Patent ID: 7367266

Claim:
A plate feeding apparatus for feeding plates to an image recorder, comprising: a multi-cassette unit for storing, in a stacked state, a plurality of cassettes storing the plates; a loader unit for fetching from each of said cassettes the plates to be fed to the image recorder; a first horizontal moving mechanism for horizontally moving the cassettes stored in said multi-cassette unit between said multi-cassette unit and said loader unit; a lift mechanism for vertically moving the cassettes horizontally moved by said first horizontal moving mechanism to a plate feed position for feeding the plates to said image recorder; a plate feed unit disposed above said multi-cassette unit to be tiltable about a horizontal axis in a state of having a portion thereof vertically overlapping said multi-cassette unit; and a second horizontal moving mechanism for horizontally moving said cassettes between said loader unit and said plate feed unit.