A mechanism for an ADF having upper and lower trays, a base connecting the trays, and a cover pivotally connected to the upper tray includes a housing provided within the base and movable relative thereto. A transmission has a gripping position for transporting paper along a path from the upper tray to the lower tray and a release position allowing a paper jam along the path to be remedied. The cover is pivotable between a first condition maintaining the transmission in the gripping position and a second condition allowing the housing to move relative to the trays to place the transmission in the release position.

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes a control unit configured to determine that the sheet is of a first size in a case where first and second detection sensors detect that a sheet is present and determines that the sheet is of a second size smaller than the first size in a case where the first detection sensor detects that the sheet is present and the second detection sensor detects no sheet. The control unit controls the sheet conveyance unit in a first mode in a case where the control unit determines that the sheet is of the first size and controls the sheet conveyance unit in a second mode in which a sheet conveyance speed is slower than that of the first mode in a case where the control unit determines that the sheet is of the second size.

A document feeder assisting device includes a document stacker to stack a document to be conveyed toward a feed port of an automatic document feeder, a pressing device to press the document toward a document placement surface of the document stacker, and a conveyance device to convey the document. The document is stacked on the document placement surface exposed above with the pressing device moved.

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes a first oblique-feed unit configured to convey a sheet by imparting to the sheet a force in a first direction inclined relative to the sheet conveyance direction so that the sheet approaches an abutment surface in the width direction as the sheet proceeds downstream in the sheet conveyance direction; and a second oblique-feed unit configured to convey the sheet by imparting to the sheet a force in a second direction inclined relative to the sheet conveyance direction so that the sheet approaches the abutment surface as the sheet proceeds downstream. An angle of the first direction with respect to the sheet conveyance direction is greater than an angle of the second direction with respect to the sheet conveyance direction, and the second oblique-feed unit is disposed at a position closer to the abutment surface than the first oblique-feed unit in the width direction.

A tray device includes a first tray including a first surface and an abutting portion, and a second tray including a second surface and an abutted portion. The second tray is configured to move with respect to the first tray. The abutting portion includes two abutting surfaces located obliquely with respect to an extending direction of the first surface. The abutted portion includes two abutted surfaces located obliquely with respect to an extending direction of the second surface. A difference between an angle formed by each of the two abutting surfaces and the extending direction of the first surface and an angle formed by each of the two abutted surfaces and the extending direction of the second surface is set larger than a maximum angular difference between the extending direction of the first surface and a movement direction in which the second tray moves with respect to the first tray.

A sheet feed apparatus includes a sheet separation unit, and the sheet separation unit includes a separation roller that is provided so as to be brought into contact to an outer peripheral surface of a sheet feed roller, and separates a sheet fed by the sheet feed roller into one. The sheet separation unit comprises a hook for rotatably supporting the sheet separation unit in a main body casing of the sheet feed apparatus and an engaging claw that makes the sheet separation unit engage with the main body casing. Therefore, the sheet separation unit is held in the main body casing detachably.

A sheet transport device includes a sheet load tray on which a sheet is loaded, a side-edge positioning unit, and a regulating unit. The side-edge positioning unit comes into contact with a side edge of the sheet in a direction intersecting a sheet transport direction at an upper surface of the sheet load tray and positions the side edge of the sheet to a normal position. The regulating unit is provided in a rotatable manner about a rotation shaft at a lower surface of the sheet load tray and regulates an output position of the sheet by rotating a stopper of the regulating unit to a position where the stopper is capable of colliding with a downstream edge of the sheet to be output in an output direction when the side-edge positioning unit moves to a position corresponding to a minimum width of the sheet.

A sheet feeding apparatus, includes a moving portion configured to move one of a feeding portion and a stacking portion to switch between a contact state in which the feeding portion is in contact with a sheet on the stacking portion and a separation state in which the feeding portion is separated from the sheet; and a controller configured to control the moving portion to bring the feeding portion into the contact state at a time of start of a sheet feed job. The controller executes a first mode of controlling the moving portion to bring the feeding portion into the separation state, and executes a second mode of controlling the moving portion to maintain the feeding portion in the contact state when a sheet detector detects a sheet on the stacking portion after end of feeding of a final sheet in the sheet feed job.

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes a first oblique-feed unit and a second oblique-feed unit configured to convey the sheet while approaching the sheet to an abutment surface; a changeover unit configured to change over an abutment pressure of the first oblique-feed unit on the sheet; and a control unit configured to execute a first operation for driving the first oblique-feed unit at a first speed and the second oblique-feed unit at a second speed and a second operation for driving the first oblique-feed unit at a third speed higher than the first speed and the second oblique-feed unit at a fourth speed higher than the second speed after the sheet is abutted against the abutment surface by the first operation. The control unit controls the changeover unit so that the abutment pressure of the first oblique-feed unit in the second operation is higher than that in the first operation.

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes a stacking unit having a sheet, a feeding unit, a conveyance roller to convey a sheet fed by the feeding unit, a motor to drive the conveyance roller, a phase determiner, first and second controllers, and a discriminator. The feeding unit feeds the sheet. The phase determiner determines a motor rotor rotational phase. The first controller controls a drive current flowing in a motor winding to reduce a deviation between an instructed phase of the motor rotor and the determined rotational phase. The second controller controls to perform a first drive for driving the conveyance roller for a predetermined time before a feeding unit feed operation is started. The discriminator discriminates presence or absence of the sheet at a nip portion of the conveyance roller based on a value of a parameter corresponding to load torque applied to the rotor during the first drive.