Patent ID: 8740214

Claim:
A sheet feeding apparatus, comprising: a tray which supports sheets; an air blowing portion which blows air to the sheets supported by the tray to blow the sheets upwards; a plurality of suction conveyer belts which are arranged in parallel with each other and in parallel with a sheet conveying direction, and which draw, with negative pressure, a sheet lifted by the air blown by the air blowing portion and convey the sheet; a sheet surface level detecting member which is arranged between the plurality of suction conveyer belts so as to come into abutment against a topmost sheet of the sheets blown upwards by the air blowing portion, the sheet surface level detecting member being retractably moved into a storage portion between the plurality of suction conveyer belts through an opening portion provided on the storage portion; and a pair of sheet guiding ribs which is provided on the storage portion downstream in the sheet conveying direction of a sheet suction region of the plurality of suction conveyer belts, and arranged so as to extend downstream from both edge portions of the opening portion in a width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveying direction at positions corresponding to both sides of the sheet surface level detecting member; and a guide member which is provided downstream of the sheet suction region of a sheet suction surface of the plurality of suction conveyer belts and which guides a lower surface of a sheet separated from the plurality of suction conveyer belts after being sucked and conveyed by the plurality of suction conveyer belts, wherein the sheet guiding ribs are provided in a region ranging from a position downstream of the sheet suction region of the sheet suction surface in the sheet conveying direction and upstream of the guide member in the sheet conveying direction to above the guide member.