SHEET FEEDING APPARATUS

A sheet feeding apparatus which delivers successive topmost sheets of a stack of sheets into the range of advancing rolls in an electrostatic copying machine has a sheet feeding device using a cylindrical sleeve consisting of elastomeric material with a high coefficient of friction and and bearing against the topmost sheet of the stack. The sleeve is rotated intermittently by a drive in a direction to move the leading portion of the topmost sheet over a front stop and two corner separators into the range of the advancing rolls. Once the topmost sheet is engaged by the advancing rolls, it begins to rotate the sleeve because it is moved forwardly at a speed exceeding the peripheral speed of the sleeve under the action of its drive. The sleeve becomes disengaged from the topmost sheet in a predetermined angular position in which its lowermost point is still located above the topmost sheet. This insures that the sleeve cannot simultaneously engage the trailing portion of the topmost sheet and the next-following sheet of the stack. The disengagement of the sleeve from the topmost sheet is effected by a steel roller which orbits about the axis of the sleeve and engages the topmost sheet in the predetermined angular position of the sleeve. The roller is attached to a disk which is secured to and rotates with a metallic core surrounded by the sleeve.