Patent ID: 7252287

Claim:
A sheet feeding device for feeding a sheet in an auxiliary scanning direction substantially perpendicular to a main scanning direction of a light beam applied to said sheet for reading an image therefrom and recording an image thereon, said sheet feeding device comprising: a curved feed guide for guiding said sheet along a feed path having a curved section; and a roller pair for gripping and feeding said sheet along said feed path; said roller pair comprising: a drive roller disposed inwardly of the curved section of said curved feed guide; and a driven roller disposed in facing relation to said drive roller with said sheet interposed therebetween, the sheet feeding device further comprising means for applying said light beam to said sheet for reading and recording while said sheet is kept in pressed contact with both said drive roller and said driven roller, and a displacing mechanism for displacing said driven roller away from said drive roller outwardly of the curved section of said curved feed guide, and at least one guide roller disposed inwardly of the curved section of said curved feed guide, for controlling an attitude of said sheet as said sheet is fed along said curved feed guide, wherein said drive roller and said driven rOller are spaced from each other by a gap equal to or smaller than the thickness of said sheet when said sheet is released from said roller pair.