Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Yasuo Niikura

Kazunori Konno

Junya Suzuki

Takashi Fukumoto

Kiichiro Goto

Keisuke Sugiyama

Hidetoshi Kojima

Kohjiroh Haga

Masahiro Tamura

Takahiro Watanabe

Tomohiro Furuhashi

Kazuya Yamamoto

Shuuya Nagasako

Akira Kunieda

Yuusuke Shibasaki

Tomomichi Hoshino

Kyosuke Nakada

Hisayoshi Sugawara

Satoru Takano

Yuuta Mori

Kei Sasaki

Hideaki Takahashi

Tomohiro Yoshizaki

Munehisa Fuda

Tatsuya Sugawara

Toshihiro Okutsu

Kiyotake Nakamura

Ryo Takahashi

Takamasa Matsumoto

Youhei Niitsuma

Yasunori Hino

Shintaro Matsumoto

Tadashi Matsuoka

Hikaru Fukasawa

Masato Hashimoto

Atsunori Yoshida

Yasushi Tsuruoka

Yousuke Edo

Hidehiko Fujiwara

Takeshi Akai

Kenji Hari

Kazuki Mishina

Koji Furuta

Kazuhiko Kitano

Kenji Ishii

Yasufumi Takahashi

Shinji Asami

Toshihiro Shimada

Masaru Yamagishi

Ryo Kanno

Masaki Ishizaki

Satoshi Aizawa

Hiroshi Komuro

Chikara Akata

Tomoki Tamate

A sheet stacking apparatus includes an ejector, a stacker, a wall, and an upper surface detector. The ejector ejects a sheet, and the stacker stacks the sheet ejected from the ejector. The wall contacts a trailing end of the sheet ejected from the ejector in an ejection direction to align the sheet. The upper surface detector detects an upper surface on a trailing end side of the sheet stacked on the stacker in the ejection direction. When the sheet moves toward the wall, the upper surface detector moves from a home position in which the upper surface detector detects the upper surface of the sheet to a retracted position in which the upper surface detector does not contact the sheet moving toward the wall.

Sheet stacking apparatus, post-processing apparatus, and image forming system

A binding device includes a stacking device configured to receive sheets, a sheet alignment member configured to align the sheets on the stacking device, a binder configured to bind the sheets on the stacking device, a binder moving device configured to move the binder, and a retreat device configured to retreat the sheet alignment member from a range of movement of the binder. The retreat device retreats the sheet alignment member in response to a pressing force acting on the sheet alignment member in a direction of movement of the binder.

Binding device, post-processing apparatus, and image forming system

A fold-enforcing assembly includes a fold-enforcing device, a moving device to move the fold-enforcing device in a direction of a fold of a sheet bundle, and control circuitry. The fold-enforcing device includes a pressing member pair to nip and press the fold of the sheet bundle in a direction of thickness, a pressing mechanism to pressurize and depressurize the pressing member pair, and a driver to drive the pressing mechanism. Controlled by the control circuitry, the moving device moves the fold-enforcing device in accordance with a size of the sheet bundle in the direction of the fold; pressing mechanism pressurizes the pressing member pair to press a first end portion of the sheet bundle in the direction of the fold; the moving device moves the fold-enforcing device to a second end portion of the sheet bundle; and pressing mechanism depressurizes the pressing member pair in the second end portion.

Fold-enforcing assembly, post-processing apparatus, and image forming system

A sheet-material supply device includes a lift, a sheet-material detector, and a sheet-material retaining conveyor. The lift elevates sheet materials in a stacked state. The sheet-material detector detects that an uppermost sheet material of the sheet materials in the stacked state has reached a predetermined height. The sheet-material retaining conveyor retains and conveys the uppermost sheet material that has reached the predetermined height. The sheet-material supply device stops elevation of the sheet materials in the stacked state when the sheet-material detector detects that the uppermost sheet material has reached the predetermined height. The sheet-material retaining conveyor is disposed to be movable in a direction in which the sheet materials in the stacked state elevate.

Sheet-material supply device

A sheet feeding device comprises a bottom plate, an auxiliary tray and a tilt table. The bottom plate is configured to move along a vertical axis. The auxiliary tray is disposed on the bottom plate. The tilt table includes a lower table disposed on the bottom plate, an upper table rotatably connected to the lower table at one end of the upper table by a pivot, and a resilient member disposed between the upper table and the lower table, the resilient member configured to press the upper table upward. The auxiliary tray and the upper table are configured to receive and hold sheets in a stack.

Sheet feeding device and image forming system

A sheet-member separation device includes a first air blower, an attractor, a conveyor, a second air blower, and an adjuster. The first air blower blows air onto a front side of a stack of sheet members in a sheet-member conveyance direction. The attractor attracts an uppermost sheet member floated from the stack of sheet members by the air blown from the first air blower. The conveyor conveys, in the sheet-member conveyance direction, the sheet member attracted by the attractor. The second air blower blows air toward a lateral side of the sheet member. The adjuster moves the second air blower and the attractor together to adjust positions of the second air blower and the attractor in the sheet-member conveyance direction.

