Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Jun-ichi Iida

Masahiro Tamura

Kenji Yamada

Akihito Andoh

Yukitaka Nakazato

Yoshihiko Nakayama

Uotani Kunihiro

A sheet stacking apparatus includes a sheet discharge tray that holds a discharged sheet and that moves up and down, and a sheet discharge roller that is located above the sheet discharge tray and that discharges the discharged sheet to the sheet discharge tray. The sheet discharge tray receives the discharged sheet from the sheet discharge roller at a standard sheet receiving position which is located at a predetermined downward distance away from the sheet discharge roller. The sheet discharge tray moves down to a position which is lower than the standard sheet receiving position for a predetermined distance and receives at least a next sheet at the position, when a stacked amount of sheets on the sheet discharge tray reaches a predetermined stacking amount.

Sheet stacking apparatus with vertically movable tray

A sheet processing apparatus includes a staple tray that stacks a sheet discharged from an image forming apparatus, a rear end fence that vertically aligns the sheet stacked on the staple tray by hitting a tail end of the sheet in a conveying direction against the rear end fence, and a stapling device that executes a stapling operation at an end of a bundle of the sheets. A limiting member is movable in a direction of a thickness of the bundle of sheets stacked on the staple tray, in which a distance between the limiting member and a sheet stacking face of the staple tray guiding the sheet to the rear end fence is variable. The sheets are processed by a method including the steps of receiving a sheet discharged from the image forming apparatus, guiding the sheet to a rear end fence of a staple tray, stacking the sheet on the staple tray, aligning the sheet by hitting a tail end of the sheet against the rear end fence, pressing the tail end of the sheet in a direction of the thickness of the sheet, and stapling the bundle of sheets at the tail end of the sheet aligned by the rear end fence.

Sheet processing apparatus and method therefor

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Jun-ichi Iida