A finisher assembly of a multifunction peripheral includes a vertically oriented stapler and a paper transport motor. When the paper transport motor rotates in the forward direction, printed pages from the print engine of the multifunction peripheral are received via a paper chute and a feed assist roller urges the printed pages into a vertical paper accumulation cache basin. Rotation of the paper transport motor also opens a biasing plate allowing the pages to freely enter the cache basin. Once all of the pages of the print job are in the cache basin, the paper transport motor rotates in the reverse direction causing the biasing plate to bias the printed pages, in the cache basin, against a registration surface of the vertically oriented stapler unit. The pages of the print job are stapled together the stapled print job is moved to the paper tray for collection by a user.

In a stapling device, a first guide member and a second guide member are disposed one by one on both sides of a binding portion of the recording medium on a side of a recording medium placing of a placement table such that each of the guide members is rotatable, and the first guide member and the second guide member are rotatable between a first posture along a first direction in which one abutting end side extends and a second posture inclined with respect to the first direction in line symmetry with respect to an imaginary line that passes through the binding portion along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction.

A sheet processing apparatus includes: a processing tray section having a sheet mounting surface on which a transported sheet is mounted and a processing section that performs processing on the sheet; a side edge alignment section that is provided on the processing tray section and aligns a side edge of the sheet; a lower support section that is provided downstream of the processing tray section in a transport direction of the sheet and supports the sheet from below; and a discharge tray located below the lower support section. The side edge alignment section performs a shift operation of shifting the sheet in a shift direction orthogonal to the transport direction of the sheet. The lower support section moves in the shift direction in conjunction with a movement of the sheet in a state of supporting the sheet from below during the shift operation by the side edge alignment section.

In a stapling device, a first guide member and a second guide member are disposed one by one on both sides of a binding portion of the recording medium on a side of a recording medium placing of a placement table such that each of the guide members is rotatable, and the first guide member and the second guide member are rotatable between a first posture along a first direction in which one abutting end side extends and a second posture inclined with respect to the first direction in line symmetry with respect to an imaginary line that passes through the binding portion along a second direction orthogonal to the first direction.

In accordance with an embodiment, a sheet processing apparatus comprises a processing tray, a longitudinal alignment mechanism, a horizontal alignment mechanism and an interlocking mechanism. The processing tray can stack a sheet. The longitudinal alignment mechanism includes a rotatable paddle. The longitudinal alignment mechanism can align the sheets stacked on the processing tray in a sheet conveyance direction. The horizontal alignment mechanism includes a horizontal alignment plate movable in a sheet width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction. The horizontal alignment mechanism can align the sheets placed on the processing tray in the sheet width direction. The interlocking mechanism interlocks the paddle in the sheet width direction in synchronization with the movement of the horizontal alignment plate in the sheet width direction.

A sheet feeding device includes: a feeding unit that is provided to be movable in a forward-backward direction to move forward or backward relative to a sheet placing unit on which a sheet is placed, and feeds the sheet; a moving unit that moves the feeding unit in the forward-backward direction; a contact unit that is provided to be movable, with which the sheet placed on the sheet placing unit is brought into contact; a limitation unit that limits movement of the contact unit; and a releasing unit that, when the moving unit moves the feeding unit in a direction away from the sheet placing unit, with the movement of the feeding unit, releases limitation on the movement of the contact unit by the limitation unit.

A sheet feeding device includes: a feeding unit that is provided to be movable in a forward-backward direction to move forward or backward relative to a sheet placing unit on which a sheet is placed, and feeds the sheet; a moving unit that moves the feeding unit in the forward-backward direction; a contact unit that is provided to be movable, with which the sheet placed on the sheet placing unit is brought into contact; a limitation unit that limits movement of the contact unit; and a releasing unit that, when the moving unit moves the feeding unit in a direction away from the sheet placing unit, with the movement of the feeding unit, releases limitation on the movement of the contact unit by the limitation unit.

In accordance with an embodiment, a sheet processing apparatus comprises a processing tray, a longitudinal alignment mechanism, a horizontal alignment mechanism and an interlocking mechanism. The processing tray can stack a sheet. The longitudinal alignment mechanism includes a rotatable paddle. The longitudinal alignment mechanism can align the sheets stacked on the processing tray in a sheet conveyance direction. The horizontal alignment mechanism includes a horizontal alignment plate movable in a sheet width direction orthogonal to the sheet conveyance direction. The horizontal alignment mechanism can align the sheets placed on the processing tray in the sheet width direction. The interlocking mechanism interlocks the paddle in the sheet width direction in synchronization with the movement of the horizontal alignment plate in the sheet width direction.

The present invention includes a lift portion lifting and inverting a sheet group including a plurality of stacked sheets and a conveyor portion that moves, along a conveying direction, each sheet transferred from the lift portion, wherein: the lift portion includes frames, a fork portion, an inversion mechanism turning the fork portion to lift and invert the sheet group, and a fork movement mechanism moving the fork portion; the lift portion is equipped with a width direction movement mechanism moving the sheet group in a width direction; and after the sheet group is mounted on the fork portion and before the sheet group is transferred to the conveyor portion, the width direction movement mechanism is controlled on the basis of detection information from a position sensor to center the sheet group within a reference width direction range.

A recording medium post-processing apparatus includes: a stacker which is stacked with a plurality of sheet-like recording media with images being recorded thereon; an receiving device which receives at least one of information regarding the images to be recorded on the recording media and information regarding the recording media; an alignment device which applies an external force to the recording media stacked on the stacker so as to align the recording media; a controller which sets, on the basis of the at least one information received by the receiving device, at least one of (i) a stacked-sheet number that is the number of the recording media, and (ii) a magnitude of the external force that is applied to the recording media and which controls the alignment device on the basis of the setted at least one of the stacked-sheet number and the magnitude of the external force.