There is provided a feed apparatus including a support unit, a feed roller, a swingable arm to support the feed roller, a guide unit, a movable member movable to a retracted position and a protruding position at which the movable member can abut against the sheet supported by the support unit, a driving source, driving transmission units; and a contact-separating mechanism to move the feed roller to a separated position and an abutment position at which the feed roller abuts against the sheet supported by the support unit. In a state in which the movable member is the protruding position and the feed roller is the separated position, a time required to start feeding of the sheet by the feed roller moved from the separated position to the abutment position is longer than a time required to shift the movable member from the protruding position to the retracted position.

There is provided a stacking apparatus capable of stably conveying and stacking sheets without occurrence of damage or buckling of the sheets in the structure of discharging the curled sheets one by one. In regard to each of a plurality of clamp guides which project toward stacking trays from conveyance means to guide sheets S, the projecting position varies in accordance with a size and an amount of stacked sheets Sa on the stack trays. The stacking tray comprises an inclined surface and a curved surface. An upper guide is located to face the inclined surface by a predetermined interval, and the upper guide is located not to face the curved surface or is located to face it by an interval larger than a predetermined interval.

A recording material feeding device includes a stacking portion, a driving source, a holding member, a torque limiter for limiting transmission of a driving torque from the driving source to the stacking portion in a case that the driving source rotates in a state in which the holding member holds the position of the stacking portion; a storing portion for storing information on a holding state of the holding member; and a controller for controlling the driving source to rotate at a rotational speed slower when the information is information indicating that the holding member holds the position of the stacking portion than when the information is information indicating that the holding member does not hold the position of the stacking portion.

A bi-directional paper pickup mechanism includes a pickup roller, a fastening structure, an input shaft, a first ratchet element, a second ratchet element, an actuating unit, a first transmission rotor and a second transmission rotor. The pickup roller has an inner space. The fastening structure is disposed in the inner space. The input shaft is accommodated in the inner space, and one end of the input shaft is pivotally connected to the fastening structure. The first ratchet element is mounted around the input shaft. The second ratchet element is mounted around the one end of the input shaft. The actuating unit is fastened around a middle of the input shaft to synchronously rotate with the input shaft. The first transmission rotor is mounted around the one end of the input shaft. The second transmission rotor is mounted around the other end of the input shaft.

An image forming apparatus is configured such that in a case where images are to be formed on a first surface of a preceding sheet, on a first surface of a succeeding sheet fed to the first conveyance path succeeding to the preceding sheet and on a second surface of the preceding sheet, a first conveyance member is stopped without reversing the preceding sheet to a second conveyance path in a case where the image has been formed on the first surface of the preceding sheet and permission of preparing the image to be formed on the first surface of the succeeding sheet is not issued yet. The first conveyance member restarts conveyance of the preceding sheet to the second conveyance path based on timing when an image forming unit starts preparing the image to be formed on the first surface of the succeeding sheet.

A medium conveying apparatus includes a torque limiter provided on a rotation axis of the separation roller, a unit including a first gear, a second gear provided on the rotation axis, and a third gear provided between the first gear and the second gear. The separation roller is pressed toward a feed roller side by a force generated by the torque limiter. The first gear rotates in a direction for generating a force for separating the separation roller from the feed roller. The third gear is a two-stage gear. The number of teeth of a gear on the second gear side of the third gear is more than the number of teeth of a gear on the first gear side of the third gear.

A document conveyance apparatus includes a feed roller, a first and a second conveyance rollers, a conveyance shaft, an arm portion rotatably moving the feed roller to a standby position to a feeding position, a transmission portion transmitting rotation of the conveyance roller shaft to the arm portion, and a torque limiter. The feed roller and the first conveyance roller rotate in a conveyance direction when the conveyance roller shaft rotates in a first direction, and the feed roller moves from a feeding position to a standby position when the conveyance roller shaft rotates in a second direction. When a document fed by the second conveyance roller moves through a nip portion, a transmission portion does not transmit rotation of the first conveyance roller rotated in the second direction by the separation roller to an arm portion by operation of the torque limiter.

According to one embodiment, a sheet conveying device includes a roller, a motor, a clutch, and a torque generator. The roller conveys a sheet. The motor is a driving source. The clutch connects or disconnects drive of the motor with respect to the roller. The torque generator applies a torque to the roller.

A liquid ejection apparatus includes a conveying unit, a winding unit, a printing unit, and a rotation control unit. The conveying unit is configured to intermittently convey a printing medium by a predetermined feed amount. The winding unit is configured to wind the printing medium conveyed by the conveying unit. The printing unit is configured to perform printing on the conveyed printing medium. The rotation control unit is configured to control the winding unit to rotate in a winding direction at a predetermined timing after the conveying unit has started to convey the printing medium intermittently, and then cause the winding unit to rotate in a reverse direction opposite to the winding direction.

A shaft on which a torque limiter is mounted includes a rotation restricting portion. The rotation restricting portion is inserted into and engaged with an engaging portion of the torque limiter. The rotation restricting portion is provided with an outer circumferential portion which is projected in an outer diameter direction from an outer circumference of the shaft and of which an outer circumferential surface is formed parallel with an outer circumferential surface of the shaft and an engaging portion connected to the outer circumferential portion and engaging with the engaging portion of the torque limiter. The engaging portion of the rotation restricting portion is provided with a tip portion of a R shape opposing the engaging portion of the torque limiter, and a width thereof in a direction perpendicular to an inserting direction into the engaging portion of the torque limiter is a width capable of being inserted into the engaging portion of the torque limiter.