Patent ID: 8416475

Claim:
A medium transport device provided with a reverse path and a transport path disposed in a loop shape such that a medium fed toward a nip point of a transport roller by a discharge roller passes through the nip point and returns to a nip position of the discharge roller again, the medium transport device comprising: a driving motor that rotates forward and in reverse; a cam driving gear that is provided with a partial tooth portion having a non-tooth portion for a release position at a part of a circumferential face and a whole tooth portion provided with teeth on the whole circumferential face; an intermediate gear that is provided at a position engaged with the partial tooth portion of the cam driving gear; a planetary gear mechanism that is provided with a first planetary gear engaged with the whole tooth portion of the cam driving gear to transmit power when the driving motor is rotated in one direction, and a second planetary gear engaged with the intermediate gear to transmit power of rotation in the same direction as that of the first planetary gear to the partial tooth portion of the cam driving gear when the driving motor is rotated in the other direction; and a nip-release switching mechanism that switches a nip state and a release state of the discharge roller by the rotation position of the cam driving gear, wherein in a state where a second power transmission path of transmitting power from the second planetary gear to the cam driving gear through the intermediate gear is selected, when the intermediate gear is opposed to the non-tooth portion for the release position of the cam driving gear, the rotation direction of the driving motor is changed to select a first power transmission path of directly transmitting power from the first planetary gear to the cam driving gear, the non-tooth portion for the release position deviates from the opposed position of the intermediate gear, and the rotation direction of the driving motor is changed again to select the second power transmission path.