Patent ID: 7866483

Claim:
An apparatus for discriminating a kind of a sheet material, comprising: a first roller having a recessed portion; a second roller situated so that the sheet material can be deflected using the recessed portion; an elastic member coupled to the second roller and deformed as the sheet material situated to cover the recessed portion is pressed by the second roller and thereby deflected; and a deformation amount sensor for detecting a deformation amount of the elastic member, wherein the first roller is configured to rotate so that the recessed portion comes close to or moves away from the second roller, such that the sheet material is deflected when the second roller is close to the recessed portion, and the sheet material is not deflected when the second roller is at a distance from the recessed portion, and wherein the deformation amount sensor is configured to detect both a deformation amount of the elastic member when the sheet material is not deflected and a deformation amount of the elastic member when the sheet material is deflected, to discriminate the kind of the sheet material.