According to an embodiment, a sheet processing apparatus includes a transport unit and a holding unit. The transport unit transports a first sheet to a first position. The transport unit transports a second sheet, which is transported after the first sheet, to a second position displaced to the upstream side of a sheet transport direction relative to the first position. The transport unit transports a third sheet, which is transported after the second sheet, to a third position displaced to the downstream side of the sheet transport direction relative to the second position. In the case where the second sheet is transported to the second position, the holding unit holds the first sheet at the first position. In the case where the third sheet is transported to the third position, the holding unit holds the second sheet at the second position.

A sheet conveyance device of an embodiment includes a carrying-in unit feeds a sheet to a stacking unit; a lower conveyance unit applies a force to a lower side of a sheet stacked on the stacking unit to move the sheet; a lifting and lowering unit lifts and lowers at least an end of the lower conveyance unit on a side close to the carrying-in unit in at least three stages (lower, middle, and upper); an upper conveyance unit faces the lower conveyance unit and applies a force to the upper side of a sheet pinched between the upper conveyance unit and the lower conveyance unit that is moved to the upper stage to move the sheet; and a stopper protrudes above the lower conveyance unit placed at the lower stage by the lifting and lowering unit, and the downstream end in the feeding direction of a sheet abuts on the stopper.

An embodiment of this disclosure provides a folding apparatus configured to stack and fold a designated number of sheets at a time. The folding apparatus includes a conveyor configured to sequentially convey the designated number of sheets, a stacker configured to temporarily store a sheet conveyed by the conveyor to stack the designated number of sheets, a sheet folding device configured to fold the designated number of sheets at a time, and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to cause the sheet folding device to fold the stored sheet in response to an occurrence of a sheet jam upstream from the stacker in a direction of sheet conveyance, in processing the designated number of sheets.

The sheet discharge apparatus sets a discharge speed at which a sheet is discharged by a discharge device to a first discharge speed when a bundle of sheets includes a first number of sheets and sets the discharge speed to a second discharge speed that is lower than the first discharge speed when the bundle of sheets includes a second number of sheets that is greater than the first number of sheets.

A sheet post-processing apparatus that performs post-processing on a sheet on which an image is formed includes: a punch hole forming portion; and a sheet bundle forming portion that has a conveyance portion, stops a first sheet on a conveyance path, and conveys a second sheet after the first sheet to a position overlapping the first sheet to form a sheet bundle. The sheet post-processing apparatus includes a shift portion to make a shift so that a relative position between the first sheet and the second sheet in a direction orthogonal to a conveyance direction becomes a relative position at which the second sheet does not overlap a punch hole of the first sheet to make the second sheet overlap the first sheet, and forms a sheet bundle in which sheets overlapped with each other are deviated in a width direction.

A sheet alignment device includes a driven roller, a drive roller, a displacement driving device, an information acquisition portion, and a displacement control portion. The drive roller is configured to rotate in a first rotation direction and in contact with an upper surface of each of sheets conveyed onto a tilt tray, to feed the sheets toward a base end portion of the tilt tray. The drive roller is configured to rotate in a second rotation direction and in contact with an uppermost surface of the sheets, to discharge the sheets from the tilt tray. The displacement control portion is configured to, when the drive roller rotates in the first rotation direction, control a holding position of the drive roller in accordance with the number of the sheets on the tilt tray and thickness information of each of the sheets acquired by the information acquisition portion.

According to an embodiment, a sheet processing apparatus includes a transport unit and a holding unit. The transport unit transports a first sheet to a first position. The transport unit transports a second sheet, which is transported after the first sheet, to a second position displaced to the upstream side of a sheet transport direction relative to the first position. The transport unit transports a third sheet, which is transported after the second sheet, to a third position displaced to the downstream side of the sheet transport direction relative to the second position. In the case where the second sheet is transported to the second position, the holding unit holds the first sheet at the first position. In the case where the third sheet is transported to the third position, the holding unit holds the second sheet at the second position.

Provided is a sheet processing apparatus, including: a placement portion to which a sheet conveyed by a conveyance portion in a conveyance direction is placed; a processing portion configured to perform predetermined processing on a sheet placed on the placement portion, and to be movable in a predetermined moving range; and a control portion configured to control the processing portion to position, at a timing at which a sheet conveyed by the conveyance portion passes through the moving range, from a first position of preventing from interfering with the sheet to a second position of performing the predetermined processing on a preceding sheet having been conveyed by the conveyance portion and placed on the placement portion before the sheet.

A post-processing apparatus for post-processing paper discharged from an image forming apparatus comprises: a paper discharging roller for conveying both first and second paper sequentially discharged from an image forming apparatus to an intermediate loading part; a main paddle part for conveying the first and second paper loaded on the intermediate loading part to a compiling region; a reverse roller for conveying, together with the main paddle part, the first and second paper to the compiling region; and a binding part for processing the first and second paper conveyed to the compiling region, the paper discharging roller allows the first paper to stand by on a standby path, and conveys the first and second paper to the intermediate loading part in a state in which the leading end of the first paper protrudes further than the leading end of the second paper.

Cutting equipment (41) which processes overlapped continuous forms (23H, 23L) is disclosed. The cutting is carried out by means of a cutting device (29), which separates the sheets from the forms, introduction devices (28H and 28L), which enter the continuous forms (23H, 23L) into the cutting device and a singularizing device (46) for overlapped sheets, which includes two transport paths (81 and 82), the one above the other, with differentiable transfer times; the singularizing device comprises a diverter (83) upstream of the transport paths (81 and 82); the introduction devices (28H and 28L) are actuatable for temporarily projecting a leading edge of one of the overlapped forms (23H, 23L) with respect to the other form up to a switching zone of the diverter (83), or for advancing together the overlapped forms (23H, 23L); the diverter (83) is configurable for addressing a continuous form or both forms (23H, 23L) to one or to both transport paths (81 and 82); and the introduction devices (28H and 28L) are also actuatable, in the case of projecting of one of the continuous forms, for lining up trailing edges of the sheets of the one and the other form for a joint cutting of the overlapped forms (23H, 23L) by means of the cutting device (29).