Abstract: A creasing device includes: a first member including a creasing blade; a first receiving member including an attachment surface where the first member is to be attached; a second member arranged to face the first member and including a first creasing channel and a second creasing channel opposite to the first creasing channel, the first creasing channel configured to allow the creasing blade to be fitted thereinto with the sheet between the first creasing channel and the creasing blade, the second creasing channel configured to allow the creasing blade to be fitted thereinto with the sheet between the second creasing channel and the creasing blade; a second receiving member including an attachment surface where the second member is to be attached; and a driving section that brings the first and second members into contact with each other and separates the first member and the second member from one another.

Abstract: A sheet discharging device includes a shift tray 202 on which a sheet P1 is stacked, a discharging roller 6 that discharges a sheet P2 onto the shift tray 202, a blowing device 230 that sends air to a lower surface of the sheet P2 discharged by the discharging roller 6, a blocking member 231 that blocks air sent to the lower surface of the sheet P2 from a blowing port 230-2 of the blowing device 230, and a control unit that controls the blocking amount of the blocking member 231. The blocking amount is determined based upon sheet information including sheet-type information, sheet-size information, and sheet-thickness information, for example.

Abstract: A creasing apparatus that performs a creasing process on a sheet, the creasing apparatus including a first conveying path on which a creasing unit is located, the creasing unit performing a creasing process on a sheet conveyed therein; a second conveying path that conveys a sheet conveyed therein to a downstream side without any process being performed on the sheet; and a control unit that, while the first conveying path conveys a sheet so that the creasing unit performs the creasing process on the sheet, causes a subsequent sheet to be conveyed to the downstream side from the second conveying path.

Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus includes: a sheet stacking unit on which sheets are accommodated and stacked as a sheet bundle; an aligning member that is movable along a trailing end, in a conveying direction, of the sheet bundle stacked on the sheet stacking unit and that aligns the trailing end of the sheet bundle in the sheet conveying direction by abutting thereon; a binding unit that moves along the trailing end of the sheet bundle in the sheet conveying direction and binds the aligned sheet bundle; and a moving unit that moves the aligning member in the sheet conveying direction. A distance from the trailing end of the sheet bundle in the sheet conveying direction to a binding position is adjusted by moving the aligning member in the sheet conveying direction.

Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus includes: a correcting unit that corrects alignment of a sheet; a post-processing unit that performs post-processing on the sheet after the correcting unit corrects the alignment of the sheet; and a creasing unit that forms a crease on the sheet after the correcting unit corrects the alignment of the sheet.

Abstract: A creasing device that creases sheets on a per-sheet basis and includes: a first member extending perpendicularly to a sheet conveying direction and including a convex blade; a second member extending perpendicularly to the sheet conveying direction and including a concave blade, into which the convex blade is to be fitted; a drive unit that brings the first and the second members into and out of contact with each other, thereby producing a crease in a sheet interposed between the first and the second members; a sheet retainer driven by the drive unit and brought into contact with the second member with the sheet therebetween to retain the sheet across its full width; and a holding unit that holds the sheet retainer in a retaining state during creasing where the contact between the first and the second members starts at one point and develops in one direction.

Abstract: A sheet handling apparatus includes a sheet folding unit configured to perform folding on a sheet; and a sheet stacking unit configured to stack the folded sheet on a sheet stacking surface having an inclined surface and a nearly horizontal surface in order from upstream to downstream in a sheet conveying direction. A downstream end of the inclined surface is higher than an upstream end of the inclined surface with respect to a horizontal plane. The sheet handling apparatus also includes a discharging unit configured to discharge the folded sheet to the sheet stacking unit; a sheet conveying unit configured to convey the discharged sheet from the inclined surface to the nearly horizontal surface; and a conveying force applying unit configured to apply a conveying force to the sheet in contact with an upper surface of the sheet from above the inclined surface.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit to form an image on a sheet of recording media, an image reading unit to read image data of an original document, disposed above the image forming unit, a sheet discharge space defined by the image reading unit and the image forming unit and disposed therebetween, a discharge port formed in a first inner side wall of a main body of the image forming apparatus, through which the sheet is discharged into the sheet discharge space, a positioning member to position and detachably mount a positioning member to position and detachably mount an auxiliary unit adjacent to the discharge port in the sheet discharge space.

Abstract: A sheet discharging device includes: sheet discharging rollers that receive each of sheets conveyed thereto and discharge the sheets one by one; a shift tray on which the sheets discharged by the sheet discharging rollers are to be stacked; an air blower; and a CPU. The air blower forms an air layer between the shift tray and a sheet when the sheet is discharged onto the shift tray by the sheet discharging rollers, or between a sheet and the sheet that is already placed on the shift tray when the sheet is discharged. The CPU controls an air velocity of air to be delivered by the air blower based on sheet information, thereby causing the air layer to extend to the entire surface of the sheet.

Abstract: A sheet processing apparatus including front and back trailing-end reference fences that are movable along a sheet trailing-end and on which the sheet trailing-end abuts to align the sheet trailing-end, a side-stitching stapler that moves along the sheet trailing-end and binds a bundle of sheets aligned, a length-direction moving mechanism that moves the trailing-end reference fences in a sheet conveying direction, and a position changing unit that drives the length-direction moving mechanism to change the position of one of the trailing-end reference fences in the sheet conveying direction relative to the position of the other one. The front and back trailing-end reference fences are moved by the position changing unit in the sheet conveying direction to change binding positions such that the distances from the sheet trailing-end to staple positions are made equal in front-side binding and in back-side binding.

