A sheet containing system includes a containing member, a feed device, an ascending device, and a powder applying device. The containing member has a wall portion and is to contain a sheet. The feed device feeds the sheet to an outside of the containing member. The ascending device moves up the sheet contained in the containing member toward the feed device. The powder applying device is provided in the wall portion disposed on a downstream side in the containing member in a transport direction of the sheet. The powder applying device applies powder to an end portion of the sheet on the downstream side in the transport direction of the sheet.

To provide a rotating shaft with which flexibility of forming a bend is increased, and the strength is increased while reducing the amount of material. A V-shaped rotating shaft formed by bending sheet metal. An angle formed on an inner side of a bent portion is less than 90.

An elastic body portion includes an inner circumferential portion and an outer circumferential portion which serves as an outer circumferential side with respect to the inner circumferential portion and a space portion between the inner circumferential portion and the outer circumferential portion, and a plurality of joining portions which join the inner circumferential portion and the outer circumferential portion to each other in the space portion, in which at least a portion of each of the joining portions has a curved shape, and in which the joining portions are each joined to the inner circumferential portion and the outer circumferential portion such that connecting portions between the joining portions and the inner circumferential portion and connecting portions between the joining portions and the outer circumferential portion do not form acute angles in the space portion.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet supporting portion including a supporting surface, an abutment portion against which a leading edge of the sheet abuts, a feeding rotator configured to feed the sheet, a first friction member provided on the supporting surface so as to face the feeding rotator, the first friction member including a first friction surface having a static friction coefficient greater than that of the supporting surface, a trailing end supporting portion configured to support a trailing end portion of the sheet curved upward, and a second friction member disposed upstream of the first friction member in the sheet feeding direction on the supporting surface, the second friction member including a second friction surface which has a static friction coefficient greater than that of the supporting surface and is configured to be in contact with the sheet supported by the supporting surface.

A document conveying apparatus includes a first conveying roller for conveying a document stacked on the document tray, a second conveying roller, provided at a downstream side with respect to the first conveying roller, for conveying a document stacked on the document tray, a separation roller, provided at a downstream side with respect to the second conveying roller, for performing separation operation of the document, a driving force transmission mechanism for transmitting the driving force to a driving shaft of the first conveying roller, a driving shaft of the second conveying roller, and a driving shaft of the separation roller, and a first blocking mechanism, provided between the first conveying roller and the driving shaft of the first conveying roller, for blocking a driving force transmitted to the driving shaft of the first conveying roller, for a first certain period of time.

A stacking apparatus for value documents, having a stack deposit device and a braking device which is arranged along the transport path of the value documents immediately before the stack deposit device. On the transport shaft of the braking device at least one driving roller is firmly mounted and at least one roller rotatably supported on the transport shaft. At least one cam roller is firmly mounted on a braking shaft of the braking device and at least one eccentric roller. By a rotation of the braking shaft, the eccentric roller can electively be brought in engagement with the opposing driving roller so that a value document becomes clamped between these, or be brought out of engagement with the opposing driving roller, so that the value document is no longer clamped between these, but rather is brakable by the engagement between the cam roller and the rotatably supported roller.

A sheet feeding unit, attached to a sheet feeding apparatus that feeds a sheet, includes an endless belt, first and second rotary members, and a holding device. The endless belt contacts a sheet stacked on a stacking device to feed the sheet. The first and second rotary members contact an inner periphery of the endless belt to support the endless belt. The second rotary member faces, via the endless belt, a separation device that separates the sheet from the endless belt. The holding device holds the first and second rotary members. The endless belt includes protruding and depressed portions on the inner periphery. The second rotary member includes protruding and depressed driving portions that mesh with the protruding and depressed portions to transmit a driving force to the endless belt to, in turn, rotate the endless belt to feed the sheet in contact with the endless belt.

A sheet conveying apparatus, including: a sheet storage portion; a roller to convey sheets by rotating about a rotation axis; an arm rotatably supporting the roller and pivotable about an arm pivot axis; a presser plate pivotable about a presser-plate pivot axis; and a pivot mechanism to pivot the presser plate such that a contact angle, which is an angle defined upstream in a sheet conveyance direction by the arm and an uppermost one of the sheets contacting the roller, is less than a maximum angle in a time period from a sheet maximally loaded state to a sheet minimally loaded state, the maximum angle being an angle defined upstream in the conveyance direction by: only one sheet assumed to be placed on the presser plate which is the presser plate in the maximally loaded state; and the arm the roller of which contacts the one sheet.

A sheet-feeding device includes: a first feeding roller configured to contact a sheet accommodated in a sheet-accommodation portion to feed the sheet; a second feeding roller movable between a non-feeding position and a feeding position; a driving source configured to generate a rotational driving force to the first feeding roller; a transmission portion configured to transmit the rotational driving force to the second feeding roller; a first sensor; a second sensor; and a roller actuating portion. The roller actuating portion is configured to: move the second feeding roller from the non-feeding position to the feeding position in a case where the second detector detects rotation of the first feeding roller is stopped during a sheet-feeding operation; and move the second feeding roller from the feeding position to the non-feeding position in a case where the first sensor detects the sheet-feeding operation is completed for the sheet.

A retarding roller (a roller) is formed of a synthetic rubber (an industrial rubber material) such as ethylene propylene diene M-class rubber (EPDM) or polyurethane, or alternatively, silicone. The roller core of the retarding roller is cylindrical. M arc-shaped long holes (where M is an integer greater than or equal to 4) are formed in each of N layers (where N is an integer greater than or equal to 2) from a first layer (an outermost layer) to an Nth layer (an innermost layer) which are circular and concentric to a center axial line. In each layer, long holes are formed such that spokes in adjacent layers (an ith layer and an i+1th layer, where i is an integer from 1 to N1) do not overlap in the circumferential direction.