A tape feeder (part feeding device) includes a main body including a transporting passage for guiding a part feeding tape to a part removing position, a conveyor for positioning a storage of the part feeding tape which is inserted to the transporting passage to the part removing position, and a part detector for detecting the part stored in the storage in the transporting passage at the upstream side of the part removing position. The transporting passage includes a travelling surface for supporting the part feeding tape from underneath, a pair of side guides for guiding two side surfaces of the part feeding tape, and a squeezed portion in which a distance between the pair of side guides is gradually reduced from the upstream side of the part detector toward a part detecting position of the part detector.

An image forming apparatus includes a control unit and an attachment detection unit to detect attachment of a cassette having a stacking portion that may be lifted by a motor. The control unit drives the motor to start lifting the stacking portion when cassette attachment is detected and stops when the stacked uppermost sheet is detected at a sheet feed position, at which time the presence or absence of the stored sheet is determined based on a detection signal output by a sheet presence/absence detection unit. In a case where there is no change in the detection signal output from the sheet presence/absence detection unit when the attachment of the cassette is detected, the control unit determines that a failure of the sheet presence/absence detection flag occurred.

A cassette connectable to a printer includes a housing configured to house a recording sheet, a connector that is connected to a feed port of the printer for supplying the recording sheet to the printer, and a sensor group including sensor modules that measure a state in a space surrounded by the housing.

Provided is a technique that enables proper sorting of discharged print media by suppressing curling of each of the print media sufficiently. A determining unit determines a curling suppressing operation to be executed such that in a case where sorting operation is executed, the suppressing operation having a higher effect of suppressing curling is executed than in a case where the sorting operation is executed. Then, a print control unit controls a print head to perform printing on print media while executing the suppressing operation determined by the determining unit.

In an example of the disclosure, power of a first light beam emitted across a web media along a length of the roller is measured utilizing a first optical transmitter and first optical receiver pair situated adjacent to a roller. Power of a second light beam emitted across a length of the roller is measured utilizing a second optical transmitter and second optical receiver pair situated adjacent to the roller. A media height non-uniformity is identified based upon of the measurement of the power of the first light beam and the measurement of the power of the second light beam.

A coil replacing device. When a first unreeling assembly at an unreeling station finishes unreeling, a fixing suction member can be driven by a first driver abutting against a first suction member clamping a working material tape, a first cutting assembly cuts off the working material tape, and the cut working material tape is sucked by the fixing suction member. Then, a vertical plate slides to make a second unreeling assembly enter the unreeling station, a material tape sucked by a second suction member will also enter the unreeling station as a spare material tape, and the first unreeling assembly will be removed from the unreeling station. The fixing suction member is driven by the first driver to abut against the second suction member, so as to realize coil replacing, and the first unreeling assembly can be loaded with a new material tape to serve as a spare material tape.

A medium thickness detection device includes: a light emitting element; a constant-current control circuit controlling, in a constant-current manner, the light emitting element to output light passing through a medium for an irradiation time; a light-receiving element receiving the light passing through the medium to obtain an analog signal; a receiver circuit receiving the analog signal; a maximum holding circuit holding a maximum of the analog signal; an analog-to-digital converter circuit reading the maximum of the analog signal and converting the maximum of the analog signal into a digital signal; a reset circuit resetting the maximum holding circuit; and a processor controlling operations of the constant-current control circuit, the reset circuit and the analog-to-digital converter circuit, and determining a thickness of the medium according to the digital signal when a specification of the medium is unknown.

A sheet processing machine comprises a receiving area (38) for collecting a sheet pile and a device (36) for determining the height of the sheet pile. The device (36) comprises a manually displaceable first sensor element arranged at a first side (48) of the receiving area (38), and an automatically displaceable second sensor element (50) arranged at an opposite side (52) of the receiving area (38) such that the first and second sensor elements (50) are arranged opposite each other along a width direction of the receiving area (38). The first sensor element and the second sensor element (50) are displaceable along a length direction of the sheet receiving area (38), wherein the first sensor element is one of a light emitting source and a light receiving sensor (56) and the second sensor element (50) is the other one of a light emitting source and a light receiving sensor (56). The light emitting source and the light receiving sensor (56) form a light barrier (58) along the width direction when facing each other.

The machine (1;100) comprises a winding station (3; 101), adapted to receive secondary winding cores (T) coaxial with, and adjacent to, one another. The machine further comprises a cutting device (11; 104) with a plurality of blades (13; 105), arranged upstream of the winding station (3; 101) with respect to the feeding direction of the web material (N) and adapted to slit the web material into a plurality of strips (S1-S5) of web material. An in-line measurement arrangement (81-87) is also provided for measuring the Poisson's ratio of the web material (N).

To ensure reliable and productive processing of printed sheets into stacks, a sheet stacker includes: a flipping device for flipping a sheet with respect to the sheet's orientation before being received by the flipping device onto a stack support or a stack of sheets on the stack support; a sensor assembly for detecting an out-of-plane deformation of a top sheet with respect to the underlying stack support or a stack of sheets on the stack support at least for each sheet added to the stack; and a controller configured to determine from data from the sensor assembly whether the top sheet was successfully flipped and stacked.