Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Kyocera Document Solutions Inc.

Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Takuya Nishimura

Hiroyuki Iitsuka

Masazumi Yamada

Yasunori Ueno

Seiichi Shirasaki

Terumitsu Noso

Keisuke Egawa

Hidetoshi Takeda

Takehiko Okada

Yusuke Takano

Hideaki Takechi

Yasushi Ayaki

Kazunari Fujiwara

Shoichi Gotoh

Sachio Izumichi

Yoshiki Kuno

Hisashi Tsuji

Yasunori Kawakami

Ken-ichi Shibata

Yoshiho Gotoh

Naoshi Usuki

Toshiyuki Fukushima

Shinji Hamai

Hironori Daigo

Shoichi Goto

Hirokazu Tamano

Takumi Tanabe

Yasuyuki Sahara

Kensuke Satoh

Yasuo Masuda

Chisaki Teraoka

Ken Mori

Hiroyuki Litsuka

A sheet transport device includes a delivery roller and a transport route. The transport route includes an upper guide member and a lower guide member. The lower guide member includes a first guide rib, a first corrugation member, and a first elastic member. The first elastic member supports an end portion of the first corrugation member on a side of the delivery roller, such that the end portion protrudes ahead of the first guide rib toward the upper guide member, with respect to the other end portion. The upper guide member includes a second guide rib, a second corrugation member, and a second elastic member. The second elastic member supports an end portion of the second corrugation member on the side of the delivery roller, such that the end portion protrudes ahead of the second guide rib toward the lower guide member, with respect to the other end portion.

Sheet transport device including two types of corrugation members, sheet postprocessing apparatus, and sheet postprocessing system

A sheet post-processing device includes a conveying member, a processing tray, a processing section, a reference plate, an alignment member, a holder drive unit, and a control unit. The alignment member includes a paddle holder, and an alignment paddle having a paddle main body supported in a rotatable manner at the paddle holder, and a paddle part protruding from the paddle main body. The holder drive unit moves the alignment paddle in a reciprocating manner, between a reference position to separate the paddle part above a top sheet and an acting position to allow the paddle part to contact with the top sheet. The control unit sets a second acting position when the paddle part contacts with the sheet at n1-th time, to be higher than a first acting position when the paddle part contacts with the sheet at m1-th time, where 1≤m1<n1 holds.

Sheet post-processing device and image forming system including same

A sheet conveyance apparatus () includes: a first conveyance unit (), a second conveyance unit () disposed below the first conveyance unit () and including a second upper conveyance guide () and a second lower conveyance guide (), and an apparatus main body, wherein the second conveyance unit () can be drawn out to a front side of the apparatus main body along a front-and-rear direction perpendicular to a sheet conveyance direction, the second upper conveyance guide () includes: a guide main body part () turnable upward and downward with respect to the apparatus main body with a rear end edge as a turning support shaft and a front end edge as a turning end; and a movable guide part () coupled to the turning end of the guide main body part () via a hinge part () in a turnable manner.

Sheet conveyance apparatus and image forming apparatus including the same

A sheet discharger includes a sheet discharge outlet, a discharge member, a sheet discharge tray, a sheet hold-down member, a drive portion, and a control portion. The sheet discharge tray is disposed downstream from the sheet discharge outlet with respect to a discharge direction and is a tray on which a sheet discharged through the sheet discharge outlet is loaded. The sheet hold-down member is swingable between a hold-down position at which the sheet loaded on the sheet discharge tray is held down at an upstream part thereof in the discharge direction and a retracted position retracted upward from the hold-down position. The drive portion drives the sheet hold-down member. The control portion determines, in accordance with characteristics of the sheet, whether or not to execute a sheet hold-down operation in which the sheet hold-down member is moved to the retracted position and to the hold-down position.

Sheet discharger, and sheet post-processor, image forming apparatus, and image forming system provided with the sheet discharger

A sheet post-processing device includes a conveying member, a processing tray, a processing section, a reference plate, an alignment member, a holder drive unit, and a control unit. The alignment member includes a paddle holder supported in a swingable manner along a carry-in direction, and an alignment paddle supported in a rotatable manner at a swinging end of the paddle holder. The holder drive unit moves the alignment paddle in a reciprocating manner, between a reference position to retreat the paddle part above a top sheet placed on the processing tray and an acting position to allow the paddle part to contact with a top surface of the sheet. When the number of the sheets carried in onto the processing tray is increasing, the control unit continuously moves the acting position of the alignment paddle in a direction separating from the processing tray.

A sheet postprocessing apparatus includes a table configured to receive a plurality of sheets delivered thereto, and inclined downward toward a downstream side in a sheet delivery direction, a leading edge cursor provided on a far side on the table in the delivery direction, and configured to align respective leading edges of the sheets abutted against the leading edge cursor, and a postprocessing device including a stapling device that binds a central portion in the delivery direction, of the sheets stacked on the table, and a center folding device that folds the sheets along the central portion. The table includes an upper face region that allows the sheet to slide thereon, and a plurality of slip sheets of a belt-like shape, each extending on the upper face region along the delivery direction, with a clearance between each other in a width direction orthogonal to the delivery direction.

Sheet postprocessing apparatus that performs postprocessing on plurality of sheets stacked, and image forming system including same

Provided is a sheet post-processing apparatus in which a control portion repetitively performs a width-direction alignment operation including a first alignment operation of moving width regulating members from standby positions to first regulating positions before a sheet that is carried in onto a processing tray is aligned in a carry-in direction by abutting of an edge of the sheet against a reference plate, and a second alignment operation of moving the width regulating members from the standby positions to second regulating positions after the sheet has been aligned in the carry-in direction by the reference plate. The sheet post-processing apparatus satisfies C1>C2>P1≥C3 where P1 is a size in a width direction of the sheet, and C1, C2, and C3 are intervals between the width regulating members at the standby positions, the first regulating positions, and the second regulating positions, respectively.