Abstract: A creasing apparatus forming a crease on sheets one by one includes: a first member having a linear convex blade formed in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction; a second member having a concave blade being paired with the convex blade; and a drive unit that moves the first and second members so as to cause the convex blade and the concave blade to form a crease on a sheet stopped at a predetermined position. The first member forms the convex blade with first comb and second comb and the second member forms the concave blade with third comb and fourth comb that advance and retract relative to each other. The drive unit selects advanced and retracted positions of the first comb and second comb and advanced and retracted positions of the third comb and fourth comb so as to perform a creasing process or a perforating process.

Abstract: A creasing device, that forms a crease on a sheet, includes: a first member, extending in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction, on which a convex blade is formed; a second member on which a groove-like concave blade is formed such that the convex blade can be fitted into the concave blade by interposing the sheet therebetween; a drive unit that causes the first and the second members to interpose, therebetween, the sheet to form a crease on the sheet; a sheet-information acquiring unit that acquires first sheet information of the sheet to be creased; an adjusting unit that adjusts a pressing force exerted by the drive unit; and a control unit that sets the pressing force to an optimum pressing force for the sheet and that causes the drive unit to drive the first and the second members for creasing the sheet at the optimum pressing force.

Abstract: An image forming system includes: a folding unit that folds a sheet of paper to form a fold in the sheet; a creasing unit that, before the sheet is folded, produces a crease in the sheet at a fold position where the fold is to be formed; a crease-position adjusting unit that adjusts a crease position where the crease is to be produced; a fold-position adjusting unit that adjusts the fold position; a first input unit that receives an input specifying an amount, by which the crease position is to be adjusted; and a second input unit that receives an input specifying an amount, by which the fold position is to be adjusted, wherein when the fold position is adjusted by the second input unit, the crease position is also adjusted in synchronization with the adjustment of the fold position.

Abstract: A creasing device for creasing sheets on a per-sheet basis, the creasing device includes: a first member extending perpendicularly to a sheet conveying direction and including a male blade, which has a convex cross section; a second member extending perpendicularly to the sheet conveying direction and including a grooved female blade, into which the male blade to be fitted with a sheet between the female blade and the male blade; and a drive unit that brings the first member and the second member relatively into and out of contact with each other to cause a sheet stopped at a predetermined position to be pinched between the first member and the second member and creased. An edge portion of any one of the first member and the second member has an arcuate shape.

Abstract: A skew correction device includes a first conveying unit arranged in a sheet conveying path; a second conveying unit arranged downstream of the first conveying unit in a conveying direction of a sheet; and a skew correction unit. When the sheet is unfolded paper, the skew correction unit performs a first skew correction that corrects for the skew of the sheet so that a leading edge of the sheet conveyed by the first conveying unit abuts on the second conveying unit that is stopped. When the sheet is fold paper, the skew correction unit performs a second skew correction that corrects for the skew of the sheet so that a leading edge of the sheet conveyed by the first conveying unit abuts the second conveying unit and the second conveying unit is driven in a reverse direction to the conveying direction at a predetermined operational timing.

Abstract: A creasing device includes a creasing unit that creases sheets on a one-by-one basis, which is conveyed to a folding device of a subsequent stage, a sheet detection unit that detects a position of a sheet delivered to the creasing device and a control unit that obtains reference information of a fold-position for the folding device and performs control of a stop position of the sheet according to reference information of the fold position, thereby adjusting a crease position.

Abstract: A creasing device includes: a first member on which a linear convex-edged blade is formed in a direction perpendicular to a sheet conveying direction; a second member on which a concave-edged blade pairing with the convex-edged blade is formed; and a drive unit that drives the first and second members to relatively come close to and away from each other, thereby making a crease on the sheet, wherein in a standby state, the drive unit keeps faces of the first member and second member not parallel; and in making a crease on the sheet, causes the convex-edged blade and the concave-edged blade to have point contact with each other via the sheet held therebetween so as to initiate a creasing movement by a rotation movement thereof.

Abstract: An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium; a conveying unit that conveys the recording medium on which the image is formed; a crease forming unit that performs a crease forming process on the conveyed recording medium; a determining unit that determines whether or not the recording medium is a predetermined recording medium; and a control unit that prohibits the crease forming process from being performed by the crease forming unit when the determining unit determines that the recording medium is the predetermined recording medium.

Abstract: A paper transport device is configured to independently drive a paper ejecting roller when predetermined abnormal events occur. When paper-jamming occurs and if no paper is present downstream of a jammed paper or a preceding paper that is present most downstream is located upstream of a predetermined position, the paper ejecting roller is stopped to prevent ejection of papers outside of the paper transport device. When paper-jamming occurs and if a preceding paper that is present most downstream is located downstream of the predetermined position, the paper ejecting roller is independently driven to complete ejection of the preceding paper.

Abstract: A sheet handling apparatus includes a sheet reception unit configured to receive a sheet; an alignment unit configured to align the sheet in a conveying direction of the sheet, a trailing edge of the sheet in the conveying direction coming into contact with the alignment unit; and a moving unit configured to move the alignment unit along the sheet reception unit in the conveying direction. A first position for aligning and binding sheets and a second position located above the first position in the sheet reception unit are set for the alignment unit as receiving positions at which the sheet is received from the sheet reception unit.