A sheet feeding device includes a pickup roller, a lifting/lowering mechanism, and a driver device. The lifting/lowering mechanism includes a restricting member that releasably restricts the pickup roller from being lowered from a lifted position of the pickup roller at the lifted position. In the sheet feeding device, the driver device drives the lifting/lowering mechanism so that the pickup roller is lowered from the lifted position of the pickup roller, and a drive suspend operation is performed in which the driving of the lifting/lowering mechanism by driver device is suspended after a predetermined time during which the pickup roller does not contact a sheet loading tray or a sheet on the sheet loading tray elapses from a time point when the pickup roller is released from being restricted by the restricting member at the lifted position.

According to one embodiment, a paper feeding mechanism includes a tray, a first roller, a second roller, a third roller, and a guide member. The tray supports a sheet. The first roller picks up the sheet from the tray. The second roller conveys the sheet picked up by the first roller. The third roller forms a nip that sandwiches the sheet between the second roller and the third roller. Relative positions of the third roller and the first and second rollers are set such that a convey reference surface of the sheet that is in contact with the first roller and the second roller and a flat surface of the nip are disposed on substantially the same flat surface. The guide member is between the nip and the first roller and intersects the convey reference surface.

An image forming apparatus comprising includes an image carrying member including a movable surface to include a toner image; a transfer roller to form a transfer nip between the transfer roller and the movable surface of the image carrying member, to move position in a direction in correspondence to a thickness of a print medium to intersect a direction of introduction of the print medium into the transfer nip, and to receive a transfer bias voltage to transfer the toner image from the movable surface of the image carrying member to the print medium; and a movement guide structure to guide the print medium toward the transfer nip, and to move in synchronization with the movement of the position of the transfer roller to change a gap between an end of the movement guide structure facing the image carrying member and the image carrying member.

The invention relates to a vibration-damping apparatus (18) for a winding device (4) of a textile machine (1), which textile machine produces cross-wound packages (5), the vibration-damping apparatus being provided for reducing the vibrations that occur at the pivotably mounted package cradle (8) during the winding operation of the textile machine (1).

According to the invention, in order to obtain a vibration-damping apparatus which is unproblematic both with regard to safety and with regard to contamination and which also always ensures a vibrationally relatively stable state of the package cradle, the vibration damper is in the form of a friction damper (20) having friction forces of different intensity depending on the working direction, the friction forces acting as the cross-wound package (5) lifts off during the winding operation being greater than the friction forces acting during the return of the cross-wound package (5).

A recording apparatus includes: a housing; a recording device that is provided inside the housing; a medium receiving tray moves between a first position and a second position, the first position being housed inside the housing, the second position being a position of protruding from the housing; a guide for guiding the medium receiving tray; and a guided portion of the medium receiving tray being guided by the guide, wherein the guide includes a first guide area and a second guide area, wherein the first guide area is guiding the guided portion from the first position to a third position that is located between the first position and the second position before the second position, wherein the second guide area is guiding the guided portion from the third position to the second position, and wherein the second guide area includes a narrowing area narrower than the first guide area.

A cassette in which sheets are stacked is electable from an apparatus main body. An intermediate plate is provided in the cassette that is movable to raise and lower the stacked sheets. A securing member that restricts the cassette from being raised when at a restricted position is provided, where, in response to movement of ejecting the stacking unit from the apparatus main body, the securing member moves to a permitted position that enables the movable member to rise.

A metal strip stabilization apparatus includes: a displacement measurement unit configured to measure a displacement of a metal strip during traveling in a non-contact manner; a control unit configured to generate a vibration suppression signal and a position correction signal based on a measurement signal; and an electromagnet unit including: a vibration suppression coil configured to generate a first magnetic force based on the vibration suppression signal; a position correction coil configured to generate a second magnetic force based on the position correction signal; and a core about which the vibration suppression coil and the position correction coil are wound concentrically, the core leading the first magnetic force

A device for redirecting sheets in a sheet transport mechanism, especially sheets of a print medium in a printing system includes a support member, which carries or supports at least one guide member for directing a path of travel of a sheet. The support member is configured to be mounted adjacent a first transport path of a plurality of sheets and such that the support member is movable between a first inoperative position in which the at least one guide member does not impinge upon the first transport path, and a second operative position in which the at least one guide member is introduced into the first transport path to redirect one or more of the sheets to a second, alternative transport path. The device further includes an actuator configured to move the support member between the first and second positions. The actuator is connected to the support member such that vibrations imparted by the actuator to the support member, as the support member moves between the first and the second positions, are substantially parallel to the first transport path.

A sheet sorting device includes a plurality of trays, a tray shifter, a tray stop position detector, and circuitry. The plurality of trays is disposed in multiple stages in a vertical direction and configured to stack a sheet. The tray shifter is configured to move the plurality of trays separately in a tray shift direction. The tray stop position detector is configured to detect stop positions of the plurality of trays separately. The circuitry is configured to cause the tray shifter to move the plurality of trays to home positions in an initial operation, at least one tray having a home position opposite to a home position of another tray in the tray shift direction. The circuitry is configured to, while moving the plurality of trays at a same time in the initial operation, cause the tray shifter to move the trays in directions opposite to each other.

An image forming apparatus comprising includes an image carrying member including a movable surface to include a toner image; a transfer roller to form a transfer nip between the transfer roller and the movable surface of the image carrying member, to move position in a direction in correspondence to a thickness of a print medium to intersect a direction of introduction of the print medium into the transfer nip, and to receive a transfer bias voltage to transfer the toner image from the movable surface of the image carrying member to the print medium; and a movement guide structure to guide the print medium toward the transfer nip, and to move in synchronization with the movement of the position of the transfer roller to change a gap between an end of the movement guide structure facing the image carrying member and the image carrying member.