Sheet collating device for accumulating sheets from at least one hopper, comprising: a lower transport path and an upper transport path; a switchable guide for directing the sheets from the at least one hopper to the lower or the upper transport path; left and right upper drive shafts connected to a right and a left upper drive pulleys supporting a pair of upper belts, a drive direction of the pair of upper belts being changed dependent on what transport path of the upper and lower transport paths is selected; first and second lower drive shafts connected to a right and a left lower drive pulleys supporting first and second pairs of lower belts; and a first series of right paddles mounted on the first pair of lower belts and a first series of left paddles mounted on the second pair of lower belts for registering a collated set of sheets.

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming portion, a fixing portion configured to heat and press the sheet conveyed from the image forming portion while nipping and conveying the sheet by a first nip portion to fix toner image to the sheet, a folding portion configured to fold the sheet, and a bonding portion configured to heat and press the sheet folded by the folding portion while nipping and conveying the sheet by a second nip portion to bond the sheet by powder adhesive. A peak value of pressure that the second rotary member pair applies to the sheet in the second nip portion is greater than a peak value of pressure that the first rotary member pair applies to the sheet in the first nip portion.

A method for franking mail items fed to a franking machine. The mail items are drawn from the underside of a stack for separation or are fed individually on a conveying section upstream of the franking machine to a printing unit for franking, after franking, are discharged in the opposite direction from the printing unit. The mail items are fed via a diverter section to the conveying section, after franking, are conveyed via the diverter section which is switched over to change the conveying direction into a depositing apparatus below the diverter section. The mail items are guided in the opening region of the franking machine into the printing position and are returned out of the printing position. The printing position of a mail item fed to the printing unit is determined by a print head movement-controlled from a readiness position pursuant to the format length of the mail item.

An image forming system includes a conveyance processing portion, a setting processing portion, an insertion processing portion, and an operation control portion. The conveyance processing portion executes a conveyance process to convey a plurality of sheets placed on a sheet placing portion, sequentially to a sheet stack portion. When the insertion timing to insert the insertion sheet comes during an execution of the conveyance process, the insertion processing portion executes an insertion process to convey a sheet from the sheet supply source of the insertion sheet to the sheet stack portion. The operation control portion is configured to control operations of an image forming apparatus during execution of a sheet bundle output process based on the sheet type of the insertion sheet conveyed in the insertion process that is included in the sheet bundle output process, the sheet bundle output process including the conveyance process and the insertion process.

A medium discharge includes a first tray having a first medium receiving surface, a second tray having a second medium receiving surface for receiving the medium discharged from the first tray, a discharge section that discharges the medium disposed on the first tray to the second tray, and a push-down portion that is located downstream of a downstream end of the first medium receiving surface in the medium discharge direction, and that is located at a place deviated from the discharge section in a width direction that is a direction intersecting with the medium discharge direction, and pushes down a part of an upstream end of the medium to be discharged in the medium discharge direction.

To provide an image forming apparatus having a sheet processing apparatus installed in an in-body space, capable of discharging sheets of different sizes without interfering with discharge operation of the sheet processing apparatus in a compact configuration. An image forming apparatus has a sheet binding unit disposed in an in-body space part thereof, a first conveying path for conveying the sheet discharged to the in-body space part toward the sheet binding unit, and a second conveying path for conveying the sheet discharged to the in-body space part toward a second stack tray that stacks thereon the sheet vertically below a first stack tray disposed outside the in-body space part. The second conveying path extends, inside the in-body space part, substantially horizontally between an image forming part and the sheet binding unit.

A sheet conveyance device of an embodiment includes a carrying-in unit feeds a sheet to a stacking unit; a lower conveyance unit applies a force to a lower side of a sheet stacked on the stacking unit to move the sheet; a lifting and lowering unit lifts and lowers at least an end of the lower conveyance unit on a side close to the carrying-in unit in at least three stages (lower, middle, and upper); an upper conveyance unit faces the lower conveyance unit and applies a force to the upper side of a sheet pinched between the upper conveyance unit and the lower conveyance unit that is moved to the upper stage to move the sheet; and a stopper protrudes above the lower conveyance unit placed at the lower stage by the lifting and lowering unit, and the downstream end in the feeding direction of a sheet abuts on the stopper.

A post-processing device includes a processing tray, an aligning plate, a transport section, a feeding section, and a pressing section. A sheet before being subjected to stapling processing by a stapler is to be mounted on the processing tray. The aligning plate aligns ends of a plurality of sheets. The transport section transports the sheet toward the aligning plate. The feeding section is provided between the transport section and the aligning plate and feeds the sheet in a transport direction. The pressing section is provided between the transport section and the aligning plate and applies, to the sheet, a pressing force having a component in a direction opposite from the transport direction. Further, the pressing section applies the pressing force to the sheet before the feeding section applies a feeding force to the sheet.

A sheet discharge device includes: at least one processor; a conveyance unit configured to convey a sheet along a conveyance path; a discharge unit to which the sheet is discharged; a storage unit that is provided in a middle of the conveyance path and temporarily stores the sheet; an alignment unit provided in the discharge unit and configured to align the sheet in a width direction intersecting a convey direction of the sheet, in which the processor is configured to change a method of aligning the sheets by the alignment unit between a case where storage control for storing the sheets in the storage unit is performed and a case where the storage control is not performed.

A loading unit includes a processing tray, alignment units, and a paddle. In the processing tray, a medium is placed. The alignment units are disposed an interval in a Y direction to align a downstream tip end in a positive A direction of the medium. The paddle moves the medium that has been fed onto the processing tray toward the alignment units. A coefficient of friction of a contact surface of the alignment unit is higher than a coefficient of friction of a front face of the alignment unit, and the contact surface is positioned downstream of the front face in the positive A direction.