A vacuum belt conveyor sequentially delivers sheet articles to a digital printer. The sheets are held in position by vacuum on the underside of the sheets through apertures in the belts and covered by the sheets. A plurality of independent plenums on the underside of the belt have chambers respectively communicating with rows of apertures extending along the belt. Vacuum is selectively applied from a manifold only to the plenum chambers that supply apertures that are covered by the sheets so that the ink from the printer will not be directed from its intended position on the sheet by vacuum from adjacent uncovered belt apertures. The sheets are fed to the conveyor in synchronism with the conveyor speed by a timed feeder so that the sheets are carried by the conveyor with a predetermined gap between the sheets and no belt apertures in the gap. A sensor counts the apertures in the belt and activates the feeder at predetermined time intervals.

A vacuum belt conveyor sequentially delivers sheet articles to a digital printer. The sheets are held in position by vacuum on the underside of the sheets through apertures in the belts and covered by the sheets. A plurality of independent plenums on the underside of the belt have chambers respectively communicating with rows of apertures extending along the belt. Vacuum is selectively applied from a manifold only to the plenum chambers that supply apertures that are covered by the sheets so that the ink from the printer will not be directed from its intended position on the sheet by vacuum from adjacent uncovered belt apertures. The sheets are fed to the conveyor in synchronism with the conveyor speed by a timed feeder so that the sheets are carried by the conveyor with a predetermined gap between the sheets and no belt apertures in the gap. A sensor counts the apertures in the belt and activates the feeder at predetermined time intervals.

An image forming apparatus includes a conveyor, an actuator, an image forming unit, a detection unit, and a controller. The conveyor transports a sheet having a length measured in a transport direction. The actuator drives the conveyor. The image forming unit forms an image on the sheet. The detection unit includes a first sheet detection sensor that outputs a detection signal indicating whether the sheet transported by the conveyor passes through a first predetermined detection position. The controller controls the actuator based on the length of the sheet in response to an indication that the detection unit is not operating normally.

There is provided a mechanism for determining whether to perform processing of lifting up a document tray upon detection of a document depending on an active application. A method for controlling an image processing apparatus includes lifting up a document tray upon placement of a document on the document tray, conveying the document placed on the document tray lifted up in the lifting, reading the document conveyed in the conveying, and registering, for an application, whether to lift up the document tray upon the placement of the document on the document tray.

A medium feeding device includes a storage unit that stores media in a form of a sheet, a delivery unit that is disposed downstream in a medium delivery direction relative to the media stored in the storage unit and that delivers the media individually, a transfer unit that is disposed above the storage unit and that sticks by suction to each of the media stored in the storage unit and transfers the media to the delivery unit individually, and a fluffing unit that is disposed beside the media stored in the storage unit in a direction intersecting the medium delivery direction. The fluffing unit fluffs an upper-side region of the media in a state of being separated by blowing air toward a side of the media. The medium feeding device further includes plural position detection units that are arranged in a region that is on the delivery unit side relative to a position of a downstream end portion, in the medium delivery direction, of each of the media stored in the storage unit and that does not reach a contact portion where the delivery unit comes into contact with the media. The position detection units are arranged at an interval in a width direction of the media intersecting the medium delivery direction. The position detection units detect a position of the downstream end portion, in the medium delivery direction, of each of the media.

A bill processing apparatus which is capable of reliably supplying information on a bill to the bill housing body side. The paper sheet processing apparatus has a bill housing part (100) being capable of housing a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot, and also a reader/writer (142) which wirelessly transmits information on the bill inserted from the bill insertion slot. The bill housing part (100) has a coil antenna (104c) which wirelessly receives the information transmitted from the reader/writer (142), and a storage part (104b) which stores the information on the bill received from the coil antenna (104c).

A bill processing apparatus which is capable of reliably supplying information on a bill to the bill housing body side. The paper sheet processing apparatus has a bill housing part (100) being capable of housing a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot, and also a reader/writer (142) which wirelessly transmits information on the bill inserted from the bill insertion slot. The bill housing part (100) has a coil antenna (104c) which wirelessly receives the information transmitted from the reader/writer (142), and a storage part (104b) which stores the information on the bill received from the coil antenna (104c).

A printing apparatus includes a first feeding roller, a feeding motor configured to drive the first feeding roller, a second feeding roller, a conveyance roller, a conveyance motor configured to drive the conveyance roller, a printing unit configured to print the printing sheet, a detection sensor configured to detect the leading edge of the printing sheet, and a control unit configured to, when the printing unit performs a printing operation on a preceding sheet, drive the feeding motor in synchronization with the conveyance motor before the detection sensor detects the leading edge of a succeeding sheet, and continuously drive the feeding motor so that the conveying speed of the succeeding sheet by the feeding motor becomes higher than that of the preceding sheet after the detection sensor detects the leading edge of the succeeding sheet.

A printing apparatus includes a first feeding roller, a feeding motor configured to drive the first feeding roller, a second feeding roller, a conveyance roller, a conveyance motor configured to drive the conveyance roller, a printing unit configured to print the printing sheet, a detection sensor configured to detect the leading edge of the printing sheet, and a control unit configured to, when the printing unit performs a printing operation on a preceding sheet, drive the feeding motor in synchronization with the conveyance motor before the detection sensor detects the leading edge of a succeeding sheet, and continuously drive the feeding motor so that the conveying speed of the succeeding sheet by the feeding motor becomes higher than that of the preceding sheet after the detection sensor detects the leading edge of the succeeding sheet.

A bill processing apparatus which is capable of reliably supplying information on a bill to the bill housing body side. The paper sheet processing apparatus has a bill housing part being capable of housing a bill inserted from a bill insertion slot, and also a reader/writer which wirelessly transmits information on the bill inserted from the bill insertion slot. The bill housing part has a coil antenna which wirelessly receives the information transmitted from the reader/writer, and a storage part which stores the information on the bill received from the coil antenna.