The invention relates to the production of books with wire or spiral bindings or other comparable bindings, wherein sub-layers (2) made of punched sheets are collected one over the other in a successive manner into a book (5) at a collecting station (3), and the book is subsequently bound. According to the invention, a sub-layer (2) is held in a clamped manner by at least one lateral clamping device (12) which moves together with the sub-layer while the sub-layer is transported into the collecting position, while the sub-layers (10) already collected at the collecting station (3) are held in a fixed manner by means of at least one needle (13) which is moved upwards through the punched holes (4) from below. The clamping of the pliers is released only when the needles (13) are also located in the punched holes (4) of the newly conveyed sub-layers (2) as a result of the needles being moved upwards.

An apparatus for conveying a sheet-formed item from a digital printing unit, the apparatus including an inlet side and an outlet side, and including a set of conveying devices for moving items in a conveying direction and a method for regulating such an apparatus. The apparatus includes a device for aligning an article from one position to another position in relation to one or more reference points, and a device for fixing an item at a given position in relation to a stop. The method includes the steps: detecting an item; receiving and conveying the item; regulating a possible skew position of the item as the item is moved against a stop on the conveying device, where the item is acted on by one speed of the conveyor belt and moved into abutment on the conveying means at a lower speed; and fixing the item in the aligned position.

An apparatus for conveying a sheet-formed item from a digital printing unit, the apparatus including an inlet side and an outlet side, and including a set of conveying devices for moving items in a conveying direction and a method for regulating such an apparatus. The apparatus includes a device for aligning an article from one position to another position in relation to one or more reference points, and a device for fixing an item at a given position in relation to a stop. The method includes the steps: detecting an item; receiving and conveying the item; regulating a possible skew position of the item as the item is moved against a stop on the conveying device, where the item is acted on by one speed of the conveyor belt and moved into abutment on the conveying means at a lower speed; and fixing the item in the aligned position.

A sheet conveying device includes a sensor, a corrector, and circuitry. The sensor detects a position of a first sheet and multiple second sheets. The corrector corrects the position of the sheet in at least one of a rotational direction or a width direction. The circuitry is to convey the multiple second sheets at a first conveyance speed, reduce the first conveyance speed of a preceding one of the multiple second sheets to a second conveyance speed until a space between the preceding one and a subsequent one of the multiple second sheets becomes a difference between a first length of the first sheet and a second length of the multiple second sheets, and cause the corrector to convey one of the multiple second sheets at the second conveyance speed within at least a part of time in which said one of the multiple second sheets is conveyed.

A post-processing apparatus includes a conveyance portion, a processing tray, a post-processing portion, a discharge tray, a discharge portion, and a control portion. The discharge portion includes an arm, a driving roller, and a driven roller. When stacking a sheet on the processing tray, the control portion brings the driving roller into contact with the sheet. Except when the sheet as the target of post-processing is retracted onto the processing tray, the control portion sets the downward movement speed of the driving roller to a normal speed. When the sheet as the target of post-processing is retracted onto the processing tray, the control portion sets the downward movement speed of the driving roller to a speed lower than the normal speed.

A post-processing apparatus includes a conveyance portion, a processing tray, a post-processing portion, a discharge tray, a discharge portion, and a control portion. The discharge portion includes an arm, a driving roller, and a driven roller. When stacking a sheet on the processing tray, the control portion brings the driving roller into contact with the sheet. Except when the sheet as the target of post-processing is retracted onto the processing tray, the control portion sets the downward movement speed of the driving roller to a normal speed. When the sheet as the target of post-processing is retracted onto the processing tray, the control portion sets the downward movement speed of the driving roller to a speed lower than the normal speed.

Provided is a technique that enables proper sorting of discharged print media by suppressing curling of each of the print media sufficiently. A determining unit determines a curling suppressing operation to be executed such that in a case where sorting operation is executed, the suppressing operation having a higher effect of suppressing curling is executed than in a case where the sorting operation is executed. Then, a print control unit controls a print head to perform printing on print media while executing the suppressing operation determined by the determining unit.

The shingling device comprises: a shingling conveyor, adapted to receive a stream of sheets aligned with one another and not overlapping; a braking device, positioned above the shingling conveyor and configured to slow down the sheets arriving to the shingling conveyor, and to partially overlap the incoming sheets in shingling fashion. The braking device comprises: a first set of braking wheels aligned with one another along a first rotation axis orthogonal to a feed direction of the sheets to the shingling conveyor; and a second set of braking wheels aligned with one another along a second rotation axis orthogonal to the feed direction of the sheets to the shingling conveyor.

A printing apparatus includes a printing unit, first and second conveyance units conveying a print medium, and a control unit performing reduction control to reduce an overlap amount between a preceding print medium and a succeeding print medium by using a speed difference. In a first case in which a trailing end of the preceding print medium and a leading end of the succeeding print medium are positioned in an interval between the first and second conveyance units, a conveying speed of the preceding print medium is set to a first speed. In a second case which is different from the first case and in which the trailing end and the leading end are positioned in the interval between the first and second conveyance units, the conveying speed of the preceding print medium is set to a second speed different from the first speed.