Sheet post-processing apparatus and image forming system equipped with same

A sheet post-processing apparatus comprising:

• a stacking tray on which a conveyed sheet is stacked;
• an alignment member capable of moving in a sheet width direction perpendicular to a conveying direction so as to align a plurality of sheets stacked on the stacking tray;
• a first stapler for performing a first binding process to bind on a rear edge of the aligned sheets;
• a second stapler for performing a second binding process different from the first binding process to bind on a rear edge of the aligned sheets;
• an alignment member moving mechanism for moving the alignment member;
• a discharge roller pair for conveying the sheets bound by the stapler so as to discharge the sheets onto a discharge tray through a discharge outlet;
• and
• a control unit for controlling the first and second staplers and the alignment member moving mechanism, wherein
• the alignment member is capable of aligning the sheets at a first placing position on the stacking tray and at a second placing position shifted from the first placing position by a predetermined distance in the sheet width direction,
• the first stapler performs a first binding process on the sheets placed at the first placing position, and the second stapler disposed outside the first stapler in the sheet width direction performs a second binding process on the sheets placed at the second placing position,
• the first stapler and the second stapler have different thicknesses of the sheets which can be bound,
• the control unit controls the first and second staplers to respectively perform the first and second binding processes on the sheets placed on the stacking tray, and is capable of performing a manual staple mode for controlling the first and second staplers to respectively perform the first and second binding processes on sheets inserted onto the stacking tray through the discharge outlet, and
• in the manual staple mode, if the first stapler is selected as a manual stapler, the control unit controls the alignment member moving mechanism to move the alignment member to a position defining a first insertion position in the discharge outlet for guiding the sheets to the first placing position, while if the second stapler is selected, the control unit controls the alignment member moving mechanism to move the alignment member to a position defining a second insertion position for guiding the sheets to the second placing position.