation of the input gear to stop the pickup roller and a disengaged position at which the regulating portion is disengaged from the protrusions to rotate the input gear to rotate the pickup roller; a torque limiter which is provided in a transmission route of the driving motor and the input gear to block the transmission of the drive from the driving motor to the input gear when the regulating portion is in the engaged position and to transmit the drive from the driving motor to the input gear when the regulating portion is in the disengaged position, wherein when the regulating portion is in the engaged position, the transmission of the drive from the driving motor is blocked by the torque limiter to stop the rotation of the pickup roller; and a controller which controls the actuator so that, when the pickup roller abuts on the surface of the sheet accommodated in the sheet storage portion to feed the sheet, the actuator moves the regulating portion between the engaged position and the disengaged position alternately to allow the pickup roller to perform intermittent rotation that alternately performs rotation and stop twice or more before the sheet fed by the pickup roller reaches the separating/feeding portion.