An apparatus can control the movement of a substrate through a manufacturing process. The apparatus can transport the substrate in the machine direction of the manufacturing process and can control the movement of the substrate in the cross-machine direction as well as the z-direction.

An image forming apparatus includes: sheet feed trays on which sheets are placed; a transferrer that transfers an image formed by an image forming part onto a sheet at a transfer position; conveyance roller pairs provided along conveyance paths from the sheet feed trays to the transfer position and that conveys a fed sheet; a conveyance position detector that detects a conveyance position of a conveyed sheet in a width direction; a sheet position adjuster that performs adjustment of the conveyance position of the sheet in the width direction by using an amount of displacement; and a hardware processor that determines, on the basis of a sheet feed tray that is to be used among the sheet feed trays and a sheet length of a sheet that is to be fed from the sheet feed tray, whether or not the adjustment of the conveyance position is to be performed.

A roll paper holder is provided which rotatably holds belt-like paper to be conveyed towards a printing section when a roll of paper is obtained by winding the paper on an upstream side in a conveyance direction with respect to the printing section. The roll paper holder includes a side wall section in contact with both side ends of the roll of paper in a width direction to prevent the roll of paper from moving in the width direction. The holder further includes at least one protrusion located outside a range where it can contact with the side end of the roll paper to be held having the largest diameter in the side wall section. The at least one protrusion is configured to protrude by a predetermined dimension from a portion contacting with the side end to control a position of the paper in the width direction.

A sheet conveying device includable in an image forming apparatus that uses a method of conveying a conveyance target medium and a method of forming an image, includes a position detector, a position adjuster, and circuitry. The position detector is configured to detect a position of a conveyance target medium. Based on a detection of the position of the conveyance target medium by the position detector, the position adjuster moves in at least one of a width direction of the conveyance target medium and a rotation direction of the conveyance target medium within a plane of conveyance of the conveyance target medium and repeatedly adjusts the position of the conveyance target medium while conveying the conveyance target medium. The circuitry changes a conveying speed of the conveyance target medium, according to a change of the position of the conveyance target medium after adjusted by the position adjuster.

A sheet feeding device includes a sheet supporting unit, a sheet feeding unit, and a regulating member. The regulating member includes a supporting surface portion on which the sheet is placed, and a regulation surface portion provided continuously with the supporting surface portion and configured to regulate the position of the sheet in a width direction. The supporting surface portion includes a supporting surface color indicating portion including an end portion of the supporting surface portion on a side of the regulation surface portion and having a color with brightness of 7 or less in the Munsell color system. The regulation surface portion includes a regulation surface color indicating portion including an end portion of the regulation surface portion on a side of the supporting surface portion and having a color with brightness higher than the brightness of the supporting surface color indicating portion.

An image recording apparatus for recording an image on a sheet includes a recording section which records the image on the sheet in a transport passage for transporting the sheet in a transport direction and multiple plates which are spaced apart from each other in a widthwise direction. These multiple plates include a first type of plate and a second type of plate. Plates of a first type of plate are configured to overlap a sheet when viewed in a direction perpendicular to the transport direction and the widthwise direction, while plates of the second type of plate do not.

A sheet feeding mechanism includes a feeding path, at least one card feeding roller mounted to the feeding path, at least one paper feeding roller coaxial with the at least one card feeding roller, at least one card idle roller contacting with the at least one card feeding roller, at least one paper idle roller contacting with the at least one paper feeding roller, at least one elastic unit connected to the feeding path, and a stroke limiting unit. The at least one elastic unit is fastened to the feeding path. The at least one elastic unit has a stretching stroke. The stroke limiting unit controllably shortens the stretching stroke.

A print apparatus has a supporting section for supporting a roll of a continuous sheet, a driving mechanism having a motor for rotating the roll supported by the supporting section, a detection unit configured to detect a rotation state of the roll supported by the supporting section, a conveyance roller for conveying the continuous sheet drawn out from the roll and a print unit configured to form an image on the continuous sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller. A control unit is configured to obtain information indicating a moment of inertia of the roll supported by the supporting section based on detected values of the detection unit and to adjust a driving torque of the motor based on the obtained information, intermittently during printing.

Provided is an image forming apparatus with rollers capable of coming into contact with or leaving a recording medium, in which meandering of the recording medium is suppressed. The apparatus includes a tension adjuster for adjusting a tension applied to the recording medium nipped between a plurality of roller pairs. The tension adjuster is located upstream of, among the roller pairs, the most upstream roller pair located on the most upstream side in the conveyance path or downstream of, among the roller pairs, the most downstream roller pair located on the most downstream side in the conveyance path and the tension adjuster rotates in the direction of conveyance of the recording medium to adjust the tension of the recording medium.

A printing method of a printing apparatus which includes a transport unit, a transport position output unit, a mark detecting unit, a steering unit, and a storage unit, the method including first processing in which the medium is transported by a first distance in the second direction, and positions the first mark on the downstream side of the detecting region in the second direction; second processing in which arriving at a predetermined position of the first mark is detected based on the output value of the drum encoder and a reference value; and third processing in which printing is started based on a detecting timing of the first mark, in which the first distance is a first stable transport distance or more which converges a deviation amount in the third direction into a predetermined first deviation amount until the first mark reaches the first predetermined position.