An ink jet card printer includes an ink jet print head, a gantry, and a card feeder. The ink jet print head is configured to perform a print operation on a card supported in a print position along a processing axis. The gantry is configured to move the print head through a print zone. The card feeder includes a feeder frame, a first pinch roller pair, and a lift mechanism. The first pinch roller pair is supported by the feeder frame and is configured to feed individual cards along a card feed axis. The lift mechanism is configured to move the feeder frame and the first pinch roller pair between a lowered position, in which the card feeder is displaced from the print zone, and a raised position, in which at least a portion of the card feeder extends into the print zone.

In a paper cassette, a guide slides on a tray to place a sheet at a proper position. A lift mechanism uses a restoring force of an elastic member to push up the tray and make the sheet on the tray approach a pickup roller. When the paper cassette is pushed by a user from an opened position, which is out of the housing of a printer, to a closed position, which is in the housing, an adjuster mechanism mechanically converts a force of the user pushing the paper cassette to the restoring force of the elastic member from a time the guide reaches a specific point on a trajectory along which the guide travels together with the paper cassette, thus adjusting the strength of the restoring force continuously to a distance by which the guide overruns the specific point.

A sheet conveying device includes a blocking member having a blocking surface with which a leading end of a sheet that is being conveyed comes into contact for obliquity correction. The blocking member is rotated by being pushed by the sheet against an urging force of a positioning unit that positions the blocking member to be in the standby position. The blocking member is rotatable to be in a sheet-passage-allowing orientation in which the sheet is allowed to pass. When a trailing end of the sheet that is being conveyed has passed the blocking member, the blocking member that is in the sheet-passage-allowing orientation rotates in a same direction as a sheet conveyance direction and is positioned to be in a standby position.

A sheet conveying device includes a blocking member having a blocking surface with which a leading end of a sheet that is being conveyed comes into contact for obliquity correction. The blocking member is rotated by being pushed by the sheet against an urging force of a positioning unit that positions the blocking member to be in the standby position. The blocking member is rotatable to be in a sheet-passage-allowing orientation in which the sheet is allowed to pass. When a trailing end of the sheet that is being conveyed has passed the blocking member, the blocking member that is in the sheet-passage-allowing orientation rotates in a same direction as a sheet conveyance direction and is positioned to be in a standby position.

A sheet conveying device includes a support configured to move between a storage position and a full open position and including a pair of rollers, a plurality of contact bodies, and a switching unit. The switching unit switches the pair of rollers in response to contact of the plurality of contact target bodies included in the switching unit, with the plurality of contact bodies. The plurality of contact bodies includes a first contact body closer to the storage position than the plurality of contact target bodies with the support at the full open position and closer to the full open position with the support at the storage position, and a second contact body closer to the storage position than a part of the plurality of contact target bodies with the support at a halfway position and closer to the full open position with the support at the storage position.

A register (20; 60) for a processing machine (1) for processing plate-like elements (10) includes a gripping element (21; 22) for placing the plate-like elements (10) in a gripper bar (31) of a conveyor (30) of a processing machine (1) conveying the plate-like elements (10) in a longitudinal direction, an actuator module (201, 202) to drive the gripping element (21; 22), at least one front correction sensor module (7) configured to measure the front position of register marks (12a) printed on a front section of the plate-like element (10) grasped by the gripping element (21; 22). The register (20; 60) includes at least one front pre-correction sensor module (80), placed upstream of the front correction sensor module (7) in the longitudinal direction, the front pre-correction sensor module (80) is configured: to detect the passage of a front transversel edge of the plate-like element (10) in at least two longitudinally spaced lateral axis of detection (P1, P2), one located in front of the other, and to provide measurements to a computation and control unit (40) of the processing machine (1) that is configured: to control the actuator module (201, 202) in order to move the gripping element (21; 22) toward the gripper bar (31) and to activate the gripping element (21; 22) in order to grasp a plate-like element (10). Also a processing machine for processing plate-like elements includes the register. A method for placing plate-like elements within a processing machine is disclosed.

A vacuum lifter apparatus for lifting sheet material articles comprises an upper chassis, a modular lower suction plate supported beneath the chassis, a controller and a source of vacuum air pressure, the suction plate comprising a suction lifting surface for providing vacuum lifting pressure to said articles. The modular suction plate has plural side-by-side modules, each module providing a different portion of the suction lifting surface and having one or more air outlets, outlets of one module separate from outlets of other modules and in fluid communication with the corresponding portion of the suction lifting surface and not with different portions of the suction lifting surface. The chassis comprises at least one air outlet connected to said source of vacuum air pressure, and a plurality of separate air flow channels through the chassis. Each air flow channel has an associated air flow valve and a valve actuator.

A page registration system may include, in an example, a media edge sensor to detect a location of an edge of a print media along a media feed path and in a direction non-parallel to the media feed path and a calibration sensor downstream of the media edge sensor to detect changes in the location of the edge of the print media in the direction non-parallel to the media feed path, and provide calibration data to the page registration system to correct changes in the location of the edge of the print media in the direction non-parallel to the media feed path.

A page registration system may include, in an example, a media edge sensor to detect a location of an edge of a print media along a media feed path and in a direction non-parallel to the media feed path and a calibration sensor downstream of the media edge sensor to detect changes in the location of the edge of the print media in the direction non-parallel to the media feed path, and provide calibration data to the page registration system to correct changes in the location of the edge of the print media in the direction non-parallel to the media feed path.

A conveyance apparatus includes a change conveyance unit. In a case where a first sheet in a sheet storage unit included in the feeding apparatus is fed in a landscape orientation to the conveyance apparatus, the change conveyance unit changes a conveyance orientation of the first sheet to a portrait orientation. The landscape orientation is an orientation in which a short side of the first sheet is parallel to a sheet conveyance direction of the first sheet. The portrait orientation is an orientation in which a long side of the first sheet is parallel to the sheet conveyance direction. The change conveyance unit changes the conveyance orientation of the first sheet from the landscape orientation to the portrait orientation on a substantially horizontal region between the image forming apparatus and the feeding apparatus.