Automatic sheet feeding device having a miniaturized structure

Claim 1

An automatic sheet feeding device comprising: a sheet tray for stacking one or more sheets thereon; a substantially U shaped sheet guide passage defined between an outer guide plate and an inner guide plate, and having a sheet inlet and a sheet outlet; at least one pickup roller for drawing out one sheet from the one or more sheets stacked on the sheet tray, the at least one pickup roller being placed about the sheet inlet; a sheet separation means disposed at the sheet inlet for permitting only one sheet to pass therethrough; a sheet skew correction means including one pair of skew correction rollers for correcting a sheet obliquely advancing along the sheet guide passage and for transporting the sheet through the sheet outlet, the one pair of skew correction rollers starting to rotate immediately after the sheet fed through the sheet guide passage contacts the one pair of skew correction rollers so that the sheet collides with a contact point of the one pair of skew correction rollers and slackens in the sheet guide passage; and at least one idle roller disposed between the sheet separation means and the sheet skew correction means, the idle roller party protruding into the sheet guide passage to form a substantially straight path between the idle roller and the sheet skew correction means and a sheet turning path between the sheet separation means and the at least one idle roller, the straight path being inclined relative to the sheet turning path and extending substantially along a tangent line to an outer peripheral surface of the at least one idle roller, the tangent line passing through the contact point of the skew correction rollers.