| CPC B65H 1/18 (2013.01) [B65H 1/12 (2013.01); B65H 3/06 (2013.01); B65H 7/02 (2013.01); B65H 11/00 (2013.01); B65H 2601/122 (2013.01)] | 5 Claims |
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1. A sheet feeding apparatus, comprising:
a sheet stacking portion on which sheets are stacked;
a lift plate which is disposed on a bottom surface of the sheet stacking portion, the lift plate being ascendable-descendable about an upstream end part of the lift plate in a sheet feed direction;
an actuating segment which is disposed between the bottom surface and the lift plate, the actuating segment pivoting about a driving shaft extending in a direction orthogonal to the sheet feed direction so as to raise and lower a downstream end part of the lift plate in the sheet feed direction;
a driving unit which is coupled to the driving shaft, the driving unit configured to rotate the driving shaft to raise and lower the actuating segment;
a sheet feeding portion which is disposed above and opposite to the lift plate, the sheet feeding portion feeding sheets raised to a feeding portion by the lift plate;
a first detecting portion which detects a top surface of the sheets located at the feeding portion; and
a remaining amount detection portion which detects a remaining amount level of sheets stacked on the feeding portion, the remaining amount detecting portion including:
a detection piece of which a base end part is pivoted on the driving shaft, the detection piece being pivotable about the driving shaft;
a link mechanism which couples together the driving shaft and the detection piece at a coupling position where the lift plate is rotated by a predetermined angle from a lower limit position in a rotation direction, and integrally rotates the driving shaft and the detection piece;
a second detecting portion configured to detect whether or not, with the lift plate located at the feeding portion, the detection piece is present; and
a controller which determines the remaining amount level of the stacked sheets according to whether or not, with the first detecting portion detecting the top surface of the sheets, the second detecting portion is detecting the detection piece being present,
wherein
the link mechanism is configured to have a play allowing the detection piece to rotate by the predetermined angle with respect to the driving shaft, with the lift plate located at the lower limit position, and
when as a result of the driving shaft rotating forward the lift plate rotates by the predetermined angle to ascend, the link mechanism is coupled to eliminate the play so that the detection piece starts to rotate as the lift plate rotates, and when the detection piece ascends by a predetermined amount, the second detecting portion detects ascent of the detection piece to detect that the remaining amount of sheets is equal to or less than the predetermined amount.
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