Sheet post-processing apparatus and image forming system including the apparatus

Provided is a sheet post-processing apparatus in which a control portion repetitively performs a width-direction alignment operation including a first alignment operation of moving width regulating members from standby positions to first regulating positions after a sheet that is carried in onto a processing tray has been aligned in a carry-in direction by abutting of an edge of the sheet against a reference plate, and a second alignment operation of moving the width regulating members from the first regulating positions to the standby positions after performing the first alignment operation, and then moving the width regulating members to second regulating positions. The sheet post-processing apparatus satisfies C1>C2>P1≥C3 where P1 is a size in a width direction of the sheet, and C1, C2, and C3 are intervals between the width regulating members at the standby positions, the first regulating positions, and the second regulating positions, respectively.

A sheet postprocessing device includes a saddle binding device configured to stack a plurality of recording sheets on a table, abut leading edges of the respective recording sheets against a leading edge cursor, thus to align the leading edges with each other, and bind the center of the recording sheets and fold the recording sheets, and a first pressing member supported so as to pivot in a direction toward and away from the table. The first pressing member is made to pivot toward the table by self-weight thereof, allows the leading edge of the recording sheet delivered to the table to pass toward the leading edge cursor, and presses a portion of the recording sheet in a proximity of the leading edge, at a position upstream of the leading edge cursor, in a delivery direction of the recording sheet.

Sheet postprocessing device that performs postprocessing on plurality of sheets stacked, and image forming system including same

An object of the present invention is to correct the deviation of a sheet in the width direction occurring on a conveyance path from a sheet correction mechanism () to a discharge tray. A sheet shift portion () moves a sheet in the width direction. A conveying position detecting portion () detects the position of the sheet in the width direction. A discharge position detecting portion () detects a discharge position of the sheet, in the width direction, discharged onto a discharge tray () in a sheet discharge portion (). A control portion () derives an amount of deviation between the discharge position and a discharge reference position based on a detection result of the discharge position detecting portion (). Furthermore, the control portion () corrects a conveying position of the sheet in a sheet conveying portion according to the amount of deviation.

Sheet conveying device, image forming apparatus

A sheet ejection device includes an ejection roller pair, a stacking tray, a protrusion member and a movement mechanism. The protrusion member is supported to be able to reciprocate between a protrusion position and a retraction position in a predetermined movement direction. The movement mechanism includes: a rotation shaft; a holding member; and a rack and pinion mechanism which includes a pinion gear and a rack gear. In at least a part of the rack gear in the movement direction, a narrow width region is provided which includes a narrow width gear and a cutout portion. In the narrow width region, the pinion gear is slidable between a meshing position and a release position, and in a state where the pinion gear has slid to the release position, the protrusion member can be relatively moved with respect to the pinion gear in the movement direction.

Sheet ejection device, sheet post-processing device including the same and image forming system

A sheet conveyance device includes a sheet receiving part, a first discharge part, a sheet conveyance path, an escape conveyance path, a branch guide, an escape tray, a second discharge part, and a first sheet detection part. When a device failure occurs, the branch guide switches the conveyance direction such that the sheet remaining on the sheet conveyance path is discharged on the escape tray by the second discharge part, through the escape conveyance path sequentially. Then, the second discharge part stops a discharging of the sheet in a state where the sheet remains in the second discharge part when the sheet is a last sheet to be conveyed to the escape tray. Then, a receiving of a new sheet to the sheet receiving part from the image forming apparatus is inhibited while the first sheet detection part detects the last sheet.

Sheet conveyance device and image forming system

A sheet conveying device includes a sheet conveying passage, an upper conveying guide provided in the sheet conveying passage and facing the upper surface of a sheet, a lower conveying guide facing the lower surface of the sheet, a conveying member conveying the sheet along the sheet conveying passage, a sheet stack tray arranged above the upper conveying guide. The upper conveying guide is swingable up and down, with one end part of it in the sheet conveying direction or in the sheet width direction perpendicular to the sheet conveying direction serving as a pivot shaft. The sheet stack tray has a movable part making contact with the upper conveying guide at least when it swings, and the movable part is movable between a sheet receiving position where it forms a sheet stack surface and a retracted position where it has swung upward from the sheet receiving position.

Sheet conveying device and image forming system therewith

A sheet feeding device includes a housing, a sheet storage cassette, a slide rail and an upper contact member. The housing has a pair of inner walls facing each other. The sheet storage cassette is attached between the inner walls in an insertable and drawable manner along a first direction. The sheet storage cassette has a pair of wall parts facing the pair of inner walls. The slide rail includes an outer rail and an inner rail. The outer rail extends along the first direction on the inner wall and the inner rail extends along the first direction on the wall part. The inner rail is supported by the outer rail in a movable manner. The upper contact member is provided on the wall part and moves on an upper face of the outer rail when the sheet storage cassette is inserted and drawn with respect to the housing.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus

A sheet storage device has a rotation restriction portion configured to restrict a rotation of an end cursor from a first posture to a second posture. The rotation restriction portion has: a restriction piece situated on the end cursor and configured to be brought into contact with a guide rail so as to restrict the rotation of the end cursor from the first posture to the second posture; and an engagement recess formed at a given position of the guide rail, the restriction piece being fitted in the engagement recess. The end cursor is allowed to rotate from the first posture to the second posture when the restriction piece is fitted in the engagement recess at the given position of the guide rail.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Takuya Nishimura