Canon Finetech Nisca Inc.

Toshiyuki Iwata

Yuuki Kubota

Tetsuya Kawasaki

Tsukasa Kondo

Hiroshi Mochizuki

Takato Mizuno

The apparatus is capable of handling sheets of various lengths while suppressing an increase in apparatus size, wherein each of a pair of regulating guides is movable to a guide position at which an end edge of a sheet in a sheet width direction can be guided by a guide surface and to a retracting position retracting further away from the sheet width direction end edge than the guide position. For sheets Sand Seach having a first sheet length, the pair of regulating guides is made to reach the guide position from the retracting position in a state where the front end of the sheet is located between upstream and downstream ends of the guide surface. For a sheet Shaving a second sheet length that is longer than the first length, the pair of regulating guides is made to reach the guide position from the retracting position.

Sheet conveying apparatus

A pair of regulating guides is disposed on both sides of a conveying belt in a sheet width direction Y, each having a support surface that supports an end edge in the width direction of the sheet conveyed while being nipped by the conveying belt and balls and a guide surface that faces the end edge of the sheet in the width direction. Each of the pair of regulating guides is movable to a first guide position at which the end edge of the sheet in the width direction is supported by the support surface and guided by the guide surface and to a second guide position at which the end edge of the sheet in the sheet width direction is supported by the support surface and which is retracting further away from the end edge in the sheet width direction than the guide position.

The present invention is to provide a configuration facilitating removal of a sheet stopped on a conveying belt. In a sheet conveying apparatus that conveys a sheet using a conveying belt and balls, a sheet may be jammed and stopped on the conveying belt. In this case, it is difficult for a user to take out the sheet through a take-out port if the sheet is nipped by conveying roller pairs disposed upstream and downstream relative to the conveying belt in a sheet conveying direction. Thus, conveying roller pairs and the conveying belt are operated such that the sheet, which is stopped on the conveying belt and hence should be taken out through the take-out port, is brought into a state of being nipped only by the conveying belt and balls.

The present invention is to provide a configuration facilitating removal of a sheet stopped on a conveying belt. Regulating guides are disposed on both sides of a conveying belt in a sheet width direction Y and can guide both end edges in the sheet width direction of a sheet S conveyed while being nipped by the conveying belt and the balls. A take-out port is provided on the side closer to the regulating guide in the sheet width direction Y, through which a sheet stopped on the conveying belt is taken out. A guide moving part moves the regulating guides. When a sheet is stopped on the conveying belt, the guide moving part moves the first and second regulating guides such that the regulating guide is retracted to a position at which a support surface does not support a first sheet end edge.

In order to provide a configuration capable of suppressing reductions in productivity of sheets, a pair of regulation guides are capable of guiding opposite end edges in a sheet width direction Y of a sheet Sconveyed by a conveyance belt and spheres, while being nipped. Further, the pair of regulation guides are capable of shifting to guide positions for guiding the opposite end edges of the sheet, and retract positions retracted from the opposite end edges of the sheet more than the guide positions. A sheet detecting sensor is disposed on the downstream side relative to the conveyance belt in a conveyance direction X to detect the presence or absence of the sheet.

A sheet conveying apparatus for conveying a sheet in a conveying direction includes a pair of conveying rollers receiving and conveying a sheet; an endless conveying belt conveying the sheet; a plurality of balls to be rotatable in any direction while nipping the sheet with the conveying surface; a pair of regulating guides disposed on both sides of the conveying belt; a guide moving unit that moves the pair of regulating guides; and a roller moving unit that moves at least one of the pair of conveying rollers to a nip position and a nip release position. Before a rear end of the sheet passes the pair of conveying rollers, the pair of conveying rollers is moved to the nip release position by the roller moving unit, and then, the guide moving unit makes each of the pair of regulating guides reach the guide position from the retracting position.

To provide a configuration for allowing a user to easily take out a sheet stopped on a conveying belt. Regulating guides are disposed on both sides of a conveying belt in a sheet width direction Y and can guide both end edges in the sheet width direction of a sheet S being conveyed while being nipped by the conveying belt and the balls. A take-out port is provided on a side close to the regulating guide in the sheet width direction and serves as an opening for taking out the sheet stopped on the conveying belt. The regulating guide on a side away from the take-out port moves in the sheet width direction Y toward the take-out port when the sheet is stopped on the conveying belt.

To provide a sheet stacking apparatus and image forming system capable of improving alignment characteristics also in the case where an aligning section is not able to act on a sheet discharged onto a stacking tray, the sheet stacking apparatus and image forming system include a stacking tray stacking discharged sheets, a pair of aligning sections capable of shifting in a width direction to align the width direction crossing a direction in which the sheet to stack on the stacking tray is discharged, and a control section that controls a relative position of the aligning sections and the sheet to discharge so that one of the pair of the aligning sections regulates a shift of the sheet stacked on the stacking tray to one direction side in the width direction, when a sheet with a predetermined width in the width direction of the sheet is discharged to the stacking tray.

Sheet stacking apparatus and image forming system

A pair of regulating guides can guide both end edges in a sheet width direction Y of a sheet being conveyed being nipped by a conveying belt and balls. The pair of regulating guides can move to their respective guide positions each for guiding one of both end edges of the sheet and their respective retracting positions each retracting from one of the both end edges of the sheet by a distance larger than the guide position. A guide moving unit for moving the pair of regulating guides makes each of the pair of regulating guides reach the guide position from the retracting position after the rear end of the sheet passed from a conveying roller pair positioned on the upstream side to the conveying belt passes the conveying roller pair.

Provided is a sheet stacking apparatus including an aligning member lifting-lowering device configured to lift and lower aligning members between an aligning position where the aligning members abut to and align the sheets and a retreating position where the aligning members are lifted from an upper surface of the sheets, an aligning member moving device configured to move the aligning members in a sheet width direction, and a stack tray lifting-lowering device configured to lift and lower a stack tray based on a detection result of a sheet surface detecting device. A controller lifts the aligning members to the retreating position with the aligning member lifting-lowering device after the sheets stacked on the stack tray is aligned at the aligning position, and stops lifting-lowering operation of the stack tray lifting-lowering device while the aligning members are moved in the sheet width direction with the aligning member moving device.

Growing community of inventors

Yamanashi-ken, Japan

Toshiyuki Iwata