A recording medium feeder includes: a first cassette and a second cassette that are disposed side by side in a cross direction and can be pulled out in the same pull-out direction; a housing that houses the first cassette and the second cassette; a transport unit that is disposed above the second cassette in the housing and transports a recording medium sent from the first cassette; and a feeding unit that is disposed in the housing and feeds a recording medium stored in the first cassette toward the transport unit, wherein the transport unit can be pulled out in the same direction as the first cassette and the second cassette, the feeding unit includes a first roller and a second roller that sandwich and transport a recording medium, and the first roller or the second roller releases the sandwiching when the first cassette is pulled out.

A suction fan of a sheet feeder sucks in air through a sheet feeding belt to generate flotation air. The suction fan uses the flotation air to attract set sheets by suction. A belt motor rotates a sheet feeding belt and feeds out a sheet of the set sheets. An interval measurer measures a sheet-to-sheet interval when the suction fan is attracting the sheet by suction. Based on an output of the interval measurer, a controller recognizes the sheet-to-sheet interval. Based on the recognized sheet-to-sheet interval, the controller adjusts a flow rate of the flotation air.

A sheet stacking apparatus includes a stacking unit on which a sheet bundle is to be stacked, a lifting unit that can lift and lower the stacking unit, and an air blower unit that can apply air to a side face of the sheet bundle via an air blowing port. The stacking unit further includes a stacking face that comes into contact with and holds a lowermost sheet of the sheet bundle, and a support portion that supports a portion of the stacking face near an end portion thereof, and has a face that is not parallel to the stacking face. The support portion includes a ventilating portion that allows air blown out by the air blower unit from a portion of the air blowing port to pass through the ventilating portion, the portion of the air blowing port being below the stacking face.

A dish cart includes a top with a slot for receiving a lift arm that may be lifted up through the slot to raise or lower dishes. Lobe openings emanating from the slot receive lobes of a lift paddle secured to the lift arm. The cart may define a gap below the top for permitting insertion of the lift paddle and the lift arm. The cart may be adjusted to receive differently sized dishes by means of rails of different sizes or adjustable vanes. A dish drop station includes the lift arm and lift paddle and a lift mechanism for raising and lower the lift arm. The dish drop station may include a cart present sensor and include a lock for retaining the cart. The controller may be programmed to the lower the lift arm to an unlock position that disengages the cart lock.

A dish cart includes a top with a slot for receiving a lift arm that may be lifted up through the slot to raise or lower dishes. Lobe openings emanating from the slot receive lobes of a lift paddle secured to the lift arm. The cart may define a gap below the top for permitting insertion of the lift paddle and the lift arm. The cart may be adjusted to receive differently sized dishes by means of rails of different sizes or adjustable vanes. A dish drop station includes the lift arm and lift paddle and a lift mechanism for raising and lower the lift arm. The dish drop station may include a cart present sensor and include a lock for retaining the cart. The controller may be programmed to the lower the lift arm to an unlock position that disengages the cart lock.

A sheet feeding device capable of improving user's convenience even in a case where non-long sheets and long sheets are switchingly used. A sheet storage opened and closed for storing sheets to be used for image formation. A deck supply path feeds sheets from the sheet storage. A first and a second lift plate are provided in the sheet storage, side by side, in a sheet feeding direction. The first and second lift plates can be lifted up and down by a lift mechanism. A CPU determines whether or not an operation concerning storing long sheets in the sheet storage has been performed. When it is determined that the operation has been performed, the CPU controls the lift mechanism to cause the levels of the first and second lift plates to match each other.

A sheet feeding apparatus for feeding a sheet includes a first lift tray configured to move up or down in a first lift range and to support a sheet; a sheet feeding unit configured to feed a sheet supported by the first lift tray; and a second lift tray configured to move up or down in a second lift range and to support a sheet in cooperation with the first lift tray. A lowest position in the second lift range is a position above a lowest position in the first lift range, and the second lift range is a range which is narrower than the first lift range.

An image forming apparatus performs printing of a plurality of copies of a document in response to execution of a printing job. Each copy includes a plurality of sheets. The image forming apparatus includes a first ejection tray; a second ejection tray; and a first sensor; and circuitry. The circuitry is configured to: start sheet ejection to the first ejection tray; switch a sheet-ejection destination to the second ejection tray in response to detecting that the first ejection tray is at a full level during printing of a first copy; calculate an amount of vacant space of the second ejection tray in response to completion of the printing of the first copy; and perform printing of a second copy to the second ejection tray or to suspend the execution of the printing job, based on the amount of vacant space.

A printing system executes printing of a plurality of copies of a document, and includes first and second paper eject trays. The printing system ejects a plurality of paper sheets of the document to the first or second paper eject tray; detects a full state or a near full state being a predetermined number of paper sheets less than the full state; and ejects the paper sheets of a next copy to the first paper eject tray until the first paper eject tray is full and subsequently to the second paper eject tray, in response to detecting that a total ejectable paper sheet number is greater than or equal to the number of paper sheets of the next copy, the total ejectable paper sheet number being obtained by adding together the numbers of paper sheets that can be ejected to the first and second paper eject trays.

A medium feeding apparatus includes: a feed tray on which media M are placed; a draw-out unit that draws out an uppermost medium among the media placed on the feed tray; a hanging member that hangs the feed tray; and a load member that applies, when an amount of the media placed on the feed tray is equal to or smaller than a predetermined amount, a downward load to a portion of the feed tray located on an upstream side in a draw-out direction of the media.