Sheet post-process apparatus and waiting tray

A waiting tray for use in a sheet post-process apparatus, for temporarily retaining a transported sheet in a waiting mode, followed by releasing the retention, thereby making it possible to drop the sheet onto a processing tray, the waiting tray comprising:

• left and right lower face support members which support left and right lower faces in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and release the support on the left and right lower faces during release of the retention;
• a distal end lower face support member which supports a distal end lower face of the sheet transported to the waiting tray;
• a distal end upper face retainer member which retains a distal end upper face of the sheet transported to the waiting tray;
• sensor means for sensing that a sheet has been sensed on the waiting tray;
• and
• driver means for, based on a sense signal of the sensor means, moving the distal end upper face retainer member to a location for retaining the distal end upper face of the sheet transported to the waiting tray.

A sheet post-process apparatus, the apparatus comprising:

• waiting means for temporarily retaining a transported sheet in a waiting mode and releasing the retention to drop the sheet;
• processing means for bundling the sheets dropped from the waiting means to carry out predetermined processing and ejecting the sheet;
• and
• storage means which holds the bundle of sheets processed and ejected by the processing means,
• wherein the waiting means comprises:
• left and right lower face support means for supporting left and right lower faces in a sheet transport direction during retention in a waiting mode and releasing the support on the left and right lower faces during release of the retention;
• distal end lower face support means for supporting a distal end lower face of the sheet transported to the waiting means;
• distal end upper face retainer means for retaining a distal end upper face of the sheet transported to the waiting means;
• sensor means for sensing that a sheet has been held on the waiting tray;
• and
• driver means for, based on a sense signal of the sensor means, moving the distal end upper face retainer member to a location for retaining the distal end upper face of the sheet transported to the waiting tray.