A printing apparatus in which a controller controls an image forming unit. When a cover sheet is a first type of sheet, a normal image is formed on the cover sheet after forming the image on a body sheet and the cover sheet is conveyed to a saddle finisher without reversing the cover sheet. When the cover sheet has a higher transparency than the first type of sheet and is able to be reversed, a mirror image is formed on the cover sheet after forming the image on the body sheet. When the cover sheet is a third type of sheet having a higher transparency than the first type of sheet and is not able to be reversed by the reversing mechanism, a normal image is formed on the cover sheet after forming the image on the body sheet and the cover sheet on which the normal image has been formed is conveyed to the saddle finisher without reversing the cover sheet.

A sheet transport device includes a pair of movable transport rollers capable of transporting a sheet while holding the sheet and capable of moving in an axial direction crossing a transportation direction; pairs of first transport rollers disposed upstream from the pair of movable transport rollers in the transportation direction while being spaced apart from each other to transport the sheet while holding the sheet; and pairs of transport guides disposed to define sheet transport spaces between the pair of movable transport rollers and the pairs of first transport rollers and between the pairs of first transport rollers. When the pair of movable transport rollers is to be moved in the axial direction, first transport rollers in at least one of the pairs of first transport rollers are separated not to hold at least part of a portion of the transported sheet located upstream from the pair of movable transport rollers.

An apparatus is disclosed. For example, the apparatus includes a paper feed to feed print media a single sheet at a time, a plurality of rotating discs, wherein each one of the plurality of rotating discs comprises an elastomer ring to secure a leading edge of the single sheet against a registration wall and initiate a flipping process, an air duct to force an air flow towards the print media to levitate a trailing edge of the single sheet during completion of the flipping process, and a movable platform to hold a stack of the print media.

A sheet flipping device includes a receiving member for receiving a sheet, a flipping volume being the volume which in operation is defined by the flipping movement of the sheet, and a flipping element for flipping the sheet around an axis of rotation within the flipping volume onto the receiving member. The sheet flipping device further includes an air vortex ring generator having an air vortex ring exit nozzle defining a translational direction of a generated air vortex ring when the generated vortex ring is in operation generated from the air vortex ring exit nozzle. The air vortex ring generator is mounted such that in operation the sheet is urged onto the receiving member by the air vortex ring during the flipping motion of the sheet through the flipping volume. A sheet stacking device and a printing apparatus include the sheet flipping device.

A post-processing apparatus according to an embodiment includes a binding unit, a tray, a conveying unit and a reversing unit. The binding unit binds a plurality of sheets together at a binding position of the sheets to form a sheet bundle. The conveying unit conveys the sheet bundle along a first path toward the tray. The reversing unit is arranged along the first path between the conveying unit and the tray. The reversing unit includes a second path and is controlled to convey the sheet bundle from the first path to the second path and then from the second path to the first path to reverse a surface of the sheet bundle from a face-up position to a face-down position.

A medium transport unit includes an upstream route in which a print sheet is transported, a first switchback route, a second switchback route, a first guide route, a second guide route, a guide flap configured to switch the route so that the print sheet in the upstream route is transported either toward the first guide route or toward the second guide route, a first discharge route from which the print sheet in the first switchback route is discharged, a second discharge route from which the print sheet in the second switchback route is discharged, and a downstream route passing between the first switchback route and the second switchback route and having an upstream end connected to a junction of downstream ends of the first discharge route and the second discharge route.

A multifunctional printer comprising a printer section, an auto-document feeder, a scanner section, and a finisher, wherein a finisher path leads from the auto-document feeder into the printer section and converges with a print path into a shared finisher path leading to the finisher, such that documents scanned with the auto-document feeder can be conveyed to the finisher such that it can perform a finishing operation on the documents.

A media conveying apparatus includes a feed table on which a medium is placed, a conveyor to convey the medium placed on the feed table, a sensor to detect floating of the medium conveyed by the conveyor, an ejector to eject the medium conveyed by the conveyor, an ejection tray located above the feed table to stack the medium ejected by the ejector, and an extension tray connected to a downstream side of the ejection tray in a media ejection direction. In a state where the medium ejected from the ejector is stacked on the ejection tray and the extension tray, a lower end portion of the extension tray on an upstream side in the media ejection direction is located closer to the feed table than a lower end portion of the ejection tray on a downstream side in the media ejection direction.

To prevent deformation to relatively stiffer sheets during flipping, while ensuring reliable holding of relatively weaker sheets, a method for stacking sheets received from a printer by a sheet flipping device includes at least one slot for receiving a leading portion of a sheet. The method includes determining a respective insertion depth parameter for a first and a second sheet, wherein the second sheet has a greater stiffness than the first sheet; inserting a length of the first sheet into the at least one slot in correspondence with its respective insertion depth parameter, followed by flipping said first sheet; inserting a length (D2) of the second sheet into the at least one slot in correspondence with its respective insertion depth parameter, followed by flipping said second sheet, wherein the inserted length of the first sheet is greater than that of the second sheet.

A reversing roller pair is controlled such that, when an abnormality occurs during the conveying of a sheet, the sheet is conveyed in a forward direction by the reversing roller pair, and is controlled to continue conveying until a state where the final sheet among the sheets conveyed in the forward direction is detected by a first detection portion, and subsequently to stop in a state where the final sheet is nipped by the reversing roller pair.