Sheet-member separation device, sheet-member separation method, program, and image forming apparatus

A stacking apparatus includes a conveyance unit, a stacking unit, and a separation member supply unit. The conveyance unit conveys sheets for circuit board. The stacking unit stacks the sheets. The separation member supply unit supplies a separation member to separate the stacked sheets at any position. The separation member supply unit places the separation member on the sheet in being conveyed.

Stacking apparatus

A paper sheet conveyance device includes a plurality of conveyance members and conveys a paper sheet while performing temporary stop of conveying and then restart of conveying. Two paper sheets sequential in a conveyance direction stop together in a state of the temporary stop, driving a first transfer member to which a preceding first paper sheet that is one of the two paper sheets is opposed and a second conveyance member to which a following second paper sheet that is the other paper sheet is opposed is stopped and restarted synchronously for the temporary stop and the restart. A stop position information acquisition unit acquires information on a position on the conveyance path at which the second paper sheet stops in the state of the temporary stop, and a timing for stopping the conveying after the conveying is restarted is controlled according to the acquired information.

Paper sheet conveyance device and image forming apparatus

A sheet conveyance apparatus includes: a placement part configured such that stacked sheets are disposed on the placement part; a housing including an open/close part and accommodating the placement part, at least a portion of the open/close part being configured to be opened and closed; and a suction unit connected with the housing, and configured to draw gas from an interior of the housing.

Sheet conveyance apparatus and sheet conveyance method

A sheet separating device includes: a lifting nozzle configured to blow air against an end portion of a sheet bundle placed on a sheet loading portion to lift sheets; a separating nozzle configured to separate the sheets; a lifting-nozzle shutter member configured to open and close the lifting nozzle; a separating-nozzle shutter member configured to open and close the separating nozzle; a lifting-shutter driving mechanism configured to drive the lifting-nozzle shutter member; a separating-shutter driving mechanism configured to drive the separating-nozzle shutter member; and an open/close control unit configured to control the lifting-shutter driving mechanism and the separating-shutter driving mechanism such that the lifting-nozzle shutter member and the separating-nozzle shutter member are opened or closed simultaneously.

Sheet separating device, sheet supplying device, and image forming apparatus

A paper feeding apparatus includes: a sheet loading unit for loading a bundle of sheets; a separation unit that separates a topmost sheet of the bundle of sheets loaded on the sheet loading unit, from the bundle of sheets; a conveyance unit that conveys the separated topmost sheet; an end fence that is movable in a sheet conveyance direction, abuts trailing ends in the sheet conveyance direction, and positions the bundle of sheets in the sheet conveyance direction; and a pressing unit that is provided in such a manner as to protrude from the end fence, and is able to press the trailing ends in the sheet conveyance direction of at least an upper part of the bundle of sheets, wherein the pressing unit has different pressing forces at an upper and a lower portion thereof, and has the lower pressing force stronger than the upper pressing force.

Paper feeding apparatus, image forming apparatus, image forming system

Provided are a floating restricting member restricting the floating position of a bundle of sheets; and a holding mechanism holding the floating restricting member relative to a side fence. The floating restricting member includes a sheet contact section being brought into contact with the sheets from above; and a sheet-floating restricting section restricting the floating position of the floating sheet that is floated while air is blown thereto. The holding mechanism sets the floating restricting member in the initial state where the sheet-floating restricting section restricts the floating position of the sheet, in the sheet-placing time retracted state where the sheets are pushed against the sheet contact section so that the floating restricting member is retracted, and in the sheet-ejecting time retracted state where, when the sheets are to be removed, the sheet is pushed against the sheet contact section from below so that the floating restricting member is retracted.

Sheet feeding device, image forming apparatus, and image forming system

A sheet discharging device includes a shift trayon which a sheet Pis stacked, a discharging rollerthat discharges a sheet Ponto the shift tray, a blowing devicethat sends air to a lower surface of the sheet Pdischarged by the discharging roller, a blocking memberthat blocks air sent to the lower surface of the sheet Pfrom a blowing port-of the blowing device, and a control unit that controls the blocking amount of the blocking member. The blocking amount is determined based upon sheet information including sheet-type information, sheet-size information, and sheet-thickness information, for example.

Sheet discharging device, image forming system, and sheet discharging method

There are provided a plurality of slide rails that are attached to a sheet feeding device; a box-shaped pullout unit that is movable toward an image forming unit on the slide rails; a slide unit and an extended tray that are arranged in the front and back positions in a direction in which the pullout unit moves; a slide bottom plate that is movable up and down by a loading unit and that is slidable on the pullout unit in a horizontal direction; a front-edge sheet positioning unit that raises up when the slide bottom plate is pulled out in a horizontal direction and that falls down when the slide bottom plate is pushed in a horizontal direction; and a connection unit that connects to a handle for pulling out the pullout unit in a horizontal direction when the slide bottom plate is located at a lowest point.

Sheet feeding device and image forming apparatus

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yasuo Niikura