In order to enable a sheet end portion to be properly guided to a nip portion in performing folding processing a plurality of times, provided are a transport path including a guide face to guide a transported sheet, a rotating body pair which nips the sheet transported to the transport path by a nip portion to rotate, a folding blade that pushes the sheet to the nip portion of the rotating body pair, and a blade guide member including a guide portion for pushing one end of the sheet to the nip portion when the folding blade pushes the sheet to the nip portion, and a shift section that shifts the folding blade and the blade guide member in a push direction for pushing to the nip portion and in a return direction opposite to the push direction.

In order to enable a sheet to be properly guided to a nip portion in performing folding processing, a sheet processing apparatus for performing folding processing on a sheet is provided with a rotating body pair which nips the sheet by a nip portion to rotate, and thereby draws the sheet to perform folding processing, a folding blade that pushes the sheet to the nip portion of the rotating body pair, and a blade guide member including a guide portion for pushing the sheet to the nip portion when the folding blade pushes the sheet to the nip portion, where the folding blade and blade guide member are relatively shifted so that a distance from a push front edge portion to the guide portion when the folding blade pushes the sheet to the nip portion is longer than a distance from the front edge portion to the guide portion.

A sheet post-processing device includes a folding portion, a discharge portion, a stacking tray, a shift unit, a pair of alignment members, and a controller. The pair of alignment members include first and second alignment members at one and the other side of sheets stacked on the stacking tray. When a sheet bundle sorted and stacked on the stacking tray includes a folded sheet, executes a second alignment mode in which it performs, for sheets shifted to a first position at one side on the stacking tray, alignment with only the first alignment member and, for sheets shifted to a second position at the other side, alignment with only the second alignment member, or does not perform alignment process.

To enable highly accurate fold processing by properly moving a sheet that has been subjected to fold processing. In a sheet processing apparatus that that performs fold processing in such a manner as to apply first fold processing to a sheet and then apply second fold processing at a position different from a fold line formed in the first fold processing so as to make one end of the sheet folded in the first fold processing lie inside the folded sheet, the first fold processing is applied to a sheet conveyed to an intermediate tray by a fold roller pair and, when a regulating stopper is moved to move the folded sheet that has been subjected to the first fold processing to a predetermined position of the intermediate tray, the folded sheet is gripped by a grip unit.

To prevent displacement of first fold positions and collapse of discharged and stacked sheets when sheet fold processing is performed a plurality of times for each sheet. First fold processing is applied to a sheet conveyed to a conveying path by a rotating body pair 22. The sheet that has been subjected to the first fold processing is fed back to the conveying path while a first fold line is being opened. Then, second fold processing is applied to the sheet that has been fed back to the conveying path by the rotating body pair 22. The resultant sheet is discharged with the first fold line opened.

To enable highly accurate fold processing by properly moving a sheet that has been subjected to fold processing. In a sheet processing apparatus that that performs fold processing in such a manner as to apply first fold processing to a sheet and then apply second fold processing at a position different from a fold line formed in the first fold processing so as to make one end of the sheet folded in the first fold processing lie inside the folded sheet, the first fold processing is applied to a sheet conveyed to an intermediate tray by a fold roller pair and, when a regulating stopper is moved to move the folded sheet that has been subjected to the first fold processing to a predetermined position of the intermediate tray, the folded sheet is gripped by a grip unit.

Folder systems and related methods are provided for accurately and efficiently folding a paper carrier that has a card attached without bending or dislodging the card from the carrier. A movable fold chute receives a portion of the carrier with the card attached and allows the carrier to fold while protecting the card portion of the carrier. The fold chute moves between different positions which allow the carrier to enter and exit through folding rollers along a generally straight paper path without forcing the cards around small radii, thereby preventing damage to the cards or causing them to separate from the carrier sheet.

Folder systems and related methods are provided for accurately and efficiently folding a paper carrier that has a card attached without bending or dislodging the card from the carrier. A movable fold chute receives a portion of the carrier with the card attached and allows the carrier to fold while protecting the card portion of the carrier. The fold chute moves between different positions which allow the carrier to enter and exit through folding rollers along a generally straight paper path without forcing the cards around small radii, thereby preventing damage to the cards or causing them to separate from the carrier sheet.

A sheet folding apparatus includes a sheet folding unit disposed to fold a sheet and a conveyance unit disposed to feed the sheet to the sheet folding unit in a feed direction orthogonal to a fold direction of the sheet folding unit while correcting a skew of the sheet. The conveyance unit includes an elongated reference guide, a conveyance mechanism disposed to convey the sheet in the feed direction while exerting a force on the sheet toward the reference guide, an adjustment mechanism disposed to adjust an inclination of the reference guide with respect to the feed direction. The apparatus further includes an input unit through which a user inputs a folding misalignment amount of the sheet folded by the sheet folding unit. The inclination of the reference guide is corrected by the adjustment mechanism based on at least the folding misalignment amount inputted through the input unit.

A sheet processing device includes a first conveyance passage, a first conveyor, a second conveyor, a folder, a second conveyance passage, and circuitry. The circuitry is configured to (1) cause the first conveyor and the second conveyor to convey the sheet nipping the sheet to warp the sheet between the first conveyor and the second conveyor, (2) guide the warped sheet to form a first fold on the sheet by the folder and circulate the sheet to the first conveyance passage, (3) cause the first conveyor and the second conveyor to convey the sheet while nipping the sheet again to warp the sheet between the first conveyor and the second conveyor, (4) guide the warped sheet to form a second fold on the sheet by the folder, and (5) cause the second conveyor to convey the sheet with the first fold and the second fold.