A sheet processing includes a first conveyance path, a buffering portion, a second conveyance path, a conveyance roller pair, a supporting portion, a moving member, a regulating portion, and a processing unit. The buffering portion is configured to superimpose a first sheet and a second sheet on each other in a state of being offset from each other in a sheet conveyance direction. An offset amount, by which a leading end of the first sheet in the sheet conveyance direction projects downstream in the sheet conveyance direction with respect to a leading end of the second sheet in the sheet conveyance direction in a state before the first sheet and the second sheet are discharged onto the supporting portion, is larger than a distance from a sheet contact position of the moving member to the regulating portion in the sheet conveyance direction.

A sheet discharge apparatus includes a first tray for stacking sheets, and a sheet bundle forming unit that forms a sheet bundle on the first tray. The sheet bundle forming unit forms a first sheet bundle on the first tray, and forms a second sheet bundle on the first sheet bundle to be offset from the first sheet bundle. When forming each of the first sheet bundle and the second sheet bundle on the first tray, the sheet bundle forming unit divides sheets constituting each of the sheet bundles into a plurality of sets and discharges the sheets in a plurality of times for each sheet bundle. A number of sheets included in a first sheet set of the first sheet bundle is set smaller than a number of sheets included in a first sheet set of the second sheet bundle.

A sheet post-processing apparatus that performs post-processing on a sheet on which an image is formed includes: a punch hole forming portion; and a sheet bundle forming portion that has a conveyance portion, stops a first sheet on a conveyance path, and conveys a second sheet after the first sheet to a position overlapping the first sheet to form a sheet bundle. The sheet post-processing apparatus includes a shift portion to make a shift so that a relative position between the first sheet and the second sheet in a direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction becomes a relative position at which the second sheet does not overlap a punch hole of the first sheet to make the second sheet overlap the first sheet, and forms a sheet bundle in which sheets overlapped with each other are deviated in a width direction.

A method of grouping sheet units, which belong together in sheet groups, a sheet stream comprising two superposed sheet units each by means of a grouping unit, a grouping unit for a sheet handling system, and a sheet handling system that allow a high processing speed and a high cycle efficiency of a sheet handling system are disclosed. A sheet unit can be held back in the grouping unit. Depending on whether the downstream subsequent sheet units transferred into the grouping unit belong to a sheet group, the held-back sheet unit can be released by itself and together with one or together with both downstream subsequent sheet units.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a buffering portion having a reverse conveyance roller pair and an intermediate roller pair, with the reverse conveyance roller pair reversing a conveyance direction of a sheet received from a first conveyance path and delivering the reversed sheet into a second conveyance path and being configured to come into contact with and be separated from each other. The intermediate roller pair is disposed in the second conveyance path and disposed upstream of a conveyance roller pair in a sheet conveyance direction, and the reverse conveyance roller pair is caused to nip a first sheet and a second sheet by causing the reverse conveyance roller pair to abut each other after receiving the second sheet by the reverse conveyance roller pair from the first conveyance path in a state in which the intermediate roller pair nips the first sheet reversed by the reverse conveyance roller pair and the reverse conveyance roller pair is separated from each other.

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes a first conveyance path, a detection portion, a second conveyance path, a discharge unit, and a controller. The discharge unit is movable in a width direction and is configured to perform a discharge operation of discharging a sheet onto a first discharge portion and a reversing operation of reversing and conveying the sheet to the second conveyance path. The controller is configured to control the discharge unit and to execute a first alignment control when the reversing operation is performed. The first alignment control is a control in which the discharge unit moves the sheet in the width direction based on a position of the sheet detected by the detection portion to align the sheet at a target position.

A post-processing device for processing a sheet includes a post-processing section for post-processing a sheet; a buffer section for temporarily staying a plurality of sheets at an upstream of the post-processing section; and a conveying section for conveying, one by one, the plurality of sheets stayed at the buffer section to the post-processing section.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a roller pair configured to convey a sheet, a sheet bundle conveyer configured to convey a sheet bundle to the roller pair, and circuitry configured to cause the sheet bundle conveyer to contact leading edges of sheets of the sheet bundle to the roller pair and cause the roller pair to rotate in reverse to align the leading edges of the sheets of the sheet bundle.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a first sheet conveyance path, a second sheet conveyance path that branches from the first sheet conveyance path at a branch portion on the first sheet conveyance path and merges with the first sheet conveyance path at a merging portion, and a control unit. The control unit controls a guide unit so as to guide a first sheet conveyed first in the sheet bundle to be processed by a sheet processing unit to the second sheet conveyance path, and guide a second sheet following the first sheet to the first sheet conveyance path to merge the first and second sheets in an overlapping manner at the merging portion, and guide at least one of sheets following the second sheet among a plurality of sheets constituting the sheet bundle to the second sheet conveyance path.

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes a first conveyance path, a detection portion, a second conveyance path, a discharge unit, and a controller. The discharge unit is movable in a width direction and is configured to perform a discharge operation of discharging a sheet onto a first discharge portion and a reversing operation of reversing and conveying the sheet to the second conveyance path. The controller is configured to control the discharge unit and to execute a first alignment control when the reversing operation is performed. The first alignment control is a control in which the discharge unit moves the sheet in the width direction based on a position of the sheet detected by the detection portion to align the sheet at a target position.