Patent ID: 8041283

Claim:
A sheet feeding device, comprising: a first tray on which sheets to be fed are stacked; a second tray which is disposed above the first tray to provide a two-tier structure and on which the sheets after having fed from the first tray are stacked; a sheet-feed path extending from the first tray to the second tray; a sheet-feed mechanism which is operable to separate one of the sheets stacked on the first tray, to feed the one of the sheets into the sheet-feed path, and to discharge the one of the sheets to the second tray such that the one of the sheets slides under another of the sheets that has been discharged immediately before the one of the sheets; and at least one sheet guide which is configured to warp each of the sheets discharged to the second tray such that a central portion of said each of the sheets as seen in the direction perpendicular to the sheet-feed direction is located at a higher position than end portions of said each of the sheets as seen in the direction perpendicular to the sheet-feed direction, wherein the at least one sheet guide includes: a pair of first guides which extend along the sheet-feed direction so as to respectively contact side edges of said each of the sheets discharged to the second tray and which are configured such that a distance between the pair of first guides gradually becomes smaller in the sheet-feed direction than a dimension of the sheets as measured in the direction perpendicular to the sheet-feed direction; and a pair of second guides which are configured to respectively overlie the end portions of an uppermost one of the sheets discharged to the second tray so as to respectively contact an upper surface of the uppermost one of the sheets at the end portions thereof.