Patent ID: 7222847

Claim:
A feeding apparatus comprising: a feeding roller for feeding a recording medium; a pressure plate provided movably between a contact position pressed to the feeding roller and a separated position separated from the feeding roller; pressure plate pressing means which provides the pressure plate with a pressing load for contacting the pressure plate with the feeding roller; a motor for generating a driving power for moving the pressure plate to the contact position and to the separated position and a driving power for rotating the feeding roller; first drive transmission means for transmitting a drive power of the motor to the pressure plate upon forward rotation of the motor and, after contacting and separating the pressure plate with and from the feeding roller, shifting the driving power to the pressure plate to a non-transmission state, and transmitting the drive power of the motor to the pressure plate upon reverse rotation of the motor, and after returning the pressure plate to a separated position, shifting the driving power to the pressure plate to the non-transmission state; second drive transmission means which transmits the driving power from the motor to the feeding roller; medium separation means which is provided at a downstream side of a contact position between the pressure plate and the feeding roller in a conveying direction of the recording medium and which separates the recording media one by one; conveying means which is provided at a downstream side of the medium separation means, for conveying the recording medium; and control means which includes detection means for detecting arrival of a leading end of the recording medium at the conveying means and which reverses the motor after detection of the leading end of the recording medium by the detection means, wherein the pressure plate pressing means includes a spring for generating the pressing load, direction converting means which changes a direction of load substantially perpendicularly from a biasing direction of the spring to a contact direction of the pressure plate to the feeding roller, a first movable plate for moving the pressure plate, and a second movable plate for moving the first movable plate, and the first and second movable plates are positioned parallel to the pressure plate when the pressure plate is moved to the separated position.