A recording apparatus includes a recording head that performs recording; a feeding roller that feeds out a medium that has been set, a transport roller that transports the medium fed out by the feeding roller toward a facing position facing the recording head; an auxiliary roller that is provided between the feeding roller and the transport roller and that assists in the transport of the medium; a motor that generates a driving force; and a drive train that is configured to transmit the driving force of the motor to the auxiliary roller and the transport roller.

A sheet feeder includes a separation roller, a retard roller, and a return latch. The separation roller rotates in a forward direction to separate a sheet and transport the separated sheet in a sheet transport direction. The retard roller forms, together with the separation roller, a nip point and rotates in a reverse direction to return a sheet in a direction opposite to the sheet transport direction. The return latch moves from a retracted position to a protruding position to return a sheet remaining after separation by the separation roller to a position upstream of the nip point in the sheet transport direction. The return latch, when at the retracted position, is retracted from a sheet transport path and, when at the protruding position, protrudes to the sheet transport path.

A sheet conveyer having a sheet tray, a tray-driving mechanism, a conveyance guide, a feed roller, a separator, a conveyer, a conveyer-driving mechanism, a controller, and a sheet sensor to detect sheets on the sheet tray, is provided. The conveyer-driving mechanism includes a transmission-active portion and a transmission-passive portion. A conveying velocity to convey the sheets by the conveyer is higher than a conveying velocity to convey the sheets by the feed roller and the separator. The transmission-active portion and the transmission-passive portion are rotatable about a transmission axis. The transmission-passive portion rotates passively by being pushed by the transmission-active portion. After the sheet sensor detects absence of the sheets, and before the transmission-passive portion starts rotating passively, the controller conducts a specific action to move the sheet tray downward by controlling the tray-driving mechanism.

A conveyance rotating body is rotatably supported by a support member. A second rotational axis at a rotation center of a driven transmission member is disposed at a position different from a position of a first rotational axis. When a feeding unit is attached to a sheet feeding apparatus, a drive transmission member and the driven transmission member engage with each other. When a driving force is transmitted from the drive transmission member to the driven transmission member, the feeding unit receives a force in an attachment direction of the feeding unit and is positioned with respect to the sheet feeding apparatus.

A singling apparatus and a system for singling sheet material comprises a sheet store for receiving a sheet stack of sheets to be singled. The sheet store includes a singling gap, which is formed and arranged to deliver a sheet out of the sheet store to a transport mechanism. The singling apparatus comprises further a singling device comprising a rotating separation roller wherein the separation roller comprises partially on its rotational surface a contact area to periodically contact and transport the sheet from the sheet store to the transport mechanism. A position control device of the singling apparatus is coupled to the separation roller and comprises an alignment indication being in correlation with an angle position of the contact area of the separation roller and indicates the alignment of the contact area to the singling gap and/or the sheet.

A driving force adjusting pick-up device, includes: a transmitting path; a pick roller disposed in the transmitting path for transmitting papers; an actuating unit connected with the pick roller to adjust the normal force applied to the paper; a separating unit disposed in the transmitting path and located downstream to the pick roller; and a driving force measuring unit which includes a first speed measuring roller disposed upstream to the separating unit and a second speed measuring roller disposed downstream to the separating unit for measuring transmitting speed of the paper upstream and downstream to the separating unit; wherein the driving force measuring unit evaluates the driving force applied to the paper by comparing transmitting speed of the paper upstream and downstream to the separating unit.

An image forming apparatus has: a cassette which stores a sheet; a pickup roller which picks up the sheet inside the cassette; a feed roller which feeds the sheet picked up by the pickup roller toward an image forming portion; and a retard roller which is pressed against the feed roller and forms a separation nip. In addition, the image forming apparatus has a conveying guide which guides the sheet picked up by the pickup roller to the separation nip. A first guide member of the conveying guide is configured to be slidable in a drawing direction when the feed roller is replaced, and the conveying guide is formed of a material whose property of light transmittance of light having a wavelength of 360 nm to 420 nm is 80% or more. The feed roller is detachable from the one end of a shaft in a state in which the cassette is drawn out along the rail and the conveying guide is slid in the drawing direction.

A paper feeder, includes: a sheet storage that stores sheets; a pick roller that delivers the sheets stored in the sheet storage to a downstream side of a conveyance path; a pair of conveyance rollers that is located on a downstream side of the pick roller in the conveyance path and conveys the sheets delivered from the pick roller to further downstream side in the conveyance path; a drive source that drives the pair of conveyance rollers; and a hardware processor that cleans the pair of conveyance rollers by driving the drive source to rotate the pair of conveyance rollers in a state of being in contact with each other, when the pick roller cannot deliver sheets.

A sheet feeding device includes a detachable separation unit, a conveyance unit, a guide member, an urging member, and an opening and closing member. The feeding unit feeds a stored sheet. The separation unit separates sheets fed by the feeding unit one by one. The conveyance unit conveys the sheet. Urged by the urging member, the guide member guides the sheet toward the conveyance unit and rotates about a first rotating shaft. The opening and closing member opens and closes. In a state in which the opening and closing member is closed, the guide member is positioned in a first position in which the guide member forms a conveyance path. In a process in which the opening and closing member is opened, a free end of the guide member moves upwardly about the first rotating shaft, by using an urging force, from the first to a second position.

A method and apparatus for processing documents are provided. The apparatus includes a feeder for receiving a packet of a plurality of documents and separating the documents to serially feed the documents to a scanner. A retard adjacent the feeder is operable in first and second positions. In the first position the retard forms a nip with the feeder so that the retard is operable to impede the progress of one or more documents in the packet while the feeder feeds one of the documents in the packet. In the second position, the retard is spaced apart from the feeder to form a gap between the feeder and the retard. The system further includes a sensor for detecting a characteristic of the documents in a packet indicative of whether the number of documents in the packet exceeds a predetermined threshold. A drive mechanism automatically drives the retard pad between the first and second positions in response to the detected characteristic.