A medium dispensing device including a storage section that stores a sheet shaped medium, a conveying section that conveys the medium, plural dispensing ports that dispense the medium, an instruction reception section that receives from plural external terminal devices instructions related to dispensing the medium, a controller that, based on the instructions, feeds out the medium from the storage section and conveys the medium to a dispensing port using a conveying section, and a notification section that notifies a correspondence between the terminal device that the instruction is received from and the dispensing port for dispensing the medium. The notification section is equipped with a display section that displays characters, graphics, symbols, images, hue, or brightness, or a combination thereof.

A production configuration is determined for controlling a product processing plant that comprises a collecting system having a conveyor and a plurality of feeders for preparing product collections from products supplied by the feeders. The production configuration defines a production of a plurality of production sequences for a plurality of delivery routes, wherein each delivery route is assigned one or more production sequences, each of which define a production of a plurality of production collections of a collection type comprising a plurality of products. For each feeder an occupancy with products, which are to be conveyed by the feeder to the conveyor for preparation for the product collections, is determined. A production optimization parameter determines whether a defined production order is to be maintained for the delivery routes or whether the production order of the delivery routes can be altered. If the production order can be altered, the production sequences of a plurality of delivery routes for the production of production collections of the same collection type are combined to a cohesive production sequence and the occupancy of the feeders is determined for the production order with combined production sequences.

In an image forming system, a hardware processor controls whether the first sheet is conveyed to an upstream side of the image former via a first conveying path which reverses sides of the first sheet or via a second conveying path which does not reverse the sides of the first sheet as well as the first conveying path, when images are formed on both sides of a plurality of the first sheets by the image former, in order to narrow a space between a plurality of the first sheets.

A printing apparatus includes a printing head that prints on a printing medium, a moving member that moves reciprocally with the printing head, and a conveying member that conveys the printing medium in a direction which intersects a printing head moving direction. Also included are a module contained in a contained position in a non-printing period, and developed in a developed position in a printing period, and a drive connection member that moves the module between the contained and developed positions with conveying member drive. The drive connection member includes a trigger arm that enters a printing head moving area when the moving member is driven in a direction opposite to which the printing medium is conveyed. When the moving member presses and moves the trigger arm, the conveying member is connected to the module such that a connected state in which the driving force transmission is maintained.

An image forming apparatus which prevents degradation of sheets stacked in a stacking unit. A sheet feeding unit has a first stacking unit and a second stacking unit. When sheets stacked in the first stacking unit have run out, sheets stacked in the second stacking unit are moved to the first stacking unit. A remaining amount of sheets in the sheet feeding unit is indicated on a display unit. When sheets are stacked in the second stacking unit, the display unit provides an indication that a remaining amount of sheets in the sheet feeding unit is the largest.

A sheet property measurement device includes a passage configured to allow a sheet to be manually inserted thereinto; a reading sensor configured to read a surface of the sheet inserted into the passage; a detection unit having a displacement member configured to be brought into contact with the sheet downstream of a reading position of the reading sensor in an insertion direction in which the sheet is inserted and change in displacement amount depending on a thickness of the sheet, the detection unit being configured to detect the displacement amount of the displacement member; a sheet sensor configured to detect the sheet that has arrived at a detection position downstream of the displacement member in the insertion direction; and a controller.

An image forming apparatus includes an apparatus main body, a sheet storage cassette, a sheet feed unit, a first detection sensor having a first detector for detecting the presence/absence of sheets stacked on a sheet stacking plate, a second detection sensor having a second detector for detecting the position of the top face of the sheets stacked on the sheet stacking plate, a cassette detection sensor, a driving device, and a controller. The sheet feed unit includes a first actuator for switching detection states of the first detection sensor and a second actuator for switching detection states of the second detection sensor. The controller determines the mounting state of the sheet feed unit based on the detection state of the first and second detection sensors.

An image forming apparatus, including: a decision unit configured to decide a size of a recording material on a manual feed tray; a storage unit configured to store the size of the recording material decided by the decision unit when the image forming apparatus is shifted from a first mode in which power is supplied to the decision unit to a second mode in which the power is not supplied to the decision unit; a display unit configured to display information; and a control unit configured to cause the display unit to display a screen for confirming the size of the recording material on the manual feed tray in a case where the size of the recording material decided by the decision unit when the apparatus is shifted from the second mode to the first mode does not match the size of the recording material stored in the storage unit.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes a sheet conveying unit configured to convey a sheet along a conveyance path, a detecting unit configured to detect the sheet passing along the conveyance path, a control unit configured to determine an amount of delay of a sheet conveyed along the conveyance path based on the detection and determine information to be output based on the amount of the delay, and an output unit configured to output the information.

An operation panel is integrated into a conveying unit, and the operation panel and a conveying roller are displaced with respect to each other in a sheet width direction crossing a sheet conveying direction. The operation panel and the conveying roller are located in a manner at least partly overlapping each other in the sheet conveying direction and a height direction in the conveying unit. Further, the operation panel and the conveying roller are at least partly located within a range of a width of a sheet conveying area by the conveying unit.