Patent ID: 7819400

Claim:
A sheet feeding apparatus for feeding sheets one by one, comprising: an overlapped feeding detection apparatus for detecting mutual overlapping of the sheets being fed; and a control apparatus for controlling the overlapped feeding detection apparatus, wherein the overlapped feeding detection apparatus is provided with: a sheet stopping portion for temporarily stopping the leading end of a sheet being fed; a flattening portion sandwiching the sheet temporarily stopped by the sheet stopping portion at an upstream side in the sheet feeding direction and flattening a part of the sheet located at a further upstream side in the sheet feeding direction; and a detection portion for detecting whether or not the sheets are fed in a state of mutual overlapping at the part flattened by the flattening portion, and further wherein the control apparatus controls the sheet stopping portion to stop the sheet being fed when the sheet passes the detection portion, and the detection portion operates after the sheet being fed stops and detects whether or not the stopped sheets are mutually overlapping.