A sheet stacking apparatus is provided. A conveyor unit performs stacking of sheets discharged from a printing apparatus and conveying of stacked sheets. A detection unit detects whether or not the printing apparatus is currently discharging a sheet. A control unit, so as to secure a stacking space for a sheet discharged from the printing apparatus on the conveyor unit, controls a feeding operation of the conveyor unit correspondingly to a period of time over which the detection unit detected that the printing apparatus is discharging a sheet.

A medium processing apparatus includes an intermediate stacker on which media recorded by a recording apparatus are stacked, the recording apparatus including a liquid ejection head which performs recording by ejecting liquid to media and a maintenance apparatus which performs maintenance of the liquid ejection head, and a processor which executes a process on the media received by the intermediate stacker. The medium processing apparatus executes the process after a medium which is last recorded before the maintenance is stacked on the intermediate stacker.

An ink jet recording system including: a conveyance mechanism that includes a temperature controlling conveyance drum that conveys a recording medium to a recording mechanism; a recording mechanism that includes a temperature controlling recording drum that conveys the recording medium, and a process section that applies ink to one surface of the recording medium so as to record an image thereon, a first hardware processor that controls a reversing mechanism to reverse the recording medium to the one surface applied with ink and then delivers the recording medium to the conveyance mechanism, a discharging mechanism provided upstream of the reversing mechanism in a conveyance direction of the recording medium, and a second hardware processor that controls to switch conveyance paths and to determine whether the recording medium to which the ink is applied is conveyed to the discharging mechanism or the reversing mechanism.

A printing apparatus includes: a container which accommodates a print medium; a conveyor which has a first conveying route and which conveys the print medium from the container in a conveying direction along the first conveying route; a printing unit which prints an image on the print medium conveyed in the first conveying route; and a dividing unit which performs a dividing processing with respect to the print medium conveyed in the first conveying route. The conveyor is provided with a second conveying route which is branched from the first conveying route at a branching part and in which the print medium having the image printed thereon by the printing unit is conveyed, the printing unit and the dividing unit are positioned above the container; and the dividing unit and the branching part are positioned on an upstream side in the conveying direction with respect to the printing unit.

An image recording device is provided, having a recording unit configured to record an image on a sheet, and a tray disposed below the recording unit. The tray includes a sheet holding surface configured to hold the sheet. Additionally, the image recording device includes a sheet feeder disposed between the recording unit and the tray. The sheet feeder includes a roller for feeding the sheet from the tray. The roller is configured to move between a first roller position in which the roller contacts the sheet holding surface of the tray and a second roller position in which the roller is separated from the sheet holding surface. A return guide, disposed between the recording unit and the sheet feeder, defines a second conveying path to guide the sheet having an image recorded on one side thereof back to the feed guide. The return guide has a first opening configured to accommodate the roller of the sheet feeder when the roller is in the second roller position.

In a printer, a medium transporting apparatus includes a straight path through which a medium on which recording has been performed with the recording head is output, an inversion path through which the recording medium on which recording has been performed with the recording head is output to an output destination different from an output destination of the straight path, a switching member provided downstream of the recording head in a medium transport direction and configured to switch between a first state in which the switching member constitutes a portion of the straight path and a second state in which the switching member constitutes a portion of the inversion path, a motor that drives a pair of transport rollers that transports the medium, and a switching mechanism that switches between a first state and a second state with motive power of the motor.

The present invention relates to a printing system for cut sheets. The printing system comprises a paper path comprising a loop in order to enable duplex printing on the sheets in a continuous flow of sheets in a first and second interweaving pass in the loop. A controller controls simplex and/or duplex printing of image data on the continuous flow of sheets. A print engine is positioned in the loop configured to dispose marking material on the sheets according to the image data. A scheduler time schedules the continuous flow of sheets in an order of a plurality of actions comprising loading a sheet, printing the sheet in a first pass in the loop, printing the sheet in a second pass in the loop, and unloading the sheet. The scheduler is configured to use a digital representation of a directed graph of vertices and edges, each vertex representing an action of the plurality of actions on a sheet of the continuous flow of sheets and each edge representing an amount of time needed for a sheet to go from a starting vertex of the edge to an ending vertex of the edge. The directed graph also represents interweaving of sheets from a first pass and a second pass. The scheduler comprises a digital window mover for providing subsequent windows over the directed graph. Each window of the subsequent windows covers a finite subset of the vertices of the directed graph which correspond to actions on a number of subsequently sheets to be processed in the continuous flow of sheets, as to allow repetitive executions of an algorithm for finding a shortest path between vertices covered by the window. A window size determines for each window of the subsequent windows the amount of vertices in the window and a window step size determines which vertices are covered by the subsequent windows respectively.

A recording apparatus includes a recording unit, a first transport path through which a medium is transported in a first direction during recording, a second transport path through which the medium after the recording is transported along a path that is different from the first transport path in a second direction, a discharge roller pair that is disposed at a downstream position of the recording unit and that is configured to be displaced between a nipping position and a separation position, and a flap that is disposed downstream of the recording unit. When the following medium is transported on the first transport path, the preceding medium is transported on the second transport path, and the respective media are disposed at a position of the discharge roller pair at the same time, the discharge roller pair is disposed at the separation position, and the flap is disposed at an advanced position.

A recording apparatus includes a recording unit that performs recording on a recording medium, a first transport path through which the recording medium is transported in a first direction during the recording by the recording unit, and a second transport path which is connected to the first transport path at a downstream position of the recording unit in the first direction and through which the recording medium recorded by the recording unit is transported on a path that is different from the first transport path in a second direction that is different from the first direction. A transport distance between a position of the recording unit and a connecting position where the first transport path and the second transport path are connected to each other is configured to be changed.

A printing apparatus includes an image formation unit, a tray on which a medium is placed, a movement unit, and a control unit. The image formation unit includes a first head forming a first image and a second head forming a second image. The movement unit is provided so as to be capable of moving the tray to a first position at which the medium is placed and a second position serving as a reference position. The control unit switches between a first mode and a second mode. In the first mode, a starting position is moved to an image forming region, and the tray is not moved to the second position, and a movement direction is changed to form the first image and the second image. In the second mode, after the first image is formed, the tray is moved to the second position, and then the movement direction is changed to form the second image.