Patent ID: 7380780

Claim:
A sheet supplying apparatus comprising: three or more sheet decks being connected in series, each of said three or more sheet decks having sheet stacking means for supporting the sheets thereon, sheet supplying means for supplying the sheets on said sheet stacking means, a sheet conveying path, which guides the sheets from a sheet deck disposed upstream to a sheet deck disposed downstream in a sheet feeding direction, sheet conveying means for conveying the sheets along said sheet conveying path, and a joining conveying path joining said sheet conveying path for guiding the sheets from said sheet stacking means to said sheet conveying path, wherein respective sheet conveying paths of said three or more sheet decks are connected in series; and controlling means for controlling a sheet feeding operation of said three or more sheet decks, wherein said controlling means judges a position of a sheet deck, which supplies a preceding sheet prior to a sheet supplied in predetermined order when the sheets are supplied in order from each sheet deck, wherein when the position of the judged sheet deck is disposed downstream of a sheet deck, which supplies the sheet in the predetermined order, said controlling means controls so as to pre-feed the sheet upstream of a joining point of said sheet conveying path and said joining conveying path in the sheet deck of said preceding sheet, and when the position of the judged sheet deck is disposed upstream of a sheet deck, which supplies the sheet in the predetermined order, said controlling means controls so as not to pre-feed the sheet.