Patent ID: 7306221

Claim:
A sheet conveying apparatus comprising a skew feed correcting device for correcting skew feed of a sheet conveyed using a sheet center as a reference, the skew feed correcting device comprising: a first conveying guide supporting one side edge portion of the sheet; aligning means provided in the first conveying guide and having an abutment portion against which a side edge portion of the sheet is brought into abutment and a first rotary roller pair which conveys the sheet to abut the abutment portion; contact-separation means which causes the first rotary roller pair to effect separation or contact; a second conveying guide supporting the other side edge portion of the sheet; positioning means for moving the first conveying guide in a direction substantially perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction; a second rotary roller pair arranged on a downstream side of the first conveying guide and the second conveying guide with respect to the sheet conveying direction; slide means for moving the second rotary roller pair in a direction substantially perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction; and sheet detecting means arranged in the vicinity of the second rotary roller pair, wherein, when conveying the sheet, the positioning means moves the first conveying guide such that the abutment portion is located at a predetermined distance from the side edge portion of the sheet that is conveyed normally by using the center thereof as a reference, the sheet is conveyed while aligned by being caused to abut the abutment portion by the first rotary roller pair, the first rotary roller pair is separated by the contact-separation means based on detection of the sheet by the sheet detecting means, and the second rotary roller pair is moved by the slide means so as to return the sheet at the predetermined distance.