An image recording apparatus includes a housing in which a conveying path is formed, a feed tray insertable into and removable from the housing and including an accommodating portion configured to accommodate sheet media in a stacked state, an image recording unit configured to record an image on one of the sheet media in the conveying path, a guide member provided at a facing portion of the housing which faces an end portion of the feed tray inserted into the housing, and configured to guide one of the sheet media in the accommodating portion to the conveying path, and a separator pivotally provided at the facing portion of the housing and configured to separate the sheet media guided by the guide member one by one.

A medium conveyance device includes a guiding member that is movably supported on a frame, a pick roller that is rotatably supported on the guiding member and that rotates to feed a medium that is placed on a tray to a feed roller, and a joint unit that transmits a rotation force from a drive shaft to the pick roller.

According to an embodiment, a sheet feeding mechanism includes a first elastic body. The first elastic body blocks a first reference line and a second reference line. The first elastic body has a first angle formed between the first elastic body and the first reference line, the first angle being an acute angle. The first reference line is a reference line along a take-out direction by the first roller. The second reference line is a reference line connecting a nip between the second roller and the third roller and a contact position of the first roller and a sheet.

A direction orthogonal to an attachment/detachment direction is defined as a first direction and a direction orthogonal to the attachment/detachment direction and to the first direction is defined as a second direction. A sheet feeding cassette includes a contact portion that comes into contact with a roller separation mechanism unit, the contact portion including a first inclined surface inclined to extend along a straight line including a component in the attachment/detachment direction and a component in the first direction. The roller separation mechanism unit includes a contacted portion that comes into contact with the contact portion, the contacted portion including a second inclined surface inclined to extend along a straight line including a component in the attachment/detachment direction and a component in the second direction.

An assembly to manufacture a roll of prepreg material. The assembly includes a moving system for picking a sheet of prepreg material from a stack of sheets and moving the sheet along a feed path. An alignment system aligns a leading edge of the sheets with a trailing edge of a roll of the prepreg material. A welding system connects the sheet to the roll.

According to an embodiment, a sheet feeding mechanism includes a first elastic body. The first elastic body blocks a first reference line and a second reference line. The first elastic body has a first angle formed between the first elastic body and the first reference line, the first angle being an acute angle. The first reference line is a reference line along a take-out direction by the first roller. The second reference line is a reference line connecting a nip between the second roller and the third roller and a contact position of the first roller and a sheet.

A sheet feed device includes a pair of sheet feed rollers, a pair of separation pads, and a first contact portion. The pair of sheet feed rollers are provided in alignment with an interval between them in a width direction perpendicular to a feeding direction in which sheets placed on a sheet placing portion are fed, and feed a sheet from the sheet placing portion. When an overlapping sheet overlaps under a target sheet that is in contact with the pair of sheet feed rollers, the pair of separation pads separate the overlapping sheet from the target sheet. The first contact portion is provided on the holder at a position between the pair of separation pads and projecting more than contact surfaces of the pair of separation pads, and comes in contact with the lower surface of the sheet.

According to an embodiment, a sheet supply device includes a stacking unit, a first roller, a second roller, and a stopper. The stacking unit has a stack surface on which sheets are stacked. The first roller conveys a sheet from the stacking unit in a conveying direction. The second roller conveys the sheet conveyed by the first roller. The stopper has an abutting surface. The stopper is rotatable around a rotation shaft along a width direction. The stopper rotates such that a posture of the stopper switches between a first and a second posture. The first posture has a first angle at which an angle between the abutting surface and the stack surface is an obtuse angle. The second posture has a second angle at which an angle between the abutting surface and the stack surface is an obtuse angle, the second angle being more than the first angle.

A sheet conveying device includes a pair of rollers including a first roller and a second roller to hold a sheet conveyed between the first and second rollers; a biasing member to bias the first roller toward the second roller; a biasing force changer to change a biasing force of the biasing member; control circuitry to, when a predetermined changing condition is met, cause the changer to change the biasing force and cause the rollers to convey the sheet; an operation detector to detect a changing operation of the changer; and a notification device to notify an abnormality of the changing operation when the operation detector detects the abnormality. When the operation detector detects the abnormality, the control circuitry performs sheet conveyance control to cause the rollers to convey the sheet without causing the changer to change the biasing force, regardless of whether the predetermined changing condition is met.

An assembly to manufacture a roll of prepreg material. The assembly includes a moving system for picking a sheet of prepreg material from a stack of sheets and moving the sheet along a feed path. An alignment system aligns a leading edge of the sheets with a trailing edge of a roll of the prepreg material. A welding system connects the sheet to the roll.