Patent ID: 8540230

Claim:
A sheet feeding apparatus comprising: a sheet support portion configured to support a plurality of sheets; a forwardly or reversely rotatable feeding roller configured to send an uppermost sheet from among the sheets supported by the sheet support portion; a separation claw having pressing portions configured to press both ends of a sheet supported by the sheet support portion in the width direction thereof and orthogonal to a direction in which the sheet is fed, and configured to separate the uppermost sheet in response to a forward or reverse rotating of the feeding roller; a curvature formation portion configured to form a curvature so both ends, in a width direction of the sheet supported by the sheet support portion, become lower than a center portion thereof; and a control unit configured to control the feeding roller and the curvature formation portion to rotate the feeding roller in a direction opposite to the direction in which the sheet is fed, to remove the uppermost sheet from the separation claw, move the separation claw so that the pressing portions lie at a position separated from and lower than the uppermost sheet, and rotate the feeding roller in the direction in which the sheet is fed.