A driving apparatus includes an endless belt, a belt roller which engages the endless belt, a steering member and an adjustment member. The belt roller has a rotation shaft. The steering member contacts the endless belt at the inner side of the endless belt. The adjustment member is supported rotatably. The adjustment member receives a force in response to the endless belt moving in a longitudinal direction of the rotation shaft of the belt roller, and generates a pressing force that tilts the steering member via a rotational movement of the adjustment member.

An inclined flange roller is located outward of an end portion of a tension roller in the belt width direction. The inclined flange roller includes a flange surface capable of being in contact with the edge portion of a belt in a region in which the belt is wound around the tension roller and a roller surface capable of being in contact with an inner peripheral surface of the belt between the flange surface and an end portion of the tension roller in the belt width direction.

A vacuum belt moves between a print head and a manifold. The manifold has manifold chambers, and each of the manifold chambers has manifold openings. Vacuum lines are connected to the manifold chambers. The vacuum lines exert vacuum force upon the manifold chambers, and the manifold openings exert the vacuum force through belt perforations. A cylindrical valve structure is connected to the vacuum lines. The cylindrical valve structure includes a cylindrical sleeve (having sleeve openings connected to the vacuum lines) and an internal valve cylinder positioned within the cylindrical sleeve. The internal valve cylinder has groups of vacuum slots. The internal valve cylinder moves linearly within the cylindrical sleeve (in directions parallel to cylindrical walls of the cylindrical sleeve) to align only one of the groups of vacuum slots with the sleeve openings at a time, so as to control which of the manifold chambers receive the vacuum draw.

A conveyor includes: a supporting member which supports the first and second roller units to allow the first and second rollers to take one of a first conveyance position and a first retracted position; a movable member which is movable between a first position where the first roller and the second roller take the first conveyance position and a second position where the rollers take the first retracted position; a cover member which is switchable between a closed state where the cover member is a part of the conveyance passage and an open state where a part of the conveyance passage is open; and an interlocking mechanism which is configured to move the movable member to the second position when the cover member is in the open state and moves the movable member to the first position when the cover member is in the closed state.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion, an endless belt and a plurality of stretching rollers. The stretching rollers includes a tiltable steering roller, a sliding member, a first stretching roller having a smallest diameter, and a second stretching roller having a largest diameter of the diameters. With respect to rotational axis directions of the stretching rollers, lengths of contact portions of the stretching rollers with the belt are shorter than a width of the belt, the length of the contact portion of the first stretching roller with the belt is a first length, the length of the contact portion of the second stretching roller with the belt is a second length shorter than the first length, and end positions of the contact portions of the first and second stretching rollers with respect to the rotational axis direction are different from each other.

A belt control device includes a holder to movably support a rotation shaft of at least one of the plurality of rotators around which a belt is looped, a contact part to contact an end of the belt as the belt moves in a belt width direction, a stationary frame part disposed facing the holder, a shaft moving device to move the rotation shaft as the belt moves, and at least one projection disposed on one of the stationary frame part and the holder. The projection is to contact the other of the stationary frame part and the holder. The projection includes a long projection having a contact portion extending in a shaft moving direction in which the rotation shaft moves, and the contact portion is contactable with the other of the stationary frame part and the holder.

A medium conveyance device including: a conveyance guide that defines a conveyance space through which a paper sheet shaped medium should pass when conveying the medium along a conveyance direction; and an outside region that is a region, out of a guide face forming a boundary face to the conveyance space in the conveyance guide, contacted by an end portion of the medium in an orthogonal direction orthogonal to the conveyance direction, and that guides the end portion of the medium to so as to be positioned inside the conveyance space.

A sheet-transporting drum includes sheet-supporting areas each being formed of a first comb segment and a second comb segment having segment teeth. At least one of the comb segments is rotatable for adaptation to a sheet format. A mechanical leading-edge gripper is provided on the first comb segment and a pneumatic trailing-edge gripper is provided on the second comb segment. A mechanical trailing-edge gripper is additionally disposed on the second comb segment and is deactivatable in particular by format adjustments. This advantageously allows either the trailing edge of a sheet to be securely held down mechanically or a full-bleed print to be applied to the sheet when the trailing edge of the sheet is held down pneumatically. A sheet-fed printing machine is also provided.

A sheet handling apparatus includes: a transport path along which a sheet is transported; a first transport member disposed on one side of the transport path; and a second transport member disposed opposed to the first transport member with the transport path interposed therebetween. The first transport member and the second transport member are driven to rotate. The sheet is transported by the first transport member rotating with an outer peripheral surface thereof being in contact with a first face of the sheet, and by the second transport member rotating in a direction opposite to a rotation direction of the first transport member, with an outer peripheral surface thereof being in contact with a second face of the sheet different from the first face.

A printer includes a recording head, a belt, a scale unit, a reading head, a gripping unit. The belt includes a first surface configured to support a medium and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The gripping unit includes a first abutting portion that comes into contact with the first surface, and a second abutting portion that comes into contact with the second surface. The gripping unit can be changed between a gripping state of moving along with the glue belt while gripping the glue belt, and a release state of being separated from the glue belt. When the gripping unit is in the release state, the second abutting portion is separated from the second surface in conjunction with the first abutting portion being separated from the first surface.