A plurality of support rollers support a conveyor belt. A first transmission mechanism transmits a rotational force of a first motor to one of the plurality of support rollers. A second transmission mechanism transmits a rotational force of a second motor to one of the plurality of support rollers. A first control portion controls a first supply power supplied to the first motor in accordance with a difference between a speed detection value and a target speed. A second control portion controls a second supply power supplied to the second motor in accordance with one or both of conveyance information on a conveyance state of an object in a specific area and suction force information on a suction force of a suction fan. The second transmission mechanism transmits the rotational force at a greater reduction ratio than the first transmission mechanism.

A paper transport device includes a transport mechanism that transports paper to which an image is transferred to a fixing device while sucking the paper and a switching mechanism that switches between suction regions in a width direction of the transport mechanism, which corresponds to a width direction of the paper, according to a size of the paper.

Examples include a cylinder having a holding means around the circumference and by which a substrate sheet can be picked up and held during rotation of the cylinder over a rotation angle range between when the substrate sheet is received and is transferred downstream. A rotary union includes a rotor rotating along with the cylinder which, at an end face, is arranged with a stator that does not rotate during regular operation. A vacuum pressure can be applied via the rotary union to suction openings provided around the circumference of the cylinder while running through an active rotation angle phase of the cylinder. The rotary union can be set in terms of a size of a passage angle sector determining the size of the active rotation angle phase and/or in terms of a position of the passage angle sector determining the position of the active rotation angle phase.

A sheet conveyor apparatus includes an air turn bar and a hood. The air turn bar turns back a strip-shaped sheet conveyed along a predetermined conveyance passage. The hood includes an inner circumferential surface that opposes an outer circumferential surface of the air turn bar. The outer circumferential surface of the air turn bar includes ejection holes ejecting air toward one surface of the sheet. The inner circumferential surface of the hood includes suction holes sucking air from the other surface of the sheet.

An image forming apparatus includes: an image carrier configured to carry an image on a surface of the image carrier; a transfer member configured to come into pressure contact with the image carrier to form a transfer nip and configured to transfer the image on the image carrier onto a paper sheet; a pair of fixing members disposed downstream from the transfer member in a transport path of the paper sheet, configured to come into pressure contact with each other to form a fixing nip, and configured to perform a fixing process on the paper sheet; a transfer change mechanism configured to move at least one of the image carrier and the transfer member to change a pressure contact state between the image carrier and the transfer member; a fixing change mechanism configured to move at least one of the pair of fixing members to change a pressure contact state between the pair of fixing members; and a control unit configured to variably control a transfer nip load at the transfer nip by controlling the transfer change mechanism and variably control a fixing nip load at the fixing nip by controlling the fixing change mechanism. The control unit, before a leading end of the paper sheet enters the fixing nip, increases the transfer nip load from a first transfer nip load to a second transfer nip load larger than the first transfer nip load and decreases the fixing nip load from a first fixing nip load to a second fixing nip load smaller than the first fixing nip load.

An adhesive tape applying device includes an adhesive tape sucking head; a shaping mechanism, a shaping assembly, the shaping assembly including a first shaping piece and a second shaping piece arranged at an interval, and an interval space between the two shaping pieces form a shaping channel. The adhesive tape sucking head can pass through the shaping channel and enable one end portion of the adhesive tape to be in contact with the first shaping piece and pass through a gap between the adhesive tape sucking head located in the shaping channel and the first shaping piece and the other end portion of the two end portions of the adhesive tape to be in contact with the second shaping piece and pass through a gap between the adhesive tape sucking head located in the shaping channel and the second shaping piece.

A sheet feeding device includes a sheet stacker, a conveyor, a sensor, circuitry, and a changing unit. The conveyor conveys a sheet from the sheet stacker by suction. The sensor detects a state of the sheet before the sheet is conveyed from the sheet stacker. The circuitry determines the state of the sheet based on a detection result of the sensor. The changing unit changes a passage to convey the sheet based on a determination result.

A sheet conveying apparatus includes: a first conveying section that conveys a strip-shaped sheet having a first surface and a second surface, with the first surface facing downward; a turn section provided downstream of the first conveying section to turn over the sheet; and a second conveying section provided downstream of the turn section. The turn section includes a convex curved surface having its axis extending in a width direction of the sheet and turns over the sheet along the convex curved surface with the first surface facing inward. The convex curved surface includes: a small-diameter portion provided with air nozzles for injecting air; and a pair of large-diameter portions disposed on both sides of the small-diameter portion in an axis direction and extending outward in a radial direction relative to the small-diameter portion to support both ends of the sheet in the width direction.

The present invention provides a working support (10) and a conveyor belt (100) comprising the working support (10) for a laser cutting and/or marking operation. The working support (10) includes at least one vacuum chamber (1) fluidically connected to at least one vacuum element (2), a honeycomb structure (3) comprising a plurality of cells (30) and disposed spaced from the vacuum chamber (1), and an intermediate depression chamber (21) disposed between the honeycomb structure (3) and the vacuum chamber (1). The lower surface (22) of the intermediate depression chamber (21) has a plurality of suction holes (13) which fluidically connect the vacuum chamber (1) with the cells (30) of the honeycomb structure (3). The upper surface (33) of the honeycomb structure (3) comprises ridges and depressions and the honeycomb structure may consist of a plurality of corrugated metal sheets welded together.

To downsize a curved transport route through which a transport target is transported without being deformed. A transport path 401 includes a first curved transport tubular-body unit 415B having a first curved shape in which a bottom surface 411B located beside an air blowing tube 100 bulges into a convex shape toward the air blowing tube. The first curved transport tubular-body unit is configured to increase a distance H between the bottom surface and a top surface 413B opposite to the bottom surface from each end portion toward an intermediate portion in a transport direction x to prevent a banknote P retained by a transport body 500 from coming into contact with the top surface.