A sheet feed device includes: a stacking tray on which sheets are stacked in such a manner as to be capable of being lifted and lowered; and a position restricting member configured to come into contact with a sheet end portion to restrict a position of the sheets. The position restricting member is provided to an opening/closing member capable of being opened and closed. When the opening/closing member is closed, the position restricting member restricts a position of the sheet end portion in an opening/closing direction of the opening/closing member.

A paper feed tray includes: a tray main body which holds a sheet such that the sheet can be fed in a predetermined paper feed direction; and a regulation plate which can be moved in a side direction perpendicular to the paper feed direction and which regulates the position of the held sheet in the side direction. In the tray main body, a first engagement tooth row and a second engagement tooth row whose engagement teeth are aligned in the side direction are provided so as to be opposite each other, and the first engagement tooth row is higher than the second engagement tooth row. In the regulation plate, an engagement member is provided which can be moved in the direction of height of the engagement tooth rows and which engages with the engagement tooth rows to reduce the movement of the regulation plate in the side direction.

The present disclosure provides a paper stop structure, a paper feed unit, and an image forming apparatus. The paper stop structure includes a movement stopper and a paper stopper both swingably configured in a paper feed path, and a separation structure to separate the movement stopper and the paper stopper. In paper stopping state, the paper stopper is pushed by an external force to swing until contacting the movement stopper, and blocks paper sheets from entering the paper feed path. In non-paper stopping state, the paper stopper is pushed by an external force to swing and separates from the movement stopper. Accordingly, various functions of paper feeding, paper stopping, and paper detecting may be achieved, and large capacity paper feeding can also be achieved to improve product operating efficiency and to effectively prevent paper mis-feed and paper jam during the image forming apparatus operation.

User labor relating to determining on an alignment condition is reduced and a stable conveying operation is realized by aligning a sheet bundle also when a sheet bundle is added. A sheet bundle composed of multiple sheet materials is placed on a loading platform. An encoder pulse unit detects the amount of the sheet bundle placed on the loading platform based on the opening amount of a pressure plate. A control unit determines on an alignment condition according to the amount of the sheet bundle. Rotating members align the sheet bundle in accordance with the alignment condition. When it is determined that another sheet bundle has been added to the loading platform, the control unit updates the alignment condition according to the total amount of the other sheet bundle and the sheet bundle remaining on the loading platform.

A buffer unit receives a sheet and temporarily holds a predetermined number of sheets so as to be overlaid on one another. A stacking unit stacks the predetermined number of sheets conveyed toward a first direction. A moving unit comes into contact with an uppermost sheet among the predetermined number of sheets stacked on the stacking unit and moves the uppermost sheet further toward the first direction. A regulating unit comes into contact with an end portion of the stack of sheets on the stacking unit to regulate the position of the stack of sheets. A control unit controls the predetermined number of sheets.

A removable media tray for an imaging device having a rear media restraint coupled to a media length sensing system. A rear media restraint, slideably latchable to a track in the tray, has a rack that engages with a gear train that drives an encoder gear. As the rear media restraint is adjusted for different media lengths, the rack and gear train rotate the encoder gear. The encoder gear has a plurality of encoder tracks each track having a unique binary pattern. A sensor array of a plurality of sensors corresponding to the plurality of encoder tracks has a plurality of outputs that combine to form a digital signal fed to a controller in the imaging device allowing the controller to determine a media length based in the position of the rear media restraint.

An paper stacker includes a side fence and a lift plate. The side fence extends in a stacking direction and is configured to regulate a position in a width direction of paper. The lift plate is capable of moving the paper to a paper feed point. The side fence includes a main body, a swell segment swelling from the main body toward an edge of the paper below the paper feed point, and an urging segment including an urging surface portion above the swell segment. The urging surface portion is capable of moving toward the edge of the paper to urge the edge of the paper at the paper feed point.

A feed module for feeding value documents, in particular bank notes, to a value-document processing apparatus, has a receiving device in which one or more value documents to be processed can be inserted. The receiving device includes a first aligning element which the value documents lying in the receiving device are aligned to with a first edge of the value documents when the receiving device is in a first state, and a second aligning element which the value documents lying in the receiving device are aligned to with a second edge of the value documents when the receiving device is in a second state. A positioning device through which the receiving device is brought from the first state to the second state.

User labor relating to determining on an alignment condition is reduced and a stable conveying operation is realized by aligning a sheet bundle also when a sheet bundle is added. A sheet bundle composed of multiple sheet materials is placed on a loading platform. An encoder pulse unit detects the amount of the sheet bundle placed on the loading platform based on the opening amount of a pressure plate. A control unit determines on an alignment condition according to the amount of the sheet bundle. Rotating members align the sheet bundle in accordance with the alignment condition. When it is determined that another sheet bundle has been added to the loading platform, the control unit updates the alignment condition according to the total amount of the other sheet bundle and the sheet bundle remaining on the loading platform.

Let a point at which a lock member and a leading end positioning member abut against each other when a roller holding member is located at a feeding retracted position be represented by a contact point. A tangential direction of a surface of the leading end positioning member at the contact point is substantially parallel to a direction in which the roller holding member moves to a feeding position from a feeding retracted position.