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 paper guide mechanism that facilitates operation without easily allowing deviation of a wide guide unit. In a paper guide mechanism (10), a position-holding member (13) holds the widthwise position of a widthwise moving member (12) by bringing a first fixing-side locking section (11e) and a first moving-side locking section (13d) into contact with each other on a surface perpendicular to a direction of movement of the widthwise moving member (12) even in a case in which the widthwise moving member (12) is about to move in any direction along the width direction. The position-holding member (13) has a movement-restricting section (13e). The movement-restricting section (13e) restricts the movement of the position-holding member (13) in an orientation in which the first fixing-side locking section (11e) and the first moving-side locking section (13d) are moved away from each other by bringing the position-holding member (13) into contact with a second surface of a supporting member (11) on a side opposite to a first surface.

An apparatus for transporting veneer sheets, where the veneer sheets each have an upper surface, a lower surface, and a plurality of edges connecting the upper surface to the lower surface. The apparatus includes a vacuum source and a conveyor for transporting individual sheets of veneer along a direction of travel to a predetermined location. The conveyor includes a belt running in the direction of travel. A vacuum opening adjacent the belt is in communication with the vacuum source to draw respective sheets of veneer to the belt by suction applied to the upper surface or the lower surface of the veneer sheets via the vacuum opening. The position of the conveyor is adjustable in a direction transverse the direction of travel to accommodate veneer sheets having different lengths.

A cover feeder for providing book covers to a production unit of a book completion line includes a first receiving device for book covers of the same format, which can be positioned individually, in an overlapping flow and/or in a stack thereon, and a second receiving device that is arranged upstream of the first receiving device for a stack of book covers having different formats. The cover feeder includes a control unit to which information can be transmitted relating to the format and sequence of book covers in the stack of book covers having different formats, and a laterally adjustable centering device connected to the control unit for a defined lateral displacement and/or aligning of respectively one book cover that is separated out from the second receiving device and is positioned on the first receiving device.

A sheet binding processing apparatus including a processing tray, a sheet positioning device, a first binding device, a second binding device, a driving device which moves the second binding device to a binding position where the sheets positioned by the sheet positioning device are to be bound and to a retracting position for retracting to the outside of the sheets positioned by the sheet positioning device, and a controller which controls the driving device and causes the second binding device to be located at the retracting position when the first binding device binds sheets.

A sheet post-processing device is connected to a punch processing unit. The punch processing unit includes a skew detection unit and a punch unit. The skew detection unit detects a skew amount of a sheet. The punch unit forms punch holes at positions of the sheet according to the skew amount. The sheet post-processing device includes a processing tray, a paddle, a driver, and a control unit. The sheet of which the skew amount is detected by the skew detection unit is mounted on the processing tray. The paddle conveys the sheet on the processing tray by a paddle operation. The driver drives the paddle to perform the paddle operation. The control unit is configured to operate the driver to control a number of times the paddle operation is performed by the paddle based on the skew amount.

In order to provide a configuration capable of suppressing reductions in productivity of sheets, a pair of regulation guides are capable of guiding opposite end edges in a sheet width direction Y of a sheet S1 conveyed by a conveyance belt and spheres, while being nipped. Further, the pair of regulation guides are capable of shifting to guide positions for guiding the opposite end edges of the sheet, and retract positions retracted from the opposite end edges of the sheet more than the guide positions. A sheet detecting sensor is disposed on the downstream side of the conveyance belt in a conveyance direction X to detect the presence or absence of the sheet.

In order to provide a configuration capable of correcting skew and lateral displacement of a sheet, a pair of regulation guides are capable of guiding opposite end edges in a sheet width direction of a sheet S conveyed by a conveyance belt and spheres, while being nipped. Further, the pair of regulation guides are capable of shifting to guide positions for guiding the opposite end edges of the sheet, and retract positions retracted from the opposite end edges of the sheet more than the guide positions, wherein a control section conveys the sheet by the conveyance belt in a state in which the pair of regulation guides are positioned in the retract positions, and brings a front end of the sheet in a state of being conveyed by the conveyance belt into contact with a conveyance roller pair with drive halted.

In order to provide a configuration capable of stably performing conveyance of sheets, a pair of regulation guides are capable of guiding opposite end edges in the sheet width direction Y of a sheet S conveyed by a conveyance belt and spheres, while being nipped. Further, the pair of regulation guides are capable of shifting to guide positions for guiding the opposite end edges of the sheet and retract positions retracted from the opposite end edges of the sheet more than the guide positions. In shifting the pair of regulation guides from the retract positions to the guide positions, a guide shift section causes the one of regulation guides to arrive at the guide position after the other of regulation guides arrives at the guide position.

The disclosure is directed to a printer device including a printer body, a paper correction module, and a processor. The printer body has a media feed path. The printer body detects a width of the paper to output a paper size signal. The paper correction module is installed in the media feed path. The paper correction module includes two paper guiding arms and an actuating mechanism. The actuating mechanism is capable of driving the two paper guiding arms to approach or move away from each other. The processor is electrically connected with the actuating mechanism. After the processor receives the paper size signal, the actuating mechanism is controlled to space the two paper guiding arms with a preset interval.