A vacuum belt conveyor sequentially delivers sheet articles to a digital printer. The sheets are held in position by vacuum on the underside of the sheets through apertures in the belts and covered by the sheets. A plurality of independent plenums on the underside of the belt have chambers respectively communicating with rows of apertures extending along the belt. Vacuum is selectively applied from a manifold only to the plenum chambers that supply apertures that are covered by the sheets so that the ink from the printer will not be directed from its intended position on the sheet by vacuum from adjacent uncovered belt apertures. The sheets are fed to the conveyor in synchronism with the conveyor speed by a timed feeder so that the sheets are carried by the conveyor with a predetermined gap between the sheets and no belt apertures in the gap. A sensor counts the apertures in the belt and activates the feeder at predetermined time intervals.

Apparatus, methods, and systems for a vacuum conveyor for inkjet printing with adjustment to the covered area are disclosed. In some embodiments, a controller of a vacuum conveyor expands first one or more actuators of multiple first actuators of a substrate transportation system to decrease a suction width of an area of suction provided by the vacuum conveyor in accordance with a substrate width of a substrate being inkjet printed using the vacuum conveyor. A second one or more actuators of the multiple first actuators being retracted. The controller retracts multiple second actuators of the vacuum conveyor to increase the suction length of the area of suction while the substrate transportation system moves the substrate along the vacuum conveyor for inkjet printing of the substrate. The controller expands the retracted actuators of the multiple first actuators to increase the suction length as the substrates exit the vacuum conveyor.

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head, an endless belt, a plurality of through holes for flashing, a droplet receiver, and an anti-floating member. In the recording head, a plurality of nozzles capable of ejecting droplets onto a recording medium are arranged. The endless belt conveys the recording medium toward a position where an image is to be formed on the recording medium by the recording head. The through holes are formed in the endless belt. The droplet receiver receives flashing droplets having been ejected from the nozzles by flashing without contributing to formation of the image and having passed through the through holes. The anti-floating member prevents floating of end portions of the endless belt in a widthwise direction of the endless belt.

A sheet conveyance device transports a sheet to a predetermined processing unit, and includes a conveyance belt, a ventilation unit, and a suction unit. The conveyance belt has a first surface and a second surface, and is arranged to be opposed to the processing unit to transport the sheet on the first surface in a predetermined conveyance direction. On an upstream side of the processing unit in the conveyance direction, the ventilation unit blows out wind toward the sheet to adhere the sheet to the first surface of the conveyance belt. The suction unit is arranged to be opposed to the processing unit with the conveyance belt interposed therebetween to generate a negative pressure between the sheet adhered to the first surface by the ventilation unit and the conveyance belt, thereby bringing the sheet into close contact with the first surface of the conveyance belt.

A sheet conveyance device transports a sheet to a predetermined processing unit, and includes a conveyance belt, a ventilation unit, and a suction unit. The conveyance belt has a first surface and a second surface, and is arranged to be opposed to the processing unit to transport the sheet on the first surface in a predetermined conveyance direction. On an upstream side of the processing unit in the conveyance direction, the ventilation unit blows out wind toward the sheet to adhere the sheet to the first surface of the conveyance belt. The suction unit is arranged to be opposed to the processing unit with the conveyance belt interposed therebetween to generate a negative pressure between the sheet adhered to the first surface by the ventilation unit and the conveyance belt, thereby bringing the sheet into close contact with the first surface of the conveyance belt.

Conveyance means for conveying an IC tag continuous body includes a tractor feeder unit for conveying the IC tag continuous body by engaging and disengaging feed pins with sprocket holes formed in the IC tag continuous body and a negative pressure conveyance unit for conveying the IC tag continuous body while suctioning it to a conveyance belt, and printing on the IC tags in the printing device is configured such that a toner image transferred to the IC tags by a print unit is optically fixed by an optical fixation unit in a non-contact manner.

An image forming apparatus includes a recording head including a plurality of nozzles that each eject a liquid droplet to a recording medium, the nozzles being arranged in an array, a transport device including an endless belt that transports the recording medium toward an image forming position where the recording head forms an image, a plurality of through holes formed in the endless belt, to be used for a flushing operation, a liquid droplet receptacle that receives a flushing liquid droplet, which has been ejected from the nozzle and passed through the through hole, without being involved in image forming, a skew detection device that detects whether the endless belt is running straightly or skewing so as to shift in a belt width direction, and a levelness adjustment device that adjusts levelness of the transport device.

A belt step conveyor system includes a moving belt gripper mounted on a linear movement system to convey the conveyor belt rotating about a plurality of pulleys in successive distance movements while the moving belt gripper engages the conveying belt and the moving belt gripper is moved from a home position to an end position by linear movement system. The conveyor belt is stagnant by engaging a stagnating belt gripper while the moving belt gripper moves back to its home position, else the stagnating belt gripper releases the conveyor belt.

A conveyance apparatus includes a conveyance device including a sheet-bearing member having a curved sheet-bearing surface, the conveyance device conveying a sheet by bearing the sheet with the curved sheet-bearing surface of the sheet-bearing member, and a blower to blow air onto the sheet. The carved sheet-bearing surface of the sheet-bearing member is formed by a plurality of wires defining gaps through which the blower blows air.

A conveyance apparatus includes a conveyance device including a sheet-bearing member having a curved sheet-bearing surface, the conveyance device conveying a sheet by bearing the sheet with the curved sheet-bearing surface of the sheet-bearing member, and a blower to blow air onto the sheet. The carved sheet-bearing surface of the sheet-bearing member is formed by a plurality of wires defining gaps through which the blower blows air.