Abstract: A method of controlling a sheet material discharge apparatus with a sheet material binder includes, during discharge of sheet materials which form a set, the binding means operates to bind the set without waiting for a trailing edge of the last one of the sheet materials of the set to be discharged, once a leading edge of the last sheet is discharged and aligned in a sheet accommodating step, and after operating a binding means to bind a set, detecting a resetting of the binding means to a stand-by state, and permitting the operation of the sheet discharging operation when the resetting is not detected within a predetermined period after operation of the binding means is instructed.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method of controlling a sheet material discharging apparatus with a sheet binding device, wherein the absence or shortage of binding materials is detected and the sheet discharging operation continues even after the absence or shortage of binding materials is detected. When a given discharge sheet materials is one which, together with other sheet materials, constitutes a set of sheet materials, and when the set contains at least two and no more than N sheet materials, the binding device is operated after the last of the sheet materials of the set is discharged, but when the set contains more than N sheet materials, the binding device is operated to bind the sheets of the set N at a time until no more than N sheets remain unbound.

Abstract: A sheet material discharging apparatus includes a stopper member for stopping at least one edge of each of sheet materials sequentially discharged to align the discharged sheet materials at the edges; a sheet binder actable on a plurality of discharged sheet materials overlaid one another with the leading edges aligned by the stopper member to bind the plurality of the sheet materials; wherein the stopper member is effective to stop movement of the sheet materials in the direction of sheet discharge.