Patent ID: 7264239

Claim:
A feeding device for feeding a recording medium in a feed direction, comprising: a drive roller having an annular recess formed in an outer circumferential surface thereof; a driven roller rotatably held and positioned relative to said drive roller such that a radially outer end portion of said driven roller is positioned within said annular recess of said drive roller so that said radially outer end portion of said driven roller overlaps with a radially outer end portion of said drive roller; and a biaser that biases said driven roller toward said drive roller, wherein said driven roller is displaceable at least in a direction away from said drive roller, so that the recording medium is fed to pass between said drive roller and said driven roller, with the recording medium being gripped by said radially outer end portion of said driven roller and said radially outer end portion of said drive roller, said feeding device further comprising: an overlap-amount limiter that is unmovable by rotation of said drive roller, said overlap-amount limiter including a contact portion which is positioned within said annular recess and which is, during absence of the recording medium between said drive roller and said driven roller, held in contact at a surface thereof with said radially outer end portion of said driven roller, wherein said driven roller is forced in said direction away from said drive roller against a biasing force generated by said biaser, for thereby limiting an overlap amount by which said radially outer end portion of said driven roller overlaps with said radially outer end portion of said drive roller.