Patent ID: 8774699

Claim:
A sheet feeder, comprising: an attraction separation unit including an attraction belt stretched around two tension rollers, disposed facing the upper surface of a stacked sheet bundle to attract an uppermost sheet of the sheet bundle and rotatably supported by a support member at a position upstream of the attraction belt in a sheet feeding direction; and a swing device to swing the attraction separation unit around the support member as a fulcrum to move the attraction belt back and forth between an attraction position for attracting the uppermost sheet of the sheet bundle to the attraction belt and a feed position for feeding the uppermost sheet attracted to the attraction belt further from the sheet bundle than the attraction position, wherein: the swing device includes an assembly of a first drive transmitting portion and a second drive transmitting portion, with the first drive transmitting portion attached to a downstream end portion of the attraction separation unit in the sheet feeding direction and the second drive transmitting portion attached to the body of the sheet feeder and connected with the first drive transmitting portion, the first drive transmitting portion and the second drive transmitting portion are connected with each other transmitting a driving force therebetween, thereby swinging the attraction separation unit, one of the first drive transmitting portion and the second drive transmitting portion forms a rack, and the other one of the first drive transmitting portion and the second drive transmitting portion forms a pinion, and the pinion receives drive force of a drive source transmitted thereto.