Patent ID: 8882107

Claim:
A sheet conveyance device comprising: a loading section on which a sheet is loaded; a paper feed section configured to allow the sheet loaded on the loading section to transfer in a conveyance direction to supply the sheet to a sheet conveyance path; a separation section arranged on an opposite side of the sheet conveyance path from the paper feed section and configured to independently supply the sheet loaded on the loading section to the sheet conveyance path on a sheet-by-sheet basis; a first conveyance roller pair arranged downstream of the paper feed section in the conveyance direction and configured to convey a sheet downstream in the conveyance direction; a second conveyance roller pair arranged downstream of the first conveyance roller pair in the conveyance direction and configured to convey the sheet supplied to the sheet conveyance path in the conveyance direction; a first sheet sensor arranged at a first point between the paper feed section and the first conveyance roller pair and configured to detect presence of any sheet at the first point; a multi feed sensor arranged between the paper feed section and the first conveyance roller pair and configured to vary a level of its output signal according to the number of overlapped sheets supplied to the sheet conveyance path; and a sheet conveyance controller configured to control sheet conveyance operation by the paper feed section, the separation section, the first conveyance roller pair, and the second conveyance roller pair and perform multi feed determination as to whether or not multi feed occurs on the basis of a level of the output signal from the multi feed sensor, wherein when a front end of a sheet that the first sheet sensor has detected at the first point arrives at the second conveyance roller pair, the sheet conveyance controller suspends driving of the paper feed section and starts performing the multi feed determination, the first conveyance roller pair and the second conveyance roller pair driving during the multi feed determination, and when occurrence of multi feed is determined, the sheet conveyance controller suspends each driving of the first conveyance roller pair and the second conveyance roller pair.