A sheet conveying apparatus, including: a base body having a conveyor surface; a separating roller configured to rotate about a first rotation axis parallel to a width direction of the conveyor surface and to convey a sheet downstream in a conveyance direction orthogonal to the width direction; a separating piece opposed to the separating roller and configured to cooperate with the separating roller to separate sheets being conveyed one by one; an attachment member removably attached to the base body at a position at which the attachment member is opposed to the separating roller, so as to form a part of the conveyor surface; a holder holding the separating piece and supported by the attachment member so as to be movable toward and away from the separating roller; and a first urging member provided between the attachment member and the holder for urging the separating piece toward the separating roller.

A media processing device includes: a hopper for supporting a stack of media units (e.g. cards), the hopper including (i) a gate wall configured to abut leading edges of the media units and (ii) an outlet defined at an end of the gate wall; a pick roller at the outlet for engaging an outer one of the media units in the stack and dispensing the outer media unit from the hopper to a media processing path; the gate wall including a flexible gate at the outlet, the flexible gate configured to deflect toward the media processing path responsive to the outer media unit being driven into the flexible gate by the pick roller, wherein the outer media unit deflects when passing by the flexible gate, permitting the outer media unit to be dispensed from the hopper.

A sheet feeder comprises a feed deck for supporting a stack of sheets (65) to be fed. The feed deck may be formed by a bed of freely spinning rollers. A feed block (62) comprises a friction pad (66) that projects from the bottom of the feed block (62) towards a drive belt (42) to define a gate therebetween. The drive belt (42) frictionally engages the underside of a bottom sheet of the stack (65) and urges the sheet towards the gate. The feed block (62) comprises a front face (72) immediately upstream from the gate, which is inclined at a sharp angle to the feed direction. The friction pad (66) comprises a lower face that is substantially parallel to the feed direction and does not intersect the plane of the feed block front face (72).

A separation member separates a sheet, conveyed by a separation roller in a conveying direction, from remaining sheets supported by a support member. At least one of a first guide and a second guide is a movable guide which moves in a width direction orthogonal to the conveying direction to increase and decrease a distance therebetween. An urging member is retained, at one end thereof, by a base portion in an elastically deformed state and urges the separation member toward the separation roller. In response to the movable guide decreasing the distance between the first guide and the second guide, an engaging mechanism reduces elastic deformation of the urging member by moving the base portion in a first direction. In response to the movable guide increasing the distance, the engaging mechanism moves the base portion in a second direction opposite to the first direction.

A sheet conveying apparatus, including: a base body having a conveyor surface; a separating roller configured to rotate about a first rotation axis parallel to a width direction of the conveyor surface and to convey a sheet downstream in a conveyance direction orthogonal to the width direction; a separating piece opposed to the separating roller and configured to cooperate with the separating roller to separate sheets being conveyed one by one; an attachment member removably attached to the base body at a position at which the attachment member is opposed to the separating roller, so as to form a part of the conveyor surface; a holder holding the separating piece and supported by the attachment member so as to be movable toward and away from the separating roller; and a first urging member provided between the attachment member and the holder for urging the separating piece toward the separating roller.