Patent ID: 8002265

Claim:
A sheet supply apparatus comprising: a sheet loading table on which a plurality of sheets are stacked, wherein the sheet loading table moves up and down along a stacking direction of the plurality of sheets; a suction conveyance mechanism which suctions a topmost sheet of the plurality of sheets stacked on the sheet loading table onto an suction surface by suctioning a top surface of the stacked sheets and conveys the suctioned sheet to a sheet conveyance path; an air blast mechanism which comprises an air outlet which movies up and down along a direction in which a sheet of the stacked sheets on the sheet loading table are floated up toward the sheet suction surface and blasts air toward a side of the stacked sheets from the air outlet; an outlet elevation mechanism which moves the air outlet to and from a first position at which the air outlet faces the side of the stacked sheets on the sheet loading table and a second position at which the air outlet faces a side of the sheet suctioned onto the suction surface; a suction detection sensor which detects whether a sheet is suctioned to the suction surface or not; a sheet supply detection sensor which detects a sheet being conveyed by the suction conveyance mechanism; and a control section which judges a sheet raising operation time point when the sheets stacked on the sheet loading table are floated up and a sheet separation time point when the sheet suctioned to the suction surface is separated, based on a presence or non presence of the sheet suctioned to the suction face detected by the suction detection sensor and a conveyance position of the sheet detected by the sheet supply detection sensor, and moves the air outlet to the first position at the sheet raising operation time point and to the second position at the sheet separation time point by controlling the outlet elevation mechanism, based on the judgments of the operation time points.