Sheet supply apparatus and image forming apparatus

A sheet supply apparatus comprising:

• a tray on which a stack of sheets, which is formed with a plurality of vertically stacked sheets, is capable of being placed;
• an air blowing section that blows air toward the stack of sheets placed on the tray to float at least a topmost sheet;
• a sucking and conveying section that sucks the topmost sheet floated by the air blowing section and conveys the topmost sheet in a prescribed conveying direction, the sucking and conveying section being disposed above the tray;
• a first light source that emits first light that forms an outer edge of an illumination range having a component extending vertically, the outer edge crossing a first edge of a first sheet and a second edge of a second sheet below the first sheet;
• an image capture section that captures an image of the outer edge crossing the first edge and the second edge, the image capture section being oriented in an image capture direction that is different, in a plane parallel to the first sheet and the second sheet, from a direction in which the first light is emitted from the first light source toward the outer edge;
• a calculating section that calculates a vertical clearance between the first sheet and the second sheet according to the image of the outer edge, the image being captured by the image capture section;
• and
• an air amount adjusting section that adjusts an amount of air to be blown by the air blowing section, according to the vertical clearance between the first sheet and the second sheet, the vertical clearance being calculated by the calculating section.

A sheet supply apparatus comprising:

• a tray on which a stack of sheets, which is formed with a plurality of vertically stacked sheets, is capable of being placed;
• an air blowing section that blows air toward the stack of sheets placed on the tray to float at least a topmost sheet;
• a sucking and conveying section that sucks the topmost sheet floated by the air blowing section and conveys the topmost sheet in a prescribed conveying direction, the sucking and conveying section being disposed above the tray;
• a first light source that emits first slit light, which is stripshaped light extending diagonally with respect to the vertical direction, the first slit light crossing a first edge of a first sheet and a second edge of a second sheet below the first sheet, the first sheet and the second sheet being part of a plurality of floated sheets;
• an image capture section that captures an image of the first slit light emitted to the first sheet and the second sheet;
• a calculating section that calculates a vertical clearance between the first sheet and the second sheet according to the image of the first slit light, the image being captured by the image capture section;
• and
• an air amount adjusting section that adjusts an amount of air to be blown by the air blowing section, according to the vertical clearance between the first sheet and the second sheet, the vertical clearance being calculated by the calculating section.

A sheet supply apparatus comprising:

• a tray on which a stack of sheets, which is formed with a plurality of vertically stacked sheets, is capable of being placed;
• an air blowing section that blows air toward the stack of sheets placed on the tray to float at least a topmost sheet;
• a sucking and conveying section that sucks the topmost sheet floated by the air blowing section and conveys the topmost sheet in a prescribed conveying direction, the sucking and conveying section being disposed above the tray;
• a first light source that emits first light that forms an outer edge of an illumination range, the outer edge extending diagonally with respect to the vertical direction and crossing a first edge of a first sheet and a second edge of a second sheet below the first sheet;
• an image capture section that captures an image of the outer edge crossing the first edge and the second edge;
• a calculating section that calculates a vertical clearance between the first sheet and the second sheet according to the image of the outer edge, the image being captured by the image capture section;
• and
• an air amount adjusting section that adjusts the amount of air to be blown by the air blowing section, according to the vertical clearance between the first sheet and the second sheet, the vertical clearance being calculated by the calculating section.