According to one embodiment, the sheet conveying device includes a tray, an elevating mechanism, a conveyance roller, and a resistance member. The tray stacks a plurality of sheets. The elevating mechanism lifts and lowers the tray in the stacking direction of a plurality of sheets. The conveyance roller conveys the plurality of sheets in the conveyance direction from the upper side in the stacking direction. The resistance member comes into contact with the leading ends of the plurality of sheets in the conveyance direction. The resistance member imparts a sliding resistance larger than that of the sheet stacking surface of the tray to the leading ends of the plurality of sheets that are lifted and lowered by the elevating mechanism.

An image forming apparatus includes a sheet conveyance passage, an image forming apparatus, a sheet discharge unit, an apparatus body, a sheet discharge port, a pair of sheet pressing members, a discharge tray, and an overhang portion. The image forming unit includes an image carrying member. The sheet discharge unit is disposed above the image forming unit. The sheet discharge port is provided in the sheet discharge unit and has an upper edge and a lower edge. The pair of sheet pressing members press the sheet passing through the sheet discharge port. The overhang portion protrudes from the upper edge of the sheet discharge port in the sheet discharge direction beyond the lower edge. The overhang portion is disposed such that the straight line passing through the distal end of the overhang portion and the lower edge of the sheet discharge port passes above the image carrying member.

A holder supports a separation member. When a sheet cassette is attached to a main body portion, as the sheet cassette is moved in its attachment direction, a moving mechanism causes the holder to move from an initial position to an operation position. When the holder is at the initial position, the separation member is spaced from a feeding member and is able to pass below the feed-out member. When at the operation position, the holder presses the separation member against the feeding member. When the sheet cassette is attached to the main body portion, the moving mechanism causes the holder to move to the operation position after the separation member passes below the feed-out member. When the sheet cassette is drawn from the main body portion, the moving mechanism causes the holder to move to the initial position before the separation member reaches below the feed-out member.

A sheet stacking apparatus includes a discharge unit, a stacking portion on which discharged sheets are stacked, a lifting unit, and first and second abutting portions. The lifting unit lifts and lowers the stacking portion. The first abutting portion abuts a trailing end of the stacked sheets in a sheet discharge direction. The first abutting portion does not move in an up-down direction. The second abutting portion abuts the stacked sheets trailing end. The first abutting portion supports the second abutting portion such that the second abutting portion is movable in the up-down direction. If the stacking portion is lowered from a first to a second position below the first position, the second abutting portion does not move in accordance with the stacking portion. If the stacking portion is further lowered beyond the second position, the second abutting portion moves in accordance with the stacking portion.

A sheet discharging apparatus includes a first detecting portion provided in an apparatus body and configured to detect a move of a movable member in a state where a movable tray is at an upper limit position in a moving direction of the movable tray, wherein a detection result of the first detecting portion changes depending on a position of the movable tray in the moving direction. In addition, a second detecting portion detects the position of the movable tray in the moving direction, and a control portion, in a case where the second detecting portion detects that the movable tray is at the upper limit position, determines whether a sheet is present on the movable tray based on the detection result of the first detecting portion. When the second detecting portion does not detect that the movable tray is at the upper limit position, the control portion determines that a sheet is present on the movable tray regardless of the detection result of the first detecting portion.

A sheet discharging device includes: a pair of medium supporting portions that have support surfaces that support the medium, and support the transported medium by the support surfaces; a stacking portion which is provided vertically below the pair of medium supporting portions and on which the medium dropped from the pair of medium supporting portions is stacked; and a standing wall that aligns the medium by contacting a rear end of the medium in the transport direction supported by the pair of medium supporting portions, and the standing wall includes: a center contacting wall that is provided at a center in the width direction and contacts the rear end of the medium; and recess portions that are provided on both sides of the center contacting wall in the width direction and are recessed in a direction away from the support surfaces.

A flange portion extending outward from a main shaft portion is disposed outside a side plate with respect to a position of an attachment member in a main direction when the attachment member is mounted to the side plate. A restriction slot is formed in the attachment member such that the flange portion can be fitted in and pass through the restriction slot. In the middle of the process where the attachment member is mounted to a second side plate in the main direction, the flange portion is fitted in the restriction slot, thereby the sheet detecting member is restricted from rotating, and one of a pair of projection portions of a sheet guide member is inserted in a hole of the attachment member.

A sheet supplying device includes: an air blow opening configured to blow air to a side portion of an uppermost part of stacked sheets; and a flow adjuster extending from above the air blow opening over an edge of a top sheet of the stacked sheets and configured to cause an air flow blown from the air blow opening to travel along an upper surface of the top sheet of the stacked sheets.

A sheet feeding apparatus includes a stacking portion having a stacking surface on which sheets are stacked, a feeding portion configured to feed the sheets stacked on the stacking surface, and an abutment member having a contact surface configured to contact edges of the sheets stacked on the stacking surface and extending along a stacking direction of the sheets. The abutment member moves with a constant contact angle between the contact surface and the edges of the sheets in a cross section parallel with the stacking direction in a case where the contact surface is pushed by the sheets inserted toward the feeding portion in an insertion direction. In addition, a detection portion is configured to output a detection signal in accordance with a position of the abutment member.

The invention relates to a sheet depositing arrangement. The sheet depositing arrangement comprises at least one sheet depositing apparatus having a sheet stacking chamber for creating a sheet stack, and a sheet extraction device which in turn has a sheet transporting means that is drivable in a direction of circulation, a sheet delivery region for delivering the sheets to be stacked to the sheet stacking chamber, a sheet stacking region, provided downstream of the sheet delivery region, for stacking the sheets to be stacked into the sheet stacking chamber, and a return region, provided downstream of the sheet stacking region. Furthermore, the sheet depositing apparatus has a sheet retaining device with at least one sheet retaining element, arranged adjacent to the sheet stacking region, for preventing at least one sheet to be stacked from being drawn into the sheet extraction device from the sheet stacking chamber by the sheet transporting means.