Brother Kogyo Kabushiki-kaisha

Hideaki Utagawa

Kotaro Kurokawa

Tetsuo Ito

A sheet conveying device includes a conveyor for conveying a sheet along a predetermined conveyance path and a feeder unit for supporting the sheet to be fed to the conveyor. The conveyor includes a first guide part for guiding the sheet toward a downstream side in the conveying direction in a direction inclined at a downward gradient, a second guide part for guiding the sheet from the first guide part toward a further downstream side in a direction inclined at an upward gradient, a suction roller arranged at the first guide part for conveying the sheet supported by the feeder unit toward the downstream side, and a first conveyance roller arranged at the second guide part and for conveying the sheet conveyed by the suction roller toward the downstream side one at a time.

Sheet conveying device and image reading apparatus

A sheet separating apparatus includes: a stacking part including a sheet support surface; a separation roller; a flexible member; a holding member to which a second end portion of the flexible member is fixed and urging the second end portion toward the separation roller; and an abutting part abuttable on the flexible member at an intermediate position. The flexible member includes an auxiliary support surface, provided upstream from the intermediate position, configured to support a downstream end portion of a sheet supported on the sheet support surface in a conveying direction and bendable in a direction getting away from the separation roller, and a friction surface provided downstream from the intermediate position and faces the separation roller to be contactable with the separation roller for separating the sheet one at a time in cooperation with the separation roller.

Growing community of inventors

Hadano, Japan

Hideaki Utagawa