A sheet stacking apparatus includes: a sheet stacking part on which a sheet is stacked; a tilt detection sensor arranged on an upstream side in a conveying direction of the sheet of the sheet stacking part, and which detects a tail end in the conveying direction in the conveyed sheet; a pair of correction rollers arranged on a downstream side in the conveying direction of the tilt detection sensor and arranged immediately before an upstream side in the conveying direction of the sheet stacking part, and which corrects a tilt of the sheet; and a sheet holder that holds the sheet with the tilt corrected by the pair of correction rollers, and conveys and stacks the sheet on the sheet stacking part.

A sheet stacking apparatus includes: a sheet stacking part on which a sheet is stacked; a tilt detection sensor arranged on an upstream side in a conveying direction of the sheet of the sheet stacking part, and which detects a tail end in the conveying direction in the conveyed sheet; a pair of correction rollers arranged on a downstream side in the conveying direction of the tilt detection sensor and arranged immediately before an upstream side in the conveying direction of the sheet stacking part, and which corrects a tilt of the sheet; and a sheet holder that holds the sheet with the tilt corrected by the pair of correction rollers, and conveys and stacks the sheet on the sheet stacking part.

A printing apparatus includes a feeding roller configured to feed a printing sheet stacked on a stacking unit, a conveyance roller configured to convey the printing sheet fed by the feeding roller, a printing unit configured to print the printing sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller, a conveyance control unit configured to control conveyance of printing sheets so that the trailing edge of a preceding sheet as a printing sheet precedingly fed from the stacking unit and the leading edge of a succeeding sheet as a printing sheet succeedingly fed from the stacking unit overlap each other, and a determination unit configured to determine whether to convey the succeeding sheet to a position facing the printing unit while keeping an overlap state between the preceding sheet and the succeeding sheet.

A printing apparatus includes a feeding roller configured to feed a printing sheet stacked on a stacking unit, a conveyance roller configured to convey the printing sheet fed by the feeding roller, a printing unit configured to print the printing sheet conveyed by the conveyance roller, a conveyance control unit configured to control conveyance of printing sheets so that the trailing edge of a preceding sheet as a printing sheet precedingly fed from the stacking unit and the leading edge of a succeeding sheet as a printing sheet succeedingly fed from the stacking unit overlap each other, and a determination unit configured to determine whether to convey the succeeding sheet to a position facing the printing unit while keeping an overlap state between the preceding sheet and the succeeding sheet.

An image formation apparatus according to an embodiment may include: a print unit that forms an image on a medium; and a medium conveyance unit that conveys the medium to the print unit. The medium conveyance unit may include: a medium guide that is movable in a width direction of the medium perpendicular to a conveyance direction of the medium, to guide a width end of the medium; a guide position detector that detects a position of the medium guide in the width direction of the medium; and a medium end detector that is provided at the medium guide and detects whether there is the medium with the width end guided by the medium guide. The print unit may include a determination unit that determines a set state of the medium based on a detection result by the medium end detector.

A medium feeding apparatus includes a feed roller that feeds media. A separation roller nips the media together with the feed roller to separate it and is rotated in a first direction to feed the media. A motor applies driving torque to the separation roller in a second direction opposite to the first direction. A torque limiter, when rotation torque applied to the separation roller in the first direction exceeds a preset upper torque limit, causes the separation roller to rotate at idle in the first direction independently of the driving torque. During feeding operations, including feeding of first and second media, a controller that controls the motor provides a break period in which the motor is not driven. The break period contains the timing when a rear edge of the first medium leaves a nip position between the feeding and separation rollers.

A medium feeding apparatus includes a feed roller that feeds media. A separation roller nips the media together with the feed roller to separate it and is rotated in a first direction to feed the media. A motor applies driving torque to the separation roller in a second direction opposite to the first direction. A torque limiter, when rotation torque applied to the separation roller in the first direction exceeds a preset upper torque limit, causes the separation roller to rotate at idle in the first direction independently of the driving torque. During feeding operations, including feeding of first and second media, a controller that controls the motor provides a break period in which the motor is not driven. The break period contains the timing when a rear edge of the first medium leaves a nip position between the feeding and separation rollers.

A sheet conveying apparatus according to the present invention includes a first conveying roller, a second conveying roller, a third conveying roller, a first motor configured to drive the first conveying roller, a phase determiner configured to determine a rotational phase of a rotor of the first motor, a controller configured to control a driving current flowing through a winding of the first motor, and a discriminator configured to, based on the number of times an absolute value of a value of a parameter corresponding to a load torque applied to the rotor changes from a value smaller than a predetermined value to a value greater than the predetermined value, discriminate at least one of whether a front end of a sheet reaches a nip portion of the first conveying roller and whether a rear end of the sheet passes through the nip portion of the first conveying roller.

A medium processing device includes a conveyance guide that forms a conveyance path, a reference surface guide that is provided at one side of the conveyance path, a trigger sensor that detects a rear end of the medium in the conveyance direction, a first alignment roller and a second alignment roller for aligning the medium with the reference surface guide. The first alignment roller is provided at the middle, in a width of the conveyance path. The second alignment roller is provided between the reference surface guide and the first alignment roller in the width direction. The second alignment roller is provided at a downstream side of the first alignment roller in the conveyance direction. A space from the first alignment roller to the second alignment roller in the conveyance direction is longer than a space from the trigger sensor to the first alignment roller in the conveyance direction.

A feeding apparatus comprises a blower unit that is able to perform a first air blowing operation on sheets which are stacked on a stacking unit, and a second air blowing operation in which the volume of air blowing is smaller than volume of air blowing in the first air blowing operation; a feeding unit, brought into contact with the sheets stacked on the stacking unit and located on a feeding position to which feeding is performed while pressing the sheets from above, for feeding the sheets on which the first air blowing operation has been performed; and a control unit for controlling the blower unit to perform the first air blowing operation until a start of feeding by the feeding unit so as to separate the sheets stacked on the stacking unit.