A sheet conveying device includes a sheet stacker, an air blower, and a guide. The sheet stacker stacks sheets. The air blower blows air to the sheets. The guide faces an uppermost sheet on the sheet stacker. A set height of a contact portion of the guide to contact the uppermost sheet is changeable

A recording material conveying device includes: a first conveyor that constitutes a conveyance path of a recording material; a second conveyor that branches from the first conveyor and constitutes a conveyance path of the recording material different from the conveyance path of the first conveyor; and a detector that detects recording material characteristics of the recording material, the detector being arranged in the second conveyor on a downstream side in a conveyance direction of the recording material with respect to a branch portion where the first conveyor and the second conveyor branch.

A transfer device includes: a transfer drum that has a groove-like recess extending in an axial direction in an outer circumferential portion thereof, rotates about an axis thereof, and comes into contact with a medium being transported at a portion thereof on an upstream side of the recess in a rotation direction; a nip member, the nip member and the transfer drum forming therebetween a nip part where the medium is nipped; an application member that applies a voltage to the nip part where the medium is nipped, so that an image is transferred to the medium; and a contact mechanism that causes the nip member to come into contact only with a portion on the upstream side of the recess in the transfer drum in the rotation direction at a transfer-start time when the transfer of the image to the medium starts.

A transport device includes a rotating member that rotates; a circulating member that is loop-shaped and wrapped around the rotating member, the circulating member being circulated by rotation of the rotating member; a pair of pinching members attached to the circulating member and circulated together with the circulating member, the pair of pinching members changing from a separated state, in which the pair of pinching members are separated from each other, to a closely positioned state to pinch a transport object that has entered a space between the pair of pinching members in the separated state; and a guide unit positioned to overlap the pair of pinching members in the separated state when viewed in one direction along a rotational axis direction of the rotating member, the guide unit guiding the transport object into the space between the pair of pinching members in the separated state.

An image forming apparatus includes an image former and a flattener. The image former forms an image on a recording medium. The flattener is disposed upstream of the image former in a conveying direction of the recording medium, and flattens the recording medium before the image former forms the image on the recording medium.

A conveyance device includes a conveyance roller, a registration roller, a sensor, a mode setting part, a storage, a conveyance state determination part and a drive control part. The mode setting part sets the mode to either a plain paper mode or a tab paper mode. The storage stores threshold information corresponding to the mode. The conveyance state determination part determines, when the plain paper mode is set, whether the conveyance state of the recording medium is a skew conveyance state or a tab paper conveyance state, based on the detection result of the sensor and the plain paper mode threshold information. The conveyance state determination part determines, when the tab paper mode is set, whether the conveyance state of the recording medium is the skew conveyance state or the tab paper conveyance state, based on the detection result of the sensor and the tab paper mode threshold information.

A rotating member control device that controls a first rotating member and a second rotating member to convey a sheet includes a processor configured to execute a program to implement processes of controlling the first rotating member and the second rotating member to come into contact or be separated from each other and acquiring a value that corresponds to or is proportional to a driving torque of a first driving unit that rotationally drives the first rotating member. The processor acquires the value upon separation when the first rotating member and the second rotating member are separated from each other and upon conveyance when the sheet is held between and conveyed by the first rotating member and the second rotating member. The processor further sets a rotational speed of the second rotating member such that the value acquired upon separation and the value acquired upon conveyance become equal.

A sheet conveying apparatus, includes: a first roller; an opening-closing member that is movable between an open position and a close position; a second roller; an urging member; a restraint member switching between a restraint state in which a rotation shaft of the second roller is restrained and a release state in which the rotation shaft is released from the restraint, by being moved, wherein, during the movement of the opening-closing member from the open position to the close position, the restraint member keeps the rotation shaft in the restraint state; and a releasing member that is moved by driving force from the drive source when the opening-closing member is in the close position and the rotation shaft is in the restraint state, the releasing member switching the rotation shaft to the release state by moving the restraint member as being engaged with the restraint member.

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus which includes: a feeding portion configured to feed a sheet; an image forming portion configured to form an image on the sheet; a conveying portion configured to stop the sheet fed by the feeding portion at a predetermined position and to convey the sheet to the image forming portion in accordance with a timing of forming the image by the image forming portion; a type discriminating portion configured to discriminate whether a type of the sheet to be fed belongs to a first sheet type group including plain paper or to a second sheet type group including coated paper; and a controlling portion configured to control feeding of the sheet, wherein the controlling portion is configured to change a sheet feeding start timing of the feeding portion in accordance with the type discriminated by the type discriminating portion.

An image forming apparatus includes a chassis having an opening, a cover, photosensitive members, an intermediate transfer belt, a primary-transfer member, a secondary-transfer roller, a cleaner device, an external-sheet inlet, a waste toner container, a connector, and a conveying roller, which is arranged within the feeding path to feed the recording sheet inserted through the external-sheet inlet in the feeding path. The conveying roller is mounted on the waste toner container and removable from the chassis along with the waste toner container.