Patent ID: 7500666

Claim:
A recording medium feeding device comprising: a recording medium setting portion in which a plurality of recording mediums can be set in a laminated manner; feeding means for feeding the topmost one of recording mediums set in the recording medium setting portion to a feeding direction; separating means configured so that a first state in which two members oppositely disposed to sandwich a feeding path of the recording medium are pressed and a second state in which the press is released can be switched by the power of a motor, and for separating the topmost recording medium from the following recording medium by nipping the topmost recording medium which should be fed; and detecting means provided at a downstream side of the separating means and for detecting the passage of the front end or back end of the recording medium, and configured so that the front end of the topmost recording medium fed from the recording medium setting portion is passed through the separating means after the separating means is switched from the second state to the first state, wherein feeding of the next recording medium from the recording medium setting portion is not performed in the state where the passage of the back end of the recording medium previously fed is not detected by the detecting means, and a first feeding mode in which switching operation of the separating means from the second state to the first state is started at the same time as when the passage of the back end of the recording medium previously fed is detected by the detecting means or after detected and a second feeding mode in which switching operation of the separating means from the second state to the first state is started before the passage of the back end of the recording medium previously fed is detected by the detecting means can be switched when a plurality of recording mediums are fed.