Sheet conveyance apparatus

A sheet conveyance apparatus comprising:

• a drive roller and an idle roller extending both horizontally and parallel to each other;
• at least one endless conveyer belt stretched between the drive roller and the idle roller;
• a first drive mechanism configured to rotate the drive roller;
• a carriage arranged so as to reciprocate in a longitudinal direction of the endless conveyer belt above the at least one endless conveyer belt;
• at least one slide guide extending in the longitudinal direction of the endless conveyer belt, the carriage being slidably attached to the at least one slide guide;
• a second drive mechanism being configured to slide the carriage;
• a suction box arranged so as to reciprocate in the longitudinal direction of the endless conveyer belt between upper and lower belt portions of the at least one endless conveyer belt;
• and
• an intake source configured to generate a negative pressure inside the suction box, wherein the suction box is attached to the carriage and has at least one intake hole in a surface facing the upper belt portion, wherein a plurality of airflow holes are provided in the longitudinal direction of the at least one endless conveyer belt at positions of the at least one endless conveyer belt that pass by the at least one intake hole during rotation of the at least one endless conveyer belt, and
• the sheet conveyance apparatus further comprising:
• at least one conveyance roller pair extending above an upstream end of a conveyer surface of the at least one endless conveyer belt and across the conveyer surface and configured to take in a sheet and feed out the sheet onto the conveyer surface;
• and
• a stopper plate attached to the carriage and extending across the conveyer surface and upward from the conveyer surface, wherein
• a lower end of the stopper plate faces the suction box and is arranged with a predetermined spacing from the conveyer surface, and a region in the conveyer surface from the stopper plate to the upstream end of the conveyer surface forms a sheet accumulation area, and wherein
• sheets fed out from the at least one conveyance roller pair are sequentially accumulated in the sheet accumulation area when each front end of the sheets collides with the stopper plate, and the lowermost sheet of accumulated sheets is separated one by one from remaining sheets by the suction box and conveyed toward a downstream end of the conveyer surface through the spacing between the conveyer surface and the stopper plate by the at least one endless conveyer belt.