Patent ID: 6877738

Claim:
A sheet material feed apparatus comprising: sheet material stacking means for stacking sheets of a sheet material; a feed roller for feeding the sheets stacked on the sheet material stacking means; a drive source for driving the feed roller; a separation roller rotated according to the feed roller to separate a sheet of the sheet material; a separation roller holder for rotatably holding the separation roller, said separation roller holder being rotated thereby to move the separation roller to a position in contact with the feed roller and a position apart from the feed roller; means for rotating the separation roller holder to cause the separation roller to move to a contact position with the feed roller and to a release position from the feed roller; and return means for returning the sheets other than the sheet separated by the separation roller to the sheet material stacking means, said return means being controlled by one-direction rotation for driving the feed roller of the drive source, wherein the return means is movable to a first position for closing a sheet material feed route from the sheet material stacking means to the feed roller, a second position for pushing the sheet back to a position closer to the sheet material stacking means than the first position, and a third position, in which the return means is not brought into contact with the sheet material.