A system has: a transport chain, which is roof-shaped in an upper region, along which printed products are transportable astride, collectable, and optionally stitchable in an intermediate stitching station; and a stop, which is adjustable in accordance with a format of a printed product of the printed products being delivered, is arranged in a transport direction of the printed products, and is positioned after the intermediate stitching station along the transport chain, the stop corresponding to a location of delivery of the printed product from the transport chain. A cyclic transfer of the printed product during the delivery takes place via a delivery system, the delivery system having in an infeed region a printed product transporter configured to transfer the printed product being delivered, the printed product transporter having pivot arms, the pivot arms being controllable according to a measured thickness of the printed product being delivered.

A sheet discharging apparatus includes a discharging portion configured to discharge a sheet, a supporting portion configured to support the sheet discharged by the discharging portion, a lifting portion configured to lift and lower the supporting portion, a transmissive sensor configured to output an output signal that changes in accordance with a position of an upper surface of the sheet supported by the supporting portion, a reflective sensor configured to output an output signal that changes in accordance with the position of the upper surface of the sheet supported by the supporting portion, and a controller configured to control the lifting portion and including a first determining portion configured to determine whether or not sheet detection by the transmissive sensor is possible and a second determining portion configured to determine whether or not sheet detection by the transmissive sensor is needed.

The present invention is to provide a binding processing apparatus that prevents easy unbinding regardless of thickness of a sheet bundle to be bound and that lessens influence of damage on sheets. In the present sheet binding processing apparatus, a pair of pressurizing faces for pressure-nipping a sheet bundle are formed to have tooth forms each having a convex shape and a concave shape, the tooth forms being engaged with each other along a predetermined tooth width, and the tooth forms are shaped so that an engagement depth between a tooth top and a tooth root is varied along a tooth width direction toward a sheet end edge.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a rotating member, a switching unit, and a pressing unit. The rotating member is rotatable and has a facing portion that faces a fold section of a sheet. The rotating member rotates so as to switch the facing portion to another facing portion. Each facing portion is provided with a protrusion. A set position of the protrusion in an axial direction varies from facing portion to facing portion. The switching unit rotates the rotating member so as to switch the facing portion that faces the fold section. The pressing unit presses the protrusion of the facing portion against the fold section.

A sheet post-processing apparatus includes a first sensor, a second sensor and a controller. The first sensor detects whether or not a staple for performing a binding processing is prepared in a stapler. The second sensor detects that an amount of the staples held by the stapler has become not more than a prescribed amount. The controller judges whether or not to transfer an operation mode of the sheet post-processing apparatus to a first operation mode to perform the binding processing by the stapler to the sheets to be manually fed, based on a detection result of the second sensor, and judges whether or not to perform the binding processing by the stapler, based on a detection result of the first sensor, after having transferred the operation mode to the first operation mode.

A mechanism that makes it possible to output a saddle-stitched brochure in a correct page order when a post-processing apparatus that executes a saddle-stitching process by switching back a sheet is caused to execute the saddle-stitching process. Sheets discharged from a printing apparatus are switched back by reverse rotation of a conveying roller pair, and are conveyed into a conveying path for a saddle-stitch bookbinding process. The sheets are accumulated in an accumulation tray for the saddle-stitch bookbinding process. When the saddle-stitch bookbinding process is caused to be executed on the accumulated sheets by the post-processing apparatus, the order of image formation is decided such that the order of pages of images printed on the saddle-stitched sheets becomes correct. The images are printed on the sheets in the decided order of image formation.

A binding device includes a first pushing member that includes protrusions along one direction and that pushes a recording-material bundle as a result of pushing the protrusions against one of surfaces of the recording-material bundle, the protrusions disposed side by side in a direction that intersects the one direction; and a second pushing member that includes protrusions along the one direction and that pushes the recording-material bundle as a result of pushing the protrusions against the other surface of the recording-material bundle, the protrusions disposed side by side in the direction that intersects the one direction, wherein, in at least one end portion in the one direction of each protrusion of at least one of the first pushing member and the second pushing member, a hollow is disposed in a top portion of each protrusion.

There is provided a binding processing device including:

a first pressing member including a convex portion formed by a curved surface with a curvature and protruding toward a sheet bundle; and

a second pressing member including a concave portion formed by a curved surface with a curvature and configured to be combined with the convex portion through the sheet bundle, the second pressing member configured to press the sheet bundle sandwiched between the first and second pressing members, wherein

in a state where the convex portion of the first pressing member and the concave portion of the second pressing member are combined with each other, a gap is formed between the convex portion and the concave portion in a cross section of the first and second pressing members along a pressing direction, and

the gap has a volume larger than a volume of the sandwiched sheet bundle.

A recording-medium binding device includes a first tooth row that includes teeth arranged in a tooth arrangement direction and a second tooth row that includes teeth, that is to be engaged with the first tooth row, and that cooperates with the first tooth row to bind recording media by pinching a batch of the recording media. In the tooth arrangement direction, the first and the second tooth rows have first and second ranges. In the first range, an engaging height is a first engaging height, and a width of an effective tooth top is a first effective tooth top width. In the second range, the engaging height is a second engaging height that is smaller than the first engaging height, and a width of an effective tooth top is a second effective tooth top width that is larger than the first effective tooth top width.

A binding member is provided and includes: upper teeth having a tooth form configured to form a convex-concave portion on a recording material bundle; and lower teeth having a tooth form configured to form the convex-concave portion on the recording material bundle, and paired with the upper teeth. At least one of the upper teeth and the lower teeth includes: a first tooth row having a first tooth form having a first shape suitable for binding a first binding number of sheets; and a second tooth row having a second tooth form having a second shape suitable for binding a second binding number of sheets which is smaller than the first binding number of sheets.