Patent ID: 8641035

Claim:
A sheet conveying apparatus, comprising: a sheet housing unit that houses a plurality of sheets in a stacked manner; a sheet conveying unit that conveys a sheet; a sheet pick-up unit that picks up, at a pick-up position, an outermost one of the sheets housed in the sheet housing unit by applying a conveying force to the outermost sheet for conveying the outermost sheet to a sheet conveying unit side; a separating and conveying unit that, when a next sheet is conveyed to the sheet conveying unit and overlaps with the outermost sheet to which the conveying force is applied by the sheet pick-up unit, separates the next sheet from the outermost sheet by applying a conveying force in a direction opposite to a sheet conveying direction to the next sheet or by applying a stopping force to the next sheet, and conveys only the outermost sheet to the sheet conveying unit; a sheet-conveyance-movement detecting unit that detects presence or absence of movement of a sheet in the conveying direction, wherein: the sheet-conveyance-movement detecting unit is arranged at a position same as or near a separation portion in the conveying direction, opposing to the separating and conveying unit, the sheet-conveyance-movement detecting unit and the separating and conveying unit define a separation nip through which sheets are conveyed, and the separation portion is located downstream of the pick-up position, and is an area where a separation action of the separating and conveying unit works; and a guide plate which is arranged at a position opposing a roller on the sheet-conveyance-movement detecting unit by interposing an original sheet when the original sheet is present at the separation nip, the guide plate includes a friction member on a surface thereof opposing the roller on the sheet-conveyance-movement detecting unit, wherein a coefficient of friction between the original sheet and the friction member is greater as compared to a coefficient of friction between the original sheet and the guide plate.