A vacuum belt has perforations between belt edges. Some perforations in the vacuum belt are arranged in a pattern. The vacuum belt is positioned adjacent the media supply in a location to move sheets of the print media from the media supply. A light sensor is positioned in a location to detect light passing through the vacuum belt. The light sensor detects a portion of the vacuum belt as limited by an aperture area of the vacuum belt, and the pattern of perforations, and the size and location of the aperture area of the vacuum belt causes the signal output by the light sensor to be constant when the sheets are outside the aperture area of the vacuum belt.

A sheet processing apparatus of an aspect of the present invention includes stack trays provided with alignment members for applying an alignment process to sheets. At the time of discharging sheets, in a case where a sheet is already stacked on a first stack tray that has been decided on as a discharge destination for a sheet to be discharged, the sheet processing apparatus determines whether or not the width of the sheet to be discharged matches the width of the already-stacked sheet. In a case where the widths of the sheets do not match, a discharge destination for the sheet to be discharged is changed to a second stack tray.

A sheet conveying device includable in an image forming apparatus that uses a method of conveying a conveyance target medium and a method of forming an image, includes a position detector, a position adjuster, and circuitry. The position detector is configured to detect a position of a conveyance target medium. Based on a detection of the position of the conveyance target medium by the position detector, the position adjuster moves in at least one of a width direction of the conveyance target medium and a rotation direction of the conveyance target medium within a plane of conveyance of the conveyance target medium and repeatedly adjusts the position of the conveyance target medium while conveying the conveyance target medium. The circuitry changes a conveying speed of the conveyance target medium, according to a change of the position of the conveyance target medium after adjusted by the position adjuster.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image on a recording material includes an image forming portion configured to form the image on the recording material; a fixing portion including a flexible cylindrical rotatable member and a roller configured to form a fixing nip, in which the recording material on which the image is formed is nipped and fed, in press-contact with the rotatable member and configured to fix the image on the recording material; an oblique movement detecting portion configured to detect oblique movement of the recording material; and a controller. When the oblique movement detecting portion detects the oblique movement of the recording material, the controller executes control for increasing a feeding interval of the recording material to the image forming portion.

An image forming apparatus comprises a transfer section, a fixing section, and a controller. The transfer section includes a transfer rotating body for conveying a sheet at a first linear velocity, and transfers a toner image onto the sheet. The fixing section forms a nip sandwiching the sheet with a first rotating body and a second rotating body, and a heating section for heating the sheet onto which the toner image is transferred. The controller executes a sheet acceleration and deceleration control for setting a linear velocity of the first rotating body to a second linear velocity from the first linear velocity before the tip of the sheet reaches the nip, and decelerating the linear velocity of the first rotating body from the second linear velocity to the first linear velocity at the time the tip of the sheet reaches a predetermined range in a sheet conveyance path.

A sheet transfer device for transferring a sheet between two sheet processing devices comprising a switch for directing sheets from a first transport path coming from the first sheet processing device onto a two-way transport path or for directing sheets from the two-way transport path onto a second transport path for feeding sheets to the second sheet processing device. A transport pinch is provided along the two way transport path for reversing a sheet on the two-way transport path. When in use, the two-way transport path extends downward in a vertically extending free-hanging chamber wherein the sheet engaged by the transport pinch is allowed to hang freely under the influence of gravity. Thereby, a compact device is formed which is able to adjust the sheet to a suitable orientation for the second processing device. The device further prevents forces from the first processing device to disrupt the sheet's orientation in the second processing device.

An image forming apparatus includes: a plurality of droplets ejecting members that are opposed to a continuous sheet being conveyed, are arranged in a sheet conveying direction, and eject droplets onto the continuous sheet; movement restriction members that restrict movement, in a sheet width direction, of one end portion, in the sheet width direction, of a portion, opposed to the droplets ejecting members, of the continuous sheet; and tension application members that give tension in the sheet width direction to the portion, opposed to the droplets ejecting members, of the continuous sheet in a state that movement, in the sheet width direction, of the portion, opposed to the droplets ejecting members, of the continuous sheet is restricted by the movement restriction members.

The image forming apparatus includes a transfer section that transfers an image to a sheet; a sheet conveying member that is provided on an upstream side of the transfer section in a conveying direction of the sheet and that conveys the sheet; and a hardware processor that controls displacement of the sheet conveying member such that the sheet is displaced in a width direction of the sheet. The hardware processor causes a detector that detects an edge of the sheet in the width direction to detect the edge of the sheet after displacement of the sheet conveying member has been started, and causes the displacement to be terminated on the basis of the detected result such that the edge of the sheet reaches a target position.

An image forming apparatus includes: a transfer section that transfers an image to a sheet; a sheet conveyance member that is provided on an upstream of the transfer section in a sheet conveyance direction and that conveys the sheet; and a hardware processor that controls the sheet conveyance member to displace the sheet, wherein a preset value defining a displacement condition of the sheet conveyance member for providing a correct position of the image on the sheet is set.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a conveying portion, a first stack portion on which sheets conveyed are stacked, a first regulating portion which regulates a position of a sheet bundle in a crossing direction crossing to the sheet transport direction, a second regulating portion which regulates a position of a sheet bundle in the conveying direction, a first binding portion binding a corner portion of the sheet bundle by a staple, a second binding portion which binds a corner portion of a sheet bundle without a staple, a second stack portion which stacks a sheet bundle discharged from the first stack portion, and a lifting-lowering motor which lifts and lowers the second stack portion. The lifting-lowering motor is located at a downstream, in the conveying direction, of a first binding position where the first binding portion binds a sheet bundle.