Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including a conveyance section, an attraction section, an image forming section, and a hardware processor. The conveyance section includes conveyance surfaces on each of which a sheet can be placed and that conveys the sheet placed thereon. The attraction section that attracts the sheet onto the conveyance surfaces by sucking air from suction holes. The image forming section forms an image on the sheet. When a decrease of an attraction force by the attraction section is caused in executing a print job, the hardware processor causes one or more of the conveyance surfaces to suck and convey a non-print job sheet and then causes the one or more of the conveyance surfaces to consecutively suck and convey a print job sheet, and does not perform image formation on the non-print job sheet and performs the image formation on the print job sheet.

A sheet handling apparatus comprising a rotary drum having an outer peripheral wall with perforations, and a number of separate chambers, a suction system for controlling a flow of air through the perforations, thereby to attract sheets to the peripheral wall of the drum, and a stationary shutter member for blocking the flow of air through the perforations when they pass through a predetermined angular range. The number of separate chambers extend in axial direction and are distributed over the periphery of the drum. A disk-shaped manifold at the first axial end of the drum is co-rotatably with the drum. The manifold forms a number of radial channels each connected to one of said chambers and having an opening at a radially inward end of each channel. The stationary shutter member is arranged for blocking an opening of a channel to block air flow from a radially inward end of a channel.

Methods and apparatuses for moving and/or transferring discrete articles are described. In particular, the methods and apparatuses relate to flexible arrangements to move and/or transfer discrete articles that vary in size and/or shape with minimal to no change in equipment.

An apparatus and a method for singling value documents involve a feeding device adapted to feed a respectively uppermost value document of a stack of value documents to a picking device adapted to pick the value document from the stack. A conveying device is adapted to receive the stack and to convey it relative to the feeding device. A distance sensor is adapted to detect at least one distance of the respectively uppermost value document of the stack received by the conveying device relative to the feeding device and generate at least one corresponding distance sensor signal. A control device is adapted to control the conveying of the stack relative to the feeding device and the location of the feeding device relative to the stack based on the distance sensor signal.

An inspection device for a layer material has a layer conveyor and a drive to pick up an anode or cathode layer by a pickup from a transfer location and bring it to a delivery location. The layer turner delivers a single anode or cathode layer from its pickup to a stacking table at the delivery location. The drive aligns the pickup and the stacking table relative to each other depending on a signal based on processing of a first or second image feed. A first image sensor is aligned between the transfer location and the delivery location to perform a first image feed when the pickup of the layer turner passes the first image sensor. A second image sensor is aligned between the transfer location and the delivery location to perform a second image feed when the pickup of the layer turner passes the second image sensor.

Disclosed is an image forming apparatus including a conveyance section, an attraction section, an image forming section, and a hardware processor. The conveyance section includes conveyance surfaces on each of which a sheet can be placed and that conveys the sheet placed thereon. The attraction section that attracts the sheet onto the conveyance surfaces by sucking air from suction holes. The image forming section forms an image on the sheet. When a decrease of an attraction force by the attraction section is caused in executing a print job, the hardware processor causes one or more of the conveyance surfaces to suck and convey a non-print job sheet and then causes the one or more of the conveyance surfaces to consecutively suck and convey a print job sheet, and does not perform image formation on the non-print job sheet and performs the image formation on the print job sheet.