The present invention seeks to flatten a sheet when transferred onto an endless belt conveyor facing a print head assembly in a simple and/or low costs manner. Thereto a sheet conveyor is provided comprising an endless, air permeable belt and pressing means. The pressing means comprise a plurality of pressing members spaced apart from one another in a lateral direction of the belt, each pressing member comprising a body which body is moveable in a perpendicular direction with respect to the belt as well rotatable or pivotable around an axis in the perpendicular direction independent of the corresponding bodies of other pressing members. This provides a simple and passive sheet flattening means, resulting in low operational and material costs.

A medium flattening method, when a medium is transported by being adhered to an adhesive layer which is on a surface of a transport belt, includes detecting a presence or absence of floating being generated in the medium on the transport belt using a sensor, executing a process for flattening to flatten the floating in the medium in the case where the floating exists, and transporting the medium, where the floating is eliminated using the process for the flattening, to a liquid discharge region of a liquid discharge section.

Examples described herein include a print media edge repair system that includes a first repair element disposed adjacent to a media handling path to repair a leading edge of a sheet of print media as the sheet of print media moves into a position relative to a printing system associated with the print media edge repair system. The print media repair system may also include a second repair element disposed opposite the first repair element across the media handling path to repair a trailing edge of the sheet of print media as the sheet of print media moves into the position relative to a printing system.

An apparatus for treating a stack of sheets of sheet material includes a means for moving the stack of sheets of sheet material towards a first and second fold roller means. The first and second fold roller means are arranged to assist with folding of the stack of sheets of sheet material. The apparatus also includes a first and a second clamping jaw defining a gap. The first and second clamping jaws are arranged to be movable relative to each other to increase and decrease the gap for selective application of a clamping force to the stack of sheets of sheet material having passed between the first and second fold roller means. The first and second fold roller means are mounted in a manner allowing for an increase and decrease in separation and thus between a stack-guiding configuration and a stack compressing configuration.

A sheet processing device can prevent a folded sheet bundle from being opened upon accumulation to prevent a reduction in accumulation amount thereof. The sheet processing device includes a pair of pressing rollers pressing a folding loop of a folded sheet bundle in a thickness direction, a support unit mounted to a device frame and supporting a plurality of rows of the pressing roller pairs such that intervals therebetween in the row direction are reduced stepwise, and a gripper member that makes the folding loop of the folded sheet bundle pass through the support unit in a direction that the intervals of the plurality of rows of pressing roller pairs in the row direction are reduced stepwise. The folded sheet bundle passes through the support unit by the gripper member to cause the folding loop to be sequentially pressed by the plurality of rows of pressing roller pairs.

A sheet processing apparatus includes two pressing members and an advancing-receding unit. The pressing members nip and press against a fold section of a sheet. The advancing-receding unit causes the pressing members to repeatedly press against the fold section by causing at least one of the pressing members to advance to and recede from the other pressing member. The advancing-receding unit varies a reception separation amount and a post-receding separation amount from each other and sets the post-receding separation amount to be smaller than the reception separation amount. The reception separation amount is a separation amount by which the pressing members are separated from each other when the fold section is to be received between the pressing members. The post-receding separation amount is a separation amount by which the pressing members that have pressed against the fold section are separated from each other after receding from the fold section.

The present sheet processing apparatus is to obtain that folding in the center portion in the width direction of sheets is made, folding in the end portion is made more reliably by repeatedly pressing the end portion in the width direction, the folded sheets are harder to open, the appearance is also enhanced, and that collection characteristics are improved in stacking bunches of folded sheets, a sheet processing apparatus is provided with pairs of press members (press rollers 70) that press a folded loop BL of folding sheets BS, and a support unit 56 that shifts in the width direction of the folding sheets, while supporting a plurality of rows with a distance between the press members narrowed stepwise in the shift direction.

A fold-enhancing device includes a pressing member, at least one retaining member, and a moving mechanism. The pressing member presses against a fold line of a recording-medium bundle folded into a booklet shape. The recording-medium bundle is obtained by stacking multiple sheets of recording media. The retaining member retains the recording-medium bundle and is provided at a position located away from the fold line in a direction intersecting the fold line and not in contact with the pressing member. The moving mechanism moves the pressing member and the retaining member in a direction extending along the fold line.

The present invention is to provide an image forming system including a sheet folding processing apparatus and a sheet pressing apparatus capable of performing additional folding processing without decreasing productivity. The sheet pressing apparatus of the present invention includes a pressing roller including a pressing surface configured to press a fold line part of a folding processed sheet conveyed from a carry-in port in a thickness direction of the sheet and a guide portion configured to guide the folding processed sheet so that the fold line part is positioned at the pressing surface, a nipping member configured to nip the fold line part between the pressing surface and the nipping member, a first moving unit configured to move the pressing roller to a nipping position at which the fold line part is nipped between the nipping member and the pressing roller and a retracting position.

A sheet folding processing device includes a folding processing mechanism that includes a folding roller pair for forming a plurality of folds on the sheet conveyed in a predetermined sheet conveying direction to produce Z-fold, additional folding rollers and a lower folding guide. The additional folding rollers and the lower folding guide are arranged on the downstream side of the folding roller pair in the sheet conveying direction to face each other and cooperate with each other to press the folds. The interval between the folding roller pair and the additional folding rollers is determined such that when the leading fold as viewed in the sheet conveying direction is pressed between the additional folding rollers and the lower folding guide, the sheet part having a plurality of layers of sheet where the sheet is folded between the additional folding rollers can also be held between the folding roller pair.