A medium conveying apparatus includes medium conveying apparatus includes a housing including a locking portion, a first supporting portion and a second supporting portion, a feed roller, a separation roller located to face the feed roller, and a guide mechanism including a locked portion locked with the locking portion, a first shaft portion supported by the first supporting portion, a second shaft portion supported by the second supporting portion, and a conveyance guide portion to regulate a medium fed between the feed roller and the separation roller. The guide mechanism is swingably supported by the housing about the first shaft portion in a state where the locked portion is locked with the locking portion. The guide mechanism is swingably supported by the housing about the second shaft portion in a state where a locking of the locking portion and the locked portion is released.

A medium conveying apparatus includes a feed roller to feed a medium, a separation roller located to face the feed roller, a regulating guide provided to be movable between a first position where contact of the medium with the feed roller and the separation roller is regulated and a second position where contact of the medium with the feed roller and the separation roller is not regulated, and a processor to control the feed roller, the separation roller, and the regulating guide. When feeding of a medium is started, the processor controls the feed roller, the separation roller, and the regulating guide such that the feed roller feeds the medium after the regulating guide moves from the first position toward the second position and the separation roller contacts the medium.

A sheet feeder includes a stacker to stack sheets and a separation and conveyance device to separate one sheet from the sheets fed from the stacker and convey the sheets one by one. The separation and conveyance device includes a feed roller that rotates in a direction to feed the sheet and a separation roller to press against the feed roller via the sheet. The separation roller has an apparent hardness different from an apparent hardness of the feed roller and is configured to form an indentation in the feed roller.

A sheet feed portion feeds a sheet by performing a pickup operation in a cycle in which a pickup rotary member is switched from a released state to a contact state and then switched to the released state. A detection unit detects the sheet at a position downstream of the sheet feed portion in the sheet feeding direction. A control unit is capable of executing a first feed mode in which a first feed process of carrying out a pickup operation is executed, or a second feed mode in which the first feed process is executed and then a second feed process of carrying out an additional pickup operation is executed. The mode to be executed is determined based on a time when the sheet is detected by the detection unit and a length of the sheet.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image processing apparatus comprises a sheet feed cassette, an operation lever, a sliding section, a sheet lifting and lowering tray, and a main body rail section. The sheet feed cassette is housed to be capable of being pulled out from an apparatus main body. The operation lever is arranged at the side of the sheet feed cassette and is rotatable around a shaft positioned at the middle in a longitudinal direction. The sliding section is arranged at the rear side of the shaft of the operation lever. The sheet lifting and lowering tray can place a sheet and adjust an inclination thereof in conjunction with the operation lever. The main body rail section is arranged in the apparatus main body and guides running of the sliding section at the time of pulling out the sheet feed cassette.

A document feeding device include a feeding unit feeding documents from a batch of documents on a placing tray, a separation member in pressure contact with the feeding unit and separating documents one by one, a separation swinging member supporting the separation member and displaceable in a thickness direction of the batch of documents, and a movable member supported as to be displaceable with respect to the separation swing member in the thickness direction of the batch of documents, and entering a space formed between the separation member and a document.

A paper feeder includes a lift plate, a pickup roller, a feed roller, a retard roller, a rotation-count detection sensor, and a control unit. The rotation-count detection sensor outputs a rotation-count detection signal. The rotation-count detection signal indicates a rotation count of the retard roller. The control unit detects the rotation count of the retard roller based on the rotation-count detection signal. The lift plate separates from the pickup roller before the control unit detects the rotation count of the retard roller. The feed roller is driven when the control unit detects the rotation count of the retard roller. The retard roller is in abutting contact with the feed roller when the control unit detects the rotation count of the retard roller. The control unit determines whether replacement of the retard roller is necessary or not, based on the detected rotation count of the retard roller.

A sheet feeding device includes: a feeding unit that is provided to be movable in a forward-backward direction to move forward or backward relative to a sheet placing unit on which a sheet is placed, and feeds the sheet; a moving unit that moves the feeding unit in the forward-backward direction; a contact unit that is provided to be movable, with which the sheet placed on the sheet placing unit is brought into contact; a limitation unit that limits movement of the contact unit; and a releasing unit that, when the moving unit moves the feeding unit in a direction away from the sheet placing unit, with the movement of the feeding unit, releases limitation on the movement of the contact unit by the limitation unit.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image processing apparatus comprises a sheet feed cassette, an operation lever, a sliding section, a sheet lifting and lowering tray, and a main body rail section. The sheet feed cassette is housed to be capable of being pulled out from an apparatus main body. The operation lever is arranged at the side of the sheet feed cassette and is rotatable around a shaft positioned at the middle in a longitudinal direction. The sliding section is arranged at the rear side of the shaft of the operation lever. The sheet lifting and lowering tray can place a sheet and adjust an inclination thereof in conjunction with the operation lever. The main body rail section is arranged in the apparatus main body and guides running of the sliding section at the time of pulling out the sheet feed cassette.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes an opening/closing unit including a stacking portion, a moving unit including a feed roller and a moving member supporting the feed roller, an urging portion, and a transmitting portion to transmit urging force of the urging portion to the moving member. The opening/closing unit presses and moves the moving unit in the second direction against the urging force while the opening/closing unit moves from the open position to the closed position. A force that the opening/closing unit receives from the moving unit in a state where the opening/closing unit is at the closed position is smaller than a maximum force that the opening/closing unit receives from the moving unit that is urged in the first direction by the urging portion while the opening/closing unit moves from the open position to the closed position.