A sheet transport system for moving a sheet in a transport direction while adjusting a position of the sheet in a lateral direction normal to the transport direction to a target position, includes first and second pinch roller sets spaced apart from one another in the transport direction, each pinch roller set including two pairs of pinch rollers spaced apart from one another in the lateral direction, each pair forming a nip for pinching and driving the sheet with an individually controllable speed; a detection system for detecting a position of the sheet in the lateral direction while the sheet is pinched by the first pinch roller set; and a control system configured for carrying out the following actions: by controlling the speeds of the pinch rollers of the first pinch roller set before the sheet has reached the second pinch roller set, rotating the sheet by a first rotation angle for adjusting a given reference point on a leading part of the sheet to its target position; and when the sheet has left the first pinch roller set and while the reference point travels along a path segment that is symmetric with respect to the second pinch roller set, rotating, by controlling the speeds of the pinch rollers of the second pinch roller set, the sheet by a second rotation angle for aligning a leading edge of the sheet in the lateral direction.

A sheet conveying device includes a position detector configured to detect a position of a side end portion of a conveyance target medium, a position adjuster configured to move in at least one of a width direction of the conveyance target medium and a rotation direction of the conveyance target medium within a plane of sheet conveyance, while conveying the conveyance target medium, and adjust a position of the conveyance target medium, according to the position of the side end portion of the conveyance target medium detected by the position detector, a transfer rotary body disposed downstream from the position adjuster in a sheet conveying direction and having a receiver mounted on the rotary body to receive the conveyance target medium, and circuitry configured to change a rotation speed of the transfer rotary body according to the position of the conveyance target medium after adjusted by the position adjuster.

The image forming apparatus includes a transfer section that transfers an image to a sheet; a sheet conveying member that is provided on an upstream side of the transfer section in a conveying direction of the sheet and that conveys the sheet; and a hardware processor that controls displacement of the sheet conveying member such that the sheet is displaced in a width direction of the sheet. The hardware processor causes a detector that detects an edge of the sheet in the width direction to detect the edge of the sheet after displacement of the sheet conveying member has been started, and causes the displacement to be terminated on the basis of the detected result such that the edge of the sheet reaches a target position.

A sheet stacker includes a pair of sheet holders, a sheet leading-edge aligner, a sheet stacking member, and control circuitry. A downstream side of the pair of sheet holders in a conveyance direction of a conveyed sheet is lowered along the conveyance direction. Each one of the pair of sheet holders is movable in an orthogonal direction to the conveyance direction. The pair of sheet holders hold both side-end portions of the sheet in the orthogonal direction. The sheet stacking member is disposed below the pair of sheet holders. A downstream side of the sheet stacking member in the conveyance direction is lowered along the conveyance direction. The sheet stacking member stacks the sheet dropped from the pair of sheet holders after a leading edge of the sheet is aligned by the leading-edge aligner. The control circuitry controls operations of the leading-edge aligner and the pair of sheet holders.

A sheet stacker includes a pair of sheet holders, a sheet leading-edge aligner, a sheet stacking member, and control circuitry. A downstream side of the pair of sheet holders in a conveyance direction of a conveyed sheet is lowered along the conveyance direction. Each one of the pair of sheet holders is movable in an orthogonal direction to the conveyance direction. The pair of sheet holders hold both side-end portions of the sheet in the orthogonal direction. The sheet stacking member is disposed below the pair of sheet holders. A downstream side of the sheet stacking member in the conveyance direction is lowered along the conveyance direction. The sheet stacking member stacks the sheet dropped from the pair of sheet holders after a leading edge of the sheet is aligned by the leading-edge aligner. The control circuitry controls operations of the leading-edge aligner and the pair of sheet holders.

A printing device to skew print media in accordance with pre-determined offsets, in order to assist a user to delineate the print media of successive print jobs.

A printing device is provided comprising a camera to capture an image of at least a portion of a print substrate; a controller to determine a location of a portion of a side edge of the substrate from the image to determine a distance of the print substrate from a predetermined location; and adjustment apparatus to adjust the entire substrate laterally, relative to the direction of transport of the substrate, based on the determined location.

A sheet conveying device includes a sheet conveying passage, an upper conveying guide provided in the sheet conveying passage and facing the upper surface of a sheet, a lower conveying guide facing the lower surface of the sheet, a conveying member conveying the sheet along the sheet conveying passage, a sheet stack tray arranged above the upper conveying guide. The upper conveying guide is swingable up and down, with one end part of it in the sheet conveying direction or in the sheet width direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction serving as a pivot shaft. The sheet stack tray has a movable part making contact with the upper conveying guide at least when it swings, and the movable part is movable between a sheet receiving position where it forms a sheet stack surface and a retracted position where it has swung upward from the sheet receiving position.

An edge position detecting apparatus includes a light emitting device, a detecting device, and a calculating circuit. The light emitting device includes a plurality of light sources with different emission wavelengths. The light emitting device irradiates a conveyed object with linear light along a width direction of the conveyed object, the width direction being perpendicular to a conveying direction of the conveyed object. The detecting device detects, at a plurality of positions in the width direction of the conveyed object, intensity of reflected light of light emitted by the light emitting device. The calculating circuit calculates, based on a detection result of the detecting device, a position of an edge of the conveyed object in the width direction.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion, a fixing unit, a position adjustment mechanism, a number-of-printed-sheets counter, and a control unit. The image forming portion includes an image carrier, a charging unit, an exposure unit, a developing unit, and a transfer member. The fixing unit has a heated rotary member and a pressing member and heats and presses the sheet passing through a fixing nip portion. A position adjustment mechanism adjusts the width-direction position of the sheet parallel to the scanning direction of optical scanning by the exposure unit. Every time the number of printed sheets reaches a predetermined number, the control unit makes the correction unit shift the width-direction position of the sheet by a predetermined amount and changes the start position of scanning by the exposure unit on the image carrier according to the direction and amount of shift.