The present invention is to provide a configuration facilitating removal of a sheet stopped on a conveying belt. In a sheet conveying apparatus that conveys a sheet using a conveying belt and balls, a sheet may be jammed and stopped on the conveying belt. In this case, it is difficult for a user to take out the sheet through a take-out port if the sheet is nipped by conveying roller pairs disposed upstream and downstream relative to the conveying belt in a sheet conveying direction. Thus, conveying roller pairs and the conveying belt are operated such that the sheet, which is stopped on the conveying belt and hence should be taken out through the take-out port, is brought into a state of being nipped only by the conveying belt and balls.

The present invention is to provide a configuration facilitating removal of a sheet stopped on a conveying belt. Regulating guides are disposed on both sides of a conveying belt in a sheet width direction Y and can guide both end edges in the sheet width direction of a sheet S conveyed while being nipped by the conveying belt and the balls. A take-out port is provided on the side closer to the regulating guide in the sheet width direction Y, through which a sheet stopped on the conveying belt is taken out. A guide moving part moves the regulating guides. When a sheet is stopped on the conveying belt, the guide moving part moves the first and second regulating guides such that the regulating guide is retracted to a position at which a support surface does not support a first sheet end edge.

The present invention is to provide a configuration capable of stably conveying a sheet irrespective of the basis weight of the sheet. A pair of regulating guides is disposed on both sides of a conveying belt in a sheet width direction Y, each having a support surface that supports an end edge in the width direction of the sheet conveyed while being nipped by the conveying belt and balls and a guide surface that faces the end edge of the sheet in the width direction. Each of the pair of regulating guides is movable to a first guide position at which the end edge of the sheet in the width direction is supported by the support surface and guided by the guide surface and to a second guide position at which the end edge of the sheet in the width direction is supported by the support surface.

The apparatus is capable of handling sheets of various lengths while suppressing an increase in apparatus size, wherein each of a pair of regulating guides is movable to a guide position at which an end edge of a sheet in a sheet width direction can be guided by a guide surface and to a retracting position retracting further away from the sheet width direction end edge than the guide position. For sheets S1 and S2 each having a first sheet length, the pair of regulating guides is made to reach the guide position from the retracting position in a state where the front end of the sheet is located between upstream and downstream ends of the guide surface. For a sheet S3 having a second sheet length that is longer than the first length, the pair of regulating guides is made to reach the guide position from the retracting position.

An apparatus for aligning at least one note of value along a transport path has at least one transport element and at least one first drive unit for driving the transport element. The driven transport element moves the note of value along the transport path in a transport direction. The transport element includes an endless drive belt, which is deflected over at least two rotatably mounted deflecting elements and a second drive unit for displacing one of the deflecting elements along its axis of rotation. By displacing the deflecting element, the note of value contacting the belt is moved obliquely to the transport direction. A further apparatus includes at least one vane wheel by which the note of value is movable transversely to the transport direction.

A method and apparatus for processing documents are provided. The apparatus includes a feeder for receiving a packet of a plurality of documents and separating the documents to serially feed the documents to a scanner. A drop feeder conveys the document packets to the feeder. A sensor provides information related to the thickness of the document packets and the drop feeder is controlled in response to the information related to the thickness of a packet in the feeder. The method includes the control of the drop feeder in response to information related to the thickness of a document packet at the feeder.

A saddle stitcher for printed products includes a saddle chain; a stitching machine; a controller; an ejector; and a delivery system. The delivery system includes: at least one lower conveyor belt and one upper conveyor belt; and at least one deflection roller for the lower conveyor belt, the at least one deflection roller being arranged in a radius. The lower conveyor belt has a first controllable self-propelled drive. The upper conveyor belt has a second controllable self-propelled drive. The controller is configured to separately control the first controllable self-propelled drive and the second controllable self-propelled drive. The controller is configured to provide a control that is exact to a cycle and is adjustable according to a thickness and a format of a respective printed product in a product flow.

A packaging machine having several work stations, a transport chain and a chain deflection pulley on which the transport chain is mounted. The transport chain comprises chain clips, each chain clip having an upper part and a lower part, wherein the upper part and/or the lower part may be moveable relative to each other to move the chain clips between an open position and a closed position. The material blank may be introduced into the open chain clips and secured in the closed chain clips to transport the material blank in a direction of transport using the transport chain. A chain opening mechanism may be actively and operably changed between an opening state and a closing state in order to open and close at least one chain clip disposed on a planar oriented section of the transport chain and/or to maintain an already opened chain clip in an open state.

A mail processing system utilizes a conveyor to shingle or de-shingle mailpieces as they move through the processing system and utilizes belts to move the mailpieces. A first shingling conveyor moves a first mailpiece to overlap with a second mailpiece to create shingled mailpieces. A second shingling conveyor moves a first mailpiece away from a second mailpiece to de-shingle them to create singulated mailpieces. A camera takes images of the mailpieces in the conveyor and image analysis software is used to determine dimensional aspects of the mailpieces that are used to control the belt speeds to move mailpieces with respect to each other. A mail processing system may include a mail processing station that scans addresses, applies postage and/or weighs the mailpieces. Mail may be de-shingled prior to being weighed and then re-shingled for subsequent processing, or mail may be shingled prior to passing through a scale if weighing is not necessary.

Provided is a circulation-type paper sheet storage unit equipped with circulation units in a casing, enabling to swiftly take measures and perform recovery processing on the user side when the circulation unit malfunctions. The paper sheet storage unit includes circulation units (100 and 200) that are accommodated in a casing 60 to receive paper sheets transported into the casing by operating upon reception of a drive force from a motor and feed paper sheets stored therein to outside of the casing. The casing includes guide members 620 that serve as a guide at the time of attaching or detaching the circulation unit with respect to the casing, and the circulation unit includes guided members (655A, 675A, 655B, and 675B) which respectively detachably engage with the guide member, and are guided to an installation completion position along the guide members in an engaged state.