Sheet feeding devices

Claim 1

A sheet feeding device comprising: a plurality of support surfaces each for supporting a stack of sheets; a sheet separating device for each support surface, the sheet separating device comprising a shaft, a plurality of first rollers mounted on the shaft symmetrically about the center of the shaft, a plurality of second rollers mounted opposite the first rollers for rotation about an axis substantially parallel to the shaft, means for supporting the shaft for movement towards and away from the axis, means acting on the center of the shaft for biasing the shaft toward the axis, and means for driving one of the plurality of rollers to forward a sheet between the nip of the roller; means for each support surface for feeding the top sheet of the stack to the corresponding sheet separating device; a single sheet conveyor; guide means for guiding sheets from all the sheet separating devices to the single sheet conveyor; and, sheet sensing means located downstream of the single sheet conveyor for stopping operation of the sheet separating device and the sheet forwarding device of one of the support surfaces during passage of a sheet past the sheet sensing means.