A roller assembly for transporting a substrate includes a step roller and a plurality of first auxiliary rollers. The step roller includes a main roller, and a pair of edge rollers sleeved on the main roller and located on two opposite ends of the main roller, respectively. The plurality of first auxiliary rollers are disposed on two opposite sides of the step roller, respectively. A first film forms a closed loop through the first film being rolled on the plurality of first auxiliary rollers and the step roller cyclically. A method using the same is also provided.

A thermoforming packaging machine having an unwinding device for a bottom film web and a film conveying apparatus for intermittently conveying the bottom film web in a production direction using clamp chains. The packaging machine includes a holding strip for the bottom film web, the holding strip disposed in the intake area of the clamp chains. The holding strip is configured to hold part of a free leading end of a new bottom film web to be fed while and/or until the new bottom film web is gripped by the clamp chains and subsequently conveyed by the clamp chains.

A sheet processing apparatus includes a sheet separator, a position detector, a position adjuster, a take-up roller, and a take-up assembly. The sheet separator separates a two-ply sheet, and inserts a sheet medium into the two-ply sheet. The position detector detects respective amounts of positional deviations of the two-ply sheet and the sheet medium. The position adjuster adjusts the positional deviation of the two-ply sheet, before a sheet separating operation, based on the amount of the positional deviation of the two-ply sheet. The take-up roller takes up the two-ply sheet subjected to the sheet separating operation. The take-up assembly moves the take-up roller in a width direction. The position adjuster causes the positional deviation of the two-ply sheet to be adjustable based on the amount of the positional deviation of the sheet medium. The take-up assembly causes the take-up roller to be movable in sync with the position adjuster.

A media-sheet stacking system (10) for stacking media sheets on a device output tray (OT) comprises a kicker (25) to advance a media sheet along the output tray by pushing a trailing edge of the media sheet as it exits the device, and a movable element (32a) arranged to face the output tray across a space that receives media sheets exiting the device. A drive mechanism (33) is provided to drive the movable element in the direction of advance of the media sheet along the output tray.

A handoff mechanism for use with a media stacker of a media production apparatus comprises a plurality of kicker units (101) arranged across a width of the handoff mechanism. A common drive mechanism (103) is provided to move the plurality of kicker units (101) between a closed position and an open position. Each kicker unit (101), when in the closed position during use, applies a pressure to any media sheets that are already stacked in a stacker tray (105) while a new media sheet is being fed to the stacker tray. The pressure provided by each kicker unit (101) is independent of the pressure provided by the other kicker units.

A sheet processing apparatus includes: a control unit configured to control at least one of a pair of side edge alignment plates such that the one of the pair of side edge alignment plates is located at a position where the side edge alignment plate can come into contact with an inner side of a sheet in a widthwise direction, which is shifted by a shift unit.