Feed cassette

Claim 1

A feed cassette for sheets of copy material comprising: a cassette body having a feeding end past which copy material moves as it is fed from the cassette; two side plates mounted on said body, at least one of which is movable along said body toward and away from the other side plate to accommodate different sizes of copy material therebetween; two vertically movable separating pawls for separating the copy material as it is fed, said separating pawls being connected to said side plates for respectively engaging opposite corners of the copy material at the leading edge thereof adjacent to said feeding end of said body; inner plate means positioned between said side plates for supporting the copy material, said inner plate means including a plurality of inner plates, wherein said inner plates have ends disposed adjacent said feed end of said body, and extend rearwardly to support the copy material; means connecting one of said inner plates to said movable side plate for movement therewith in the direction of movement of said movable side plate while permitting said one inner plate to move independently with respect to said movable side plate in a vertical direction; means for mounting the remainder of said plurality of inner plates within said cassette to permit vertical movement of said inner plates; means mounted within said cassette for urging said ends of said inner plates upwardly, to thereby urge the leading edge of the uppermost sheet of copy material against said separating pawls; and means for maintaining said ends of said inner plates at substantially the same relative height; whereby, when said movable side plate is moved to accommodate a different size copy material, the associated separating pawl and inner plate are also moved so that copy material separation is effected uniformly regardless of the size of copy material used.