Abstract: A paper feeder comprises a controllably drivable resilient body in frictional contact with a feed roller. A preliminary feeder is provided for supplying a sheet of paper towards an area of the frictional contact from a stack of paper. The roller is driven in a first sense of rotation to feed the supplied paper away from the preliminary feeder. The resilient body is usually driven in a second sense towards the preliminary feeder at the frictional contact area and selectively set free on feeding a thin or flexible sheet. The resilient body may further be driven in the first sense on feeding either a thin or flexible sheet or a ground sheet on which another sheet of paper is attached.

Abstract: A paper feeder comprising a roller-belt feeder unit for feeding sheets of paper or the like one by one from a stack thereof to a utilization device and further comprising an auxiliary belt in contact with the feed roller of the feeder unit on its upper half circumferential surface for pressing the leading edge of the lowermost sheet of paper down to the feed roller. The auxiliary belt is substantially parallel at the area of contact to the main belt comprised by the feeder unit to feed the superposed sheet back to the stack and forms at the area of contact with the lowermost sheet an acute angle smaller than another angle similarly formed by the main belt with the lowermost sheet. The coefficient of friction is the greatest for the roller and smallest for the auxiliary belt. The auxiliary belt may be kept still, passively driven by the roller, or positively driven either in the same or in the reversed sense as the main belt.