Patent ID: 8857812

Claim:
A sheet feeder comprising: a housing; a sheet feeding mechanism that is arranged in the housing and that feeds a sheet in a predetermined direction; a manual feed tray that has a sheet mounting surface on which the sheet to be fed is mounted and that is pivotably mounted to the housing, the manual feed tray being configured to assume a first posture in which the manual feed tray becomes closed with respect to the housing, and to pivot and assume a second posture in which the manual feed tray becomes open with respect to the housing when in use during which the sheet is mounted on the sheet mounting surface; a link member that couples the housing with the manual feed tray, the link member being pivotably mounted to the housing and pivoting in accordance with a pivoting movement of the manual feed tray to hold the second posture of the manual feed tray; a posture changing mechanism that permits the manual feed tray to pivot further in an opening direction from the second posture when a load acts on the sheet mounting surface in a state where the manual feed tray is assuming the second posture, and that causes the manual feed tray to assume a third posture while the manual feed tray is held by the link member; and a posture holding mechanism that holds the third posture of the manual feed tray, wherein the manual feed tray includes a downstream-side edge part positioned on a downstream side in a feeding direction of the sheet fed from the sheet mounting surface to the sheet feeding mechanism, and a protruding piece which is formed at the downstream-side edge part and which protrudes toward the side of the sheet mounting surface, the housing includes a claw part that engages with the protruding piece when the manual feed tray has assumed the third posture while the claw part does not engage with the protruding piece when the manual feed tray has assumed the second posture, the claw part holds the manual feed tray in the third posture in a state where the claw part engages the protruding piece, and the posture holding mechanism includes the claw part and the protruding piece.