In a case where feeding of a subsequent sheet by a feed roller is started after the trailing edge of a preceding sheet is detected by a post-registration sensor, a control unit of a sheet feeder controls the feed roller to rotate at a first feeding speed, and in a case where the leading edge of the subsequent sheet has passed through a nip position between the feed roller and a separation roller, the control unit controls the feed roller to rotate at a second feeding speed.

An image forming apparatus includes a stacking portion, a pickup roller, a motor, an image forming unit, and a controller. Upon receiving an instruction for starting a first image forming job, the controller performs an initial operation of supplying current to a motor winding of the motor in a stop state and determining a phase of the rotor based on the flowing current. Based on the determined phase, the controller supplies current to rotate the rotor from its stop state and holds the rotor at a first phase when the first job ends. Upon receiving start instructions for a second image forming job within a period until a predetermined time elapses from when the rotor is held at the first phase, the controller rotates the rotor without performing the initial operation. The controller stops supplying current to the winding if no instructions are not received for starting the second job.

A document feeder includes a lift plate, a pickup roller, a lift motor, a retard roller, and a control unit. In a manual feed mode, the control unit rotates the retard roller to feed a document in a document conveyance direction. Further, the control unit causes the lift motor to start lowering the lift plate while the pickup roller is feeding a document after the rotation of the pickup roller is started.

A loading unit includes a processing tray, alignment units, and a paddle. In the processing tray, a medium is placed. The alignment units are disposed an interval in a Y direction to align a downstream tip end in a positive A direction of the medium. The paddle moves the medium that has been fed onto the processing tray toward the alignment units. A coefficient of friction of a contact surface of the alignment unit is higher than a coefficient of friction of a front face of the alignment unit, and the contact surface is positioned downstream of the front face in the positive A direction.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion, a first conveyance path, a second conveyance path, a curved conveyance path, a first roller pair, a second roller pair disposed along the curved conveyance path, an inner guide, and an outer guide opposing the inner guide, constituting at least part of the curved conveyance path between the first roller pair and the second roller pair together with the inner guide, and provided on an outer side in a curving direction of the curved conveyance path. A nip line of the first roller pair and a nip line of the second roller pair intersect with each other. The outer guide is movable between a first position and a second position that is farther away from the inner guide than the first position.

According to some examples, a skew detection device comprises a first roller rotatable around a first axis, a second roller rotatable around a second axis, a first sensor, and a second sensor. The first sensor measures a first rotation parameter from the first roller and the second sensor measures a second rotation parameter from the second roller. A movement of a print media over the device rotates the first contact roller and the second roller, and a controller determines a skew of the print media based on the first and second rotation parameters captured by the first sensor and the second sensor.

A medium conveying apparatus includes a conveying roller to convey a medium, a first unit, a second unit located to face the first unit, an imaging sensor provided in the first unit, to image the medium conveyed by the conveying roller, a reference member including a facing surface, and provided in the second unit in such a way that the facing surface is rotatable between a facing position at which the facing surface faces the imaging sensor, and a non-facing position at which the facing surface deviates from the facing position, a guide portion to slidably guide the second unit in a direction perpendicular to a medium conveying surface so that the second unit moves in the direction perpendicular to the medium conveying surface, and a support portion to rotatably support the reference member. The support portion is located inside the guide portion.

In some examples, the disclosure describes a printing device that includes a processor resource, and a non-transitory memory resource storing machine-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause the processor resource to: detect a slippage probability for a pick roller of a print medium to be utilized for a print job of the printing device, determine a speed of the pick roller based on the slippage probability, and instruct the pick roller to be activated at the speed to pick the print medium and move the print medium to a turn roller.

A mail processing system utilizes a conveyor to shingle or de-shingle mailpieces as they move through the processing system and utilizes belts to move the mailpieces. A first shingling conveyor moves a first mailpiece to overlap with a second mailpiece to create shingled mailpieces. A second shingling conveyor moves a first mailpiece away from a second mailpiece to de-shingle them to create singulated mailpieces. A camera takes images of the mailpieces in the conveyor and image analysis software is used to determine dimensional aspects of the mailpieces that are used to control the belt speeds to move mailpieces with respect to each other. A mail processing system may include a mail processing station that scans addresses, applies postage and/or weighs the mailpieces. Mail may be de-shingled prior to being weighed and then re-shingled for subsequent processing, or mail may be shingled prior to passing through a scale if weighing is not necessary.

A sheet conveyance apparatus comprises: a first conveyance roller configured to convey a sheet; a second conveyance roller, arranged downstream of the first conveyance roller in the conveyance direction in which the sheet is conveyed, configured to convey the sheet; a first conveyance path configured to guide the sheet from the first conveyance roller to the second conveyance roller; a second conveyance path, which is branched from the first conveyance path between the first conveyance roller and the second conveyance roller to guide the sheet, the second conveyance path having a bent portion; a third conveyance roller configured to convey the sheet guided by the second conveyance path; a first motor configured to drive the third conveyance roller; a second motor; a first transmission mechanism configured to transmit a driving force of the second motor to the second conveyance roller.