A sheet stacking device includes a pair of first sheet stackers, a pair of sheet alignment members, a second sheet stacker, a sheet removal portion, and control circuitry. The first sheet stackers stack both end portions of a sheet in a direction orthogonal to a sheet ejecting direction. The sheet alignment members contact both ends of the sheet in the orthogonal direction to align the sheet on the first sheet stackers. The second sheet stacker is disposed lower than the first sheet stackers and stacks the sheet dropped from between the first sheet stackers. The sheet removal portion is disposed on one side in the orthogonal direction. The control circuitry causes one of the first sheet stackers and one of the sheet alignment members to move toward an opposite side of the sheet removal portion in the orthogonal direction after the sheet is dropped from between the first sheet stackers.

In accordance with an embodiment, an image processing system comprises a discharge section, a first tray, a second tray, and a controller. The discharge section discharges a processed sheet. The first tray and the second tray vertically move to load the sheet discharged from the discharge section. The controller drives either one or both of the first tray and the second tray to carry out control to discharge a sheet to which an image forming processing is executed to one of the first tray and the second tray and carries out control to discharge a sheet to which a decoloring processing is executed to the other tray according to a type of a job received by a reception section.

A cart chassis is described which includes: multiple areas inside the chassis to accommodate either of two different types of modular accessory trays in multiple configurations. An upper platform of the chassis is to support a print engine.

A card mechanism used in an array with other card mechanisms. Each card mechanism handles plastic cards that are to be personalized and provided to end users. The plastic cards can be cards such as financial cards including credit and debit cards, identification cards, driver's licenses, and other plastic cards that are personalized. The card mechanism(s) can supply cards to be personalized in one or more other card mechanisms and/or in a card personalization machine used with the card mechanism(s) in which case the card mechanism(s) is configured as a card input hopper, collect cards that have been personalized in which case the card mechanism is configured as a card output hopper, and/or perform one or more personalization operations on the cards in which case the card mechanism is configured as a card personalization mechanism.

An image forming apparatus includes a main casing including an image forming unit and a discharge tray, and an optional device configured to be removably attached to the main casing. The main casing includes a conveying path through which a sheet is conveyed from the image forming unit, a discharge path through which the sheet is conveyed toward one of the discharge tray and the optional device, the discharge path diverging from the conveying path, and a return path including a first path through which the sheet is conveyed temporarily out of the main casing via an opening formed in the main casing, and a second path through which the sheet is conveyed toward the image forming unit. The first path diverges from the conveying path. The second path diverges from the first path. The optional device is disposed closer to the discharge tray than the opening.

A sheet feeder and an image forming apparatus comprises a sheet feed cassette, in which a sheet bundle formed by stacking a plurality of sheets can be placed, configured to carry out sheets of the placed sheet bundle one by one, and an alignment cassette, in which the sheets carried out from the sheet feed cassette can be placed in a stacked manner one by one, configured to align the stacked sheets at a predetermined timing.

A sheet safekeeping apparatus comprises a multistage tray in which a plurality of housing sections for accommodating sheets is arranged in a first direction, a removal port through which the accommodated sheet is taken out being formed in each of the plurality of the housing sections, and a cover configured for to close the removal port in an openable manner being provided in each of the plurality of the housing sections; a support section configured to support the multistage tray; a tray displacement unit configured to displace the multistage tray in the first direction with the support section; a conveyance unit configured to convey a sheet to the plurality of the housing sections; and a cover displacement unit configured to displace the cover of one housing section determined by an operation of the tray displacement unit among the plurality of the housing sections to open the removal port.

A medium accommodation cassette includes a first medium accommodation portion that forms a portion of a medium accommodation region and a second medium accommodation portion that forms a portion of the medium accommodation region and is configured to be switchable between a first state and a second state in which the second medium accommodation portion is displaced from a position thereof in the first state in a cassette removing direction so as to stretch the medium accommodation region. A step portion on a side surface, which is formed between the first medium accommodation portion and the second medium accommodation portion, is positioned inside an insertion/removal mouth when the second medium accommodation portion assumes the second state in the state in which the medium accommodation cassette is installed in the insertion/removal mouth.

A sheet discharge device of the present invention includes discharge rollers configured to transport a sheet in a predetermined transport direction and to discharge the sheet to a discharge tray, and an upper discharge tray disposed above the discharge tray with a space being interposed therebetween. A bottom face of the upper discharge tray that faces the discharge tray includes a guide rib extending in an oblique direction inclined relative to the transport direction.

A sheet sorting apparatus includes a first tray detachable from an apparatus main body, a second tray arranged below the first tray, a discharge unit to discharge a sheet to the first or second tray, a tray detecting unit to detect that the first tray is detached from the apparatus main body, a full stack detecting unit to detect a fully stacked condition of the first tray, and a control unit to control the discharge unit. In a case where the tray detecting unit detects that the first tray is detached from the apparatus main body, the control unit controls the discharge unit not to discharge a sheet to the second tray when a number of sheets discharged to the second tray reaches a threshold number of sheets, even though the full stack detecting unit does not detect the fully stacked condition.