Disclosed is a sheet conveying apparatus, including: a conveying member conveying a sheet; and a first and second changing portions s configured to change a conveying direction of the sheet conveyed by the conveying member by curving the sheet, wherein the conveying direction of the sheet being conveyed by the conveying member is changed by the first changing portion so that the sheet is conveyed toward the second changing portion. The relationship a>b is satisfied where a indicates an angle in which a conveying direction of the sheet is changed by the first changing portion and b indicates an angle in which a conveying direction of the sheet is changed by the second changing portion.

A deflecting device for deflecting a conveyed sheet includes a guiding assembly having an inlet for receiving a conveyed sheet front an upstream section of a main conveying path, a primary outlet for discharging a conveyed sheet onto a downstream section of a main conveying path, a secondary outlet for discharging a conveyed sheet onto an initial section of a side conveying path, and a passing area for passing a conveyed sheet from the inlet towards the primary outlet; and a deflector for deflecting a conveyed sheet towards the secondary outlet, movable into a receiving position for receiving a leading edge of a conveyed sheet inside the passing area and movable into a discharge position for discharging a leading edge of a conveyed sheet towards the secondary outlet, wherein the deflector defines a curved trajectory for a conveyed sheet deflected towards the secondary outlet in the discharge position, wherein one side of the curved trajectory faces the primary outlet. A functional portion of the deflector is configured to be inserted into the passing area on the one side of the curved trajectory when the deflector moves into the receiving position, and to be retracted from the passing area on the one side of the curved trajectory when the deflector moves out of the discharge position.

In a sheet supply apparatus, a type of sheet to be used can be specified using a sensor that detects a sheet separated from a roll at the time of automatic sheet feeding. The sheet supplying apparatus includes a driving unit configured to cause a roll including a wound consecutive sheet to rotate in a first direction for feeding the sheet or a second direction opposite to the first direction, a sensor that detects the sheet separated from an outer circumferential surface of the roll, and a specifying unit. In a case in which the sensor detects a leading end portion of the sheet while the roll is being rotated in the second direction, the driving unit changes a rotation direction of the roll from the second direction to the first direction and feeds the sheet, and the specifying unit is configured to specify a type of the sheet on the basis of an output of the sensor while the roll is being rotated in the second direction.

A method of printing and stacking sheets improves the relative alignment of images in a stack of printed sheet. The method includes feeding a sheet at least twice past a printhead assembly for printing an image on both sides of the sheet, wherein in the first and second passes the respective front and back images are aligned with respect to a first edge of the sheet by detecting a skew angle between the first and second edges and applying the skew angle to align the front and back images; and stacking the sheet, wherein the sheet is registered to a predetermined stacking reference direction by one of its edges, and wherein during the stacking, the sheet is registered by its first edge.

An image forming apparatus, including: a sheet cassette; an image former; a fixer; a discharge tray; a conveyor configured to convey a sheet along a conveyance passage; a return conveyor configured to convey the sheet from a branch position between the fixer and the discharge tray to a merge position between the sheet cassette and the image former along a return passage which is branched from the conveyance passage at the branch position, passes below the sheet cassette, and merges with the conveyance passage at the merge position; a switchback roller disposed between the branch position and the discharge tray in the conveyance passage and configured to convey the sheet to the discharge tray when it rotates forwardly and to the return passage when it rotates backwardly; and an intermediate conveyance roller disposed in the return passage at a height level intermediate between the fixer and the sheet cassette.

Disclosed is a sheet conveying apparatus, including; a conveying member conveying a sheet; and a first and second changing portions s configured to change a conveying direction of the sheet conveyed by the conveying member by curving the sheet, wherein the conveying direction of the sheet being conveyed by the conveying member is changed by the first changing portion so that the sheet is convoyed toward the second changing portion. The relationship a>b is satisfied where a indicates an angle in which a conveying direction of the sheet is changed by the first changing portion and b indicates an angle in which a conveying direction of the sheet is changed by the second changing portion.

It is an object of the present invention to specify a type of sheet to be used using a sensor that detects a sheet separated from a roll at the time of automatic sheet feeding. A sheet supplying apparatus according to the present invention includes a driving unit configured to cause a roll including a wound consecutive sheet to rotate in a first direction for feeding the sheet or a second direction opposite to the first direction, a sensor that detects the sheet separated from an outer circumferential surface of the roll, wherein, in a case in which the sensor detects a leading end portion of the sheet while the roll is being rotated in the second direction, the driving unit changes a rotation direction of the roll from the second direction to the first direction and feeds the sheet, and wherein the sheet supplying apparatus further includes a specifying unit configured to specify a type of the sheet on the basis of an output of the sensor while the roll is being rotated in the second direction.

There are provided: a paper folding unit folding and sending a content sheet to a transfer path; an inserter unit sending an insert sheet to the transfer path; an acquiring unit acquiring information on a top/bottom direction and a surface/obverse direction of the content sheet and insert sheet; a merging unit in which the content sheet folded by the paper folding unit is overlapped with the insert sheet; and an enclosing unit enclosing the merged content sheet and insert sheet into an envelope sheet, in which, when the content sheet and insert sheet merge and are overlapped, the content sheet is folded so that the top/bottom direction and the surface/obverse direction of an image of the content sheet match those of an image of the insert sheet, based on the information acquired by the acquiring unit.

An image forming system includes an image forming apparatus, an image reading apparatus, and a connecting conveyance path that branches from a second main conveyance path of the image reading apparatus and joins a first sub conveyance path of the image forming apparatus, and is configured to convey an original from the image reading apparatus to the image forming apparatus. The system controls conveyance of the original so that a first side becomes a side that faces an image forming unit if the first side of the original is designated as the image formation side or so that a second side becomes the side that faces the image forming unit if the second side of the original is designated as the image formation side.

A printing apparatus includes a feeding roller to feed a sheet, a conveyance roller conveys the sheet, a printing head prints on the sheet, a reversing path that reverses the sheet from a first surface to a second surface, and a control unit that controls feeding of a preceding sheet and a succeeding sheet fed next to the preceding sheet. The control unit starts feeding of the succeeding sheet when a trailing edge of the preceding sheet, which was reversed by the reversing path, reaches a predetermined position and feeds the succeeding sheet so that a distance between the trailing edge of the preceding sheet and a leading edge of the succeeding sheet is within a predetermined range.