An image formation apparatus includes: a fixing belt wound on a plurality of support rollers including a first pressure applying roller; a second pressure applying roller applying a pressure to the first pressure applying roller and thus forming a nip portion N; a tension modifying mechanism adjusting a tension; a contact area adjustment mechanism adjusting a downstream contact area, which is a contact area of the fixing belt in contact with the first pressure applying roller that is located downstream of the nip portion N; a sheet information obtainer; and a controller controlling an operation of the tension modifying mechanism and an operation of the contact area adjustment mechanism. When sheet information indicates embossed paper, the controller adjusts the operation of the tension modifying mechanism and the operation of the contact area adjustment mechanism to reduce a tension exerted to the fixing belt and also reduce the downstream contact area.

A sheet laminator includes a sheet separation device, a sheet insertion device, and circuitry. The sheet separation device is configured to perform a sheet separating operation to separate a non-bonding portion of a two-ply sheet in which two sheets are overlapped and bonded together at a bonding portion of the two-ply sheet, and a sheet inserting operation to insert an inner sheet between the two sheets. The sheet lamination device is configured to perform a sheet laminating operation on the two-ply sheet after the sheet separating operation and the sheet inserting operation. The circuitry is configured to cause the sheet lamination device to perform the sheet laminating operation on the two-ply sheet while causing the sheet separation device to perform the sheet separating operation on another two-ply sheet subsequent to the two-ply sheet or the sheet separating operation and the sheet inserting operation on said another two-ply sheet.

In a method and an apparatus for forming on a substrate (214) a pattern of a material, a material layer is provided on an intermediate carrier (204) and an adhesive layer is provided on the material layer, wherein at least one of the material layer or the adhesive layer comprises a pattern corresponding to the pattern to be formed on the substrate (214). The material is transferred to the substrate (214) with the adhesive fixing the material to a surface (216) of the substrate (214).

An image forming apparatus includes: an inverting unit that inverts a sheet when an image forming process for forming images on both sides of the sheet is performed; an image forming unit that forms an image on a second side of the sheet based on first side image data and forms an image on a third side of the sheet based on second side image data; a controller that starts the image forming process upon receiving print data to be printed on specific paper, and inverts a sheet fed from a sheet feeding unit once or more; and a converting unit that, when the sheet fed from the sheet feeding unit is the specific paper, converts the first side print data which is received to be printed on the specific paper into N-th side image data where N≥2 and transfers the N-th side image data to the image forming unit.

An apparatus and methods of decorating a metallic container are provided. More specifically, the present invention relates to apparatus and methods used to provide a decoration or indicia on a predetermined portion of an outer surface of a metallic container body. The decorator includes at least one digital print unit, a transfer blanket, and a support element. The digital print unit transfers a decorating material to the transfer blanket to form a decoration on the transfer blanket. The support element then moves a metallic container into contact with the transfer blanket. In this manner, the decorating material is transferred to an exterior surface portion of the metallic container to decorate the metallic container. In one embodiment, the digital print unit is an electrophotographic system which transfers a toner material to the transfer blanket. In another embodiment, the digital print unit includes an inkjet print head which transfers an ink to the transfer blanket. Optionally, the decorator may include two or more support elements.

A layer transfer device configured to transfer at least one layer of a multilayer film onto a toner image includes: a sheet conveying unit; a supply reel; a wind-up reel; a film transfer unit; and a peeling roller disposed between the film transfer unit and the wind-up reel in a conveyance path and configured to peel off the multilayer film from a sheet, and the film transfer unit includes: a first roller provided to contact the sheet; and a second roller provided to contact the multilayer film, and a tangent line of the second roller at a downstream end of a nip part passes between a center of the second roller and a center of the peeling roller, and an angle formed by the tangent line and a film tension portion of the multilayer film tensed between the nip part and the peeling roller is 15 to 37 degrees.

According to one embodiment, an image forming apparatus includes a reading unit, a heating unit, and an updating unit. The reading unit reads area designation information for designating an area to be decolored in areas of a sheet on which an image that can be decolored by heating is formed and history information for indicating the number of times of performing decoloration in the past for each area of the sheet from a wireless tag attached to the sheet. The heating unit heats the area based on the area designation information read by the reading unit. The updating unit updates the history information stored in the wireless tag which corresponds to the area heated by the heating unit.

A parameter determination apparatus includes: a first hardware processor that acquires a value related to a plurality of types of sheet physical properties; a second hardware processor that specifies at least any of a sheet type or a basis weight based on an acquired value related to a sheet physical property; and a third hardware processor that specifies a parameter related to sheet processing without specifying at least any of the sheet type or the basis weight, based on an acquired value related to a sheet physical property.

A printing system includes a printing apparatus that prints an image on a sheet, a sheet processer that executes sheet processing, and a sheet detection sensor that detects a sheet on which the sheet processing is performed not in association with the printing of an image, where the printing of an image is restricted in response to detection of a sheet by the sheet detection sensor.

A printing system for printing on tabbed media having a plurality of tab positions. A media transport system picks the next sheet of tabbed media from a media tray. A detection system detects the tab position for the sheet of tabbed media. The detected tab position is compared to an expected tab position and if the detected tab position is different from the expected tab position then either the front end is used to supply image data to be printed on the sheet of tabbed media having the detected tab position, or the media transport system is controlled to direct the sheet of tabbed media into a waste receptacle and pick one or more additional sheets of tabbed media until the detected tab position is the same as the expected tab position.