Patent ID: 8297617

Claim:
A document carrying apparatus which is configured to carry a document placed on a document placement tray to a document delivery tray, the document carrying apparatus having a side from which the document delivered to the document delivery tray is able to be taken out as a front side, and a side opposing the front side as a rear side, wherein the front side is configured to move up and down by means of a hinge mechanism disposed on the rear side such that the document carrying apparatus can be opened and closed with respect to a document reading apparatus, the document carrying apparatus comprising: a main body; and a reading guide member which is disposed facing a platen glass of the document reading apparatus, and abuts the platen glass in the closed state to guide a document in such a manner that the document comes in contact with the platen glass, wherein the reading guide member includes support portions at an end portion of the front side and an end portion of the rear side, each of the support portions including: an engagement portion engaging with the main body; and a contact portion abutting the platen glass, whereby the reading guide member is supported by the main body via the support portions, in an opened state with respect to the document reading apparatus, the rear-side support portion is supported with an energizing member in such a manner that the rear-side support portion can be displaced in up and down directions to come close and move away to and from the main body in a gap space disposed between the rear-side support portion and the main body opposing a surface of the platen glass, and the front-side support portion is supported in such a manner that the front-side support portion can be displaced in up and down directions to come close and move away to and from the main body in a gap space disposed between the front-side support portion and the main body, the gap at the front-side support portion being formed smaller than the gap at the rear-side support portion, and in a closed state with respect to the document reading apparatus, at the rear-side support portion, the contact portion comes into contact with the platen glass, and at the front-side support portion, the engagement portion abuts the main body, and the contact portion abuts the platen glass to carry out the positioning of the reading guide member in the height direction on the front